Chapter 2
- Movement of troops to Manassas. -- Discouragements of the march. -- arrival at Manassas. -- President Davis's telegram. -- General Beauregard's proposed plan of attack approved. -- General McDowell anticipates it. -- battle of Manassas. -- arrival of President Davis. -- reasons why an advance on Washington was impracticable.
The troops left their camps about noon, Jackson's brigade leading. After the march was fairly begun, and the rear had left Winchester a mile or two, the different regiments were informed, at the same time, of the important object in view, of the necessity of a forced march, and exhorted to strive to reach the field in time to take part in the great battle then imminent.
The discouragement of that day's march to one accustomed, like myself, to the steady gait of regular soldiers, is indescribable. The views of military command and obedience, then taken both by officers and privates, confined those duties and obligations almost exclusively to the drill-ground and guards. In camps and marches they were scarcely known. Consequently, frequent and unreasonable delays caused so slow a rate of marching as to make me despair of joining General Beauregard in time to aid him. Major Whiting was therefore dispatched to the nearest station of the Manassas Gap Railroad, Piedmont, to
