rt was set on getting back to Washington in
any way left open. The regulars and a few formed bodies in reserve
did their best to stem the stream. But all in vain.

One mile short of Centreville there was a sudden upset and consequent
block on the bridge across Cub Run. Then the stream of men retreating,
mixed with clogging masses of panic-struck civilians, became a
torrent.

Bull Run was only a special-constable affair on a gigantic scale.
The losses were comparatively small--3553 killed and wounded on both
sides put together: not ten per cent of the less than forty thousand
who actually fought. Moreover, the side that won the battle lost
the war. And yet Bull Run had many points of very great importance.
In spite of all shortcomings it showed the good quality of the
troops engaged: if not as soldiers, at all events as men. It proved
that the war, unlike the battle, would not be fought by special
constables, some of whom first fired their rifles when their target
was firing back at them. It brought one great leader--Stonewall
Jackson--into fame. Above all, it profoundly affected the popular
points of view, both North and South. In the South there was undue
elation, followed by the absurd belief that one Southerner could
beat two Northerners any day and that the North would now back
down _en masse_, as its army had from the Henry Hill. A dangerous
slackening of military preparation was the unavoidable result.
In the North, on the other hand, a good many people began to see
the difference between armed mobs and armies; and the thorough
Unionists, led by the wise and steadfast Lincoln, braced themselves
for real war.

CHAPTER II.

THE COMBATANTS

No map can show the exact dividing line between the actual combatants
of North and South. Eleven States seceded: Virginia, the Carolinas,
Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas,
and Arkansas. But the mountain folk of western Virginia and eastern
Tennessee were strong Unionists; and West Virginia became a State
while the war was being fought. On the other hand, the four border
States, though officially Federal under stress of circumstances,
were divided against themselves. In Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri,
and Kansas, many citizens took the Southern side. Maryland would
have gone with the South if it had not been for the presence of
overwhelming Northern sea-power and the absence of any good land
frontier of her own. Kentucky remained neu