Confederates in Virginia: Manassas Junction and Police

At the beginning of June, it was manifest that a powerful combination of Secessionists in Baltimore were preparing to act with the armed insurgents in Virginia, in efforts to seize the National capital. The Legislature of the State were in sympathy with the Confederates, and a committee of that body assured Jefferson Davis that the people of Maryland were with him in sentiment. The National Government took energetic measures to avert the evil. General N. P. Banks was appointed to the command of the Department of Annapolis, with his headquarters in Baltimore; and he was so satisfied of a conspiracy ripening there, that he sent a force of armed men into the city, who arrested Chief of Police Kane and put him into Fort McHenry. At the same time Banks proclaimed that he had appointed Colonel (afterward General) John R. Kenly, of the First Regiment of Maryland Volunteers, provost-marshal. Kenly was a well-known and highly respected citizen of Baltimore, and acted with wisdom and energy. He was put at the head of the Police Department; but the old Board of Police Commissioners, who were Secessionists, refused to acknowledge him and defied the Government. They were arrested and sent as prisoners of State to Fort Warren in Boston harbor, and very soon afterward the Unionists of Maryland were encouraged to assert their loyalty. Banks withdrew the troops, and thereafter Maryland was justly counted one of the loyal States of the Union; yet for three years the Confederates were deceived by a belief that the people were Secessionists at heart. But the delusion was dispelled when, in 1863, General Lee invaded the State, set up his standard and expected thousands would rally around it. On the contrary, he lost manifold more men by desertion than he gained by recruiting.

We have observed that Jefferson Davis issued commissions to privateers, and that a Confederate naval bureau was established. The first vessel of the Confederate navy was named the Lady Davis; and when the National Congress assembled on the 4th of July, there were no less than twenty Confederate armed vessels afloat and depredating upon the commerce of the United States. So early as the 1st of June they had sent twenty vessels, captured on the sea, into the port of New Orleans alone, as prizes. One of these privateers (the Savannah) was captured, and her crew were tried and condemned as pirates; but the Government found it expedient to treat them as prisoners of war. Another (the Petrcl) went out of Charleston harbor and mistaking the United States frigate Lawrence for a richly-laden merchantman, attempted to capture her. She opened her ports, and instantly the Petrel became a wreck. A flash of fire, a thunder-peal, the crash of timbers and engulfment in the sea, was the experience of a minute for her crew, four of whom were drowned, while the vessel went swiftly to the bottom of the ocean. Other privateers active during the war will be noticed hereafter.

It was now midsummer, 1861. A large body of troops were gathered around the National capital. General Irwin McDowell was in command of the Department of Virginia, with his headquarters at Arlington House. At Manassas Junction, about half way between the eastern range of the Blue Ridge and the Potomac at Alexandria, and thirty miles from Washington, were about forty thousand Confederate troops. It was considered the strongest military position between Washington and Richmond, and is connected with the capital of Virginia and the fertile Shenandoah Valley by railways. It was fortified by strong redoubts on which were mounted heavy Dahlgren guns, which the insurgents had seized at the Gosport Navy-yard, and these were managed by naval officers who had deserted their flag. At Winchester, Johnston had almost as strong a force, to prevent McClellan and his troops issuing from the mountain region and joining Patterson on the Potomac.

The loyal people had become impatient because of the delay of the troops at the capital in moving against the insurgents. They were delighted when, on the afternoon of the 16th of July, the telegraph spread the news over the land that fifty thousand soldiers, under General McDowell, had begun to move toward Manassas, leaving fifteen thousand behind to guard the capital. They were in five divisions, commanded respectively by Brigadier-Generals Daniel Tyler and Theodore Runyon, and Colonels David Hunter, Samuel P. Heintzelman, and Dixon S. Miles. The Confederate forces against whom they moved were distributed along Bull's Run, a tributary of the Occoquan, from Union Mills, where the Orange and Alexandria Railway crosses the stream, to the stone-bridge on the Warrenton turnpike, a distance of about eight miles, with reserves near Manassas Junction. They also had an outpost at Centreville, and slight fortifications at Fairfax Court-House, ten miles from their main army, in the direction of Washington.

General Patterson was at Martinsburg, charged with the duty of keeping General Johnston from reinforcing Beauregard. He had crossed the Potomac at Williamsport on the 2d of July; and near Falling Waters, his advance-guard under Colonel Abercrombie, chiefly composed of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania troops, horse and foot, with a section of a battery, encountered Johnston's advance led by "Stonewall" Jackson, assisted by J. E. B. Stuart and his afterward famous cavalry corps. They fought sharply for half an hour, when Colonel George H. Thomas's brigade, coming to the support of Abercrombie, caused the Confederates to flee. They were hotly pursued five miles, when a heavy Confederate force appearing, the chase was abandoned. On the following day General Patterson and his army entered Martinsburg, and were speedily reinforced by troops under General Sandford of New York. There he remained in enforced inaction for a fortnight.