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Chapter 11: battle of Bull Run
To organize and mobilize the Army of Northeastern Virginia,
McDowell had constituted five divisions:
Tyler's,
Hunter's,
Heintzelman's,
Dixon S. Miles's, and
Runyon's. Our division had the left from the
Centreville Pike southeastward to the
Potomac;
Runyon's kept in or near
Alexandria as a reserve; while the other divisions ranged northward to beyond
Georgetown, covering a frontage of more than ten miles.
McDowell had for mounted troops an escort of United States cavalry not to exceed five hundred.
With a good body of horse and abundant reliefs of slaves used to hard work,
Beauregard, even before the arrival of the Army of the Shenandoah, was surely well prepared with his “effectives” of 21,823 soldiers and 29 cannon to sustain a good defensive battle against the
Union column of 28,568 men and 49 cannon.
Centreville was in 1861 an inconsiderable village with but one street north and south, the buildings mainly on the west side scattered along a ridge.
The road from
Centreville to
Manassas Junction followed the trend of this ridge southward and crossed
Bull Run three miles distant at Mitchell's Ford.
The
Warrenton Turnpike, coursing from east to west through the village, crossed
Bull Run about four miles west of it at
Stone Bridge.
The country in the valleys of
