General McDowell, pretty well informed concerning the strong position of the Confederate force; intended to turn its right flank at Manassas by a sudden movement to his left, crossing the Occoquan River below the mouth of Bull's Run, and, seizing the railway in the rear of his foe, compel both Beauregard and Johnston to fall back from their positions, so menacing to the National Capital. With this view, he made a reconnoissance on the morning of the 18th, while Tyler moved forward with his division, and at nine o'clock marched through Centreville without any opposition, and halted in a little valley between it and Bull's Run. This movement was intended as a feint, but ended in a sharp engagement.
Centreville was a small village on the west side of a ridge running nearly parallel with the general course of Bull's Run, which was west of it five or six miles, and near it the Confederates had erected strong earthworks. These were occupied by a brigade of South Carolinians under General Bonham, who fled, at the approach of Tyler, to the wooded banks of bull's Run. Several roads, public and private, led to that stream from Centreville.
The Stone Bridge.2 |
One was the Warrenton Turnpike, that crossed at the Stone Bridge, a structure of a single arch that spanned the Run; another led to Mitchel]s Ford, midway between Centreville and Manassas Junction; and still another led to Blackburn's Ford, over which General James Longstreet was watching.
Toward noon, Tyler went out on a reconnaissance toward Blackburn's