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About two o'clock an officer of General Beauregard's adjutant-general's office galloped from Manassas Junction to report to me that a Federal army had
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reached the Manassas Gap Railroad, was marching toward us, and was then but three or four miles from our left flank. Although it seemed to me impossible that General Patterson could have come up so soon, and from that direction, I fixed on a new field upon which to concentrate our whole force should the report prove to be true -- one nearly equidistant from Manassas Junction, the troops engaged, and those on the right -- and sent orders to the commanders of the latter to gather their respective brigades south of the stream, that they might be ready to move to it promptly.

On the appearance of Fisher's (Sixth North Carolina) regiment soon after (at half-past two o'clock), approaching from the direction of Manassas Junction, Colonel Cocke was desired to lead his brigade into action on the right; which he did with alacrity. When Fisher's regiment came up, the Federal general seemed to be strengthening his right. It was ordered to the left, therefore. Kershaw's and Cash's regiments of Bonham's brigade, then in sight, received similar orders on arriving.

Soon after three o'clock, while General McDowell seemed to be striving, by strengthening his right, to drive back our left, and thus separate us from Manassas Junction, Brigadier-General Kirby Smith, hastening with Elzey's brigade from that railroad-station, arrived by the route Fisher had followed. He was instructed, by a staff-officer sent forward to meet him, to form on the left of the line, with his left thrown forward, and to assail the enemy's right flank. At his request I joined him, directed his march, and gave these instructions in person. Before the formation
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was completed, he fell, severely wounded, directing, while falling from his horse, Colonel Elzey to take command of the brigade. That officer, who understood and appreciated the manoeuvre, executed it well. General Beauregard promptly seized the opportunity thus afforded, and threw forward his whole line. The enemy was driven from the long-contested hill, but rallied in the valley, upon a very strong reserve; and the united force, much stronger than any previously engaged at one time, was formed for another attack.

In the mean time Colonel Early came upon the field with his brigade, by the route on which we had first seen Fisher's and Kirby Smith's troops. He was instructed by me to move around our left, to form facing the Federal right flank, and fall upon it. On the way he was reënforced by five companies of cavalry, commanded by Colonel Stuart, and a battery under Lieutenant Beckham. He reached the position intended just when the Federal army, reformed, was apparently about to resume the offensive, and assailed its exposed flank. The attack was conducted with too much skill and courage to be for a moment doubtful. The Federal right was at once thrown into confusion. A general advance of the Confederate line, directed by General Beauregard, completed our success, and terminated the battle. The right of the Federal army fled in wild confusion from the field toward Sudley Ford, while the centre and left marched off hastily by the turnpike toward Centreville.

It was then twenty minutes before five o'clock. Instructions were immediately sent to General Bonham,
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through Lieutenant-Colonel Lay of his staff, who happened to be with me, to march with his own and Longstreet's brigades by the quickest route to the turnpike, and form them across it to intercept the retreating enemy. Colonel Radford, with two squadrons that had been held in reserve near me, was directed to cross Bull Run at Ball's Ford, and strike that column in flank, on the turnpike; and Stuart, with the cavalry he had in hand and Beckham's battery, pursued the fugitives on the Sudley road. The number of prisoners taken by these little bodies of cavalry greatly exceeded their own force, but they were too weak to make any serious impression upon an army, even a defeated one.

The body of troops that had passed the day near the Stone Bridge and beyond the stream made a demonstration toward the rear of our right, when the retreat commenced; it was quickly met and repelled by Holmes's brigade just arriving, principally by his artillery, Captain Lindsay Walker's battery

When General Bonham saw the Federal column on the turnpike, its appearance presented so little indication of rout that he thought the execution of the instructions he had received impracticable; [5] he therefore ordered the two brigades to march back to their camps.

Some half-hour after the termination of the battle, the President rode upon the field, conducted from Manassas Station by Lieutenant-Colonel Jordan. He had arrived there from Richmond when the struggle had just closed, and had, doubtless, hurried out to take part in it. The crowd of fugitives he had seen
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from his railroad-car, before reaching the station, had so strongly impressed upon his mind the idea that we were defeated, that it was not immediately removed by the appearance of the field. I judged so, at least, from his first words, while we were shaking hands: "How has the battle gone?"

In Alfriend's "Life of Jefferson Davis" it is asserted (p. 305) that the President reached "the battle-field while the struggle was still in progress;" that "to the troops his name and bearing were the symbols of victory;" that "while the victory was assured, but by no means complete, he urged that the enemy, still on the field (Heintzelman's troops, as subsequently appeared), be warmly pursued, as was successfully done" (p. 313).

These are fancies. He arrived upon the field after the last armed enemy had left it, when none were within cannon-shot, or south of Bull Run, when the victory was "complete" as well as "assured," and no opportunity left for the influence of "his name and bearing."

General Ewell reported to me for orders soon after the firing ceased, and informed me that his brigade, then probably about four miles from us, was hurrying on as fast as possible. He had ridden forward to study the part of the field to which he might be assigned, to prepare to act intelligently in the battle. He was told that it would not be wanted, and desired to lead it back to its c& General Holmes was requested to do likewise; their immediate commander, General Beauregard, was requested to give them orders, however.

The preceding narrative shows how great were
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the odds against which the Southern volunteers contended in the early stages of this action; their numbers engaged, gradually increasing, amounted at its close to about thirteen thousand men of all arms. But two of the superior officers of General McDowell's army gave in their reports the numbers of their troops, General Heintzelman and Colonel Porter: the former led nine thousand five hundred men into battle that day, in his division, and the latter three thousand seven hundred in his brigade. From these indications it may reasonably be inferred that the three Federal divisions on the field were about two to one compared with the Confederates, at four o'clock, and four to one at noon; at eleven o'clock the disparity of numbers was much greater.