August 29—Lieutenant Belk, whom we left at Weldon, sick, returned to us to-day.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
AUGUST 29TH.—Bloody fighting is going on at Manassas. All the news is good for us. It appears that Pope, in his consummate egotism, refused to believe that he had been outwitted, and “pitched into” our corps and divisions, believing them to be merely brigades and regiments. He has been terribly cut up.
August 29th. Early this morning received orders to march to the old Bull Run battlefield, to the assistance of General Pope, who, report says, is getting much the worst of the fighting. Bull Run seems a fatal stream for us. Our entire division fell in, taking the road to Alexandria for a while, then turning off to the left, passed in front of Washington, and halted on the glacis of Fort Corcoran, bivouacking there for the night.
[August 28]
Arriving at Alexandria early in the morning, we immediately disembarked and marched directly for Camp California, our first winter quarters. When the men came in sight of the old spot, they fairly yelled with delight, throwing their caps in the air, and hurrahing till half their throats were sore. The Fifty-second German regiment expressed their feeling by singing magnificently, “Home Again.” Nearly every man in this regiment is a singer, and they have organized a system of singing on the march, when going through towns, on any notable occasion, which is most impressive. Every regiment bivouacked on its original ground, and most of us began to arrange and plan for a new camp, expecting a moderate stay, but were doomed to disappointment. The trains were not yet up, and as we have no camp equipage, are obliged to bivouac in the open air. What an extraordinary coincidence, that just five months after the opening of hostilities in the spring we should be back on the identical ground we started from, but not all of us are here; just about one-half of those who started to run the gauntlet of shot and shell, disease and capture, have succumbed to the one or the other, and their bones in many cases are whitening many a lonely spot in the pine forests of this unlucky state. Those of us surviving are a hardy, well disciplined, experienced body of troops that no disaster can appal, no hardship terrify; men for whom the soldiers of Lee’s army have a most wholesome respect. The campaign we have just finished has, of course, been a lamentable failure, but, as I have frequently observed, the general commanding, and not the men, is to blame. I remember a verse of a song, said to have been sung by the French army, commanded by Villeroi, after the battle of Cremone, in Piedmont, in which Villeroi, the commanding general, was captured; both armies were equally delighted:
“Francais rendon grace a Bellone,
Notre bonheur est sans egal:
Nous avons conserve Cremone
Et perdu notre General!
If we have really lost our general, I expect we shall do much better.
We busied ourselves getting information about the state of affairs, which is greatly mixed. Hooker and Kearney’s division passed through here a week ago by rail to join Pope’s army. Porter, with Morrel’s and Syke’s division, landed at Aquia Creek about the same time and marched to Fredericksburg, so that two corps of our army, at least, are with Pope, who ought to be able to give a good account of himself, thus reinforced.
Culpeper Court House, Va. Court house, with a group of Confederates captured at Cedar Mountain on balcony; photo by Timothy H. O’Sullivan in August 1862.
Library of Congress image.
August 29.—The battle of Groveton, in the vicinity of Bull Run, was fought by the Union army, under Gen. Pope, and two divisions of the rebel forces, under Generals Jackson and Longstreet. The engagement commenced early in the morning, and terminated only at night, the rebels being driven from the field with great loss.—(Doc 104 and Supplement.)
—Twelve officers of the Seventy-first regiment of Ohio volunteers having published a card, stating that they advised Colonel R. Mason, who had been cashiered for cowardice, to surrender Clarksville, Tenn., to the rebel forces, were, by direction of the President, dismissed from the service of the United States.
—At Wilmington, Del., an enthusiastic meeting was held, at which resolutions were adopted denouncing Governor Burton as a rebel and a tool of Bayard, and appointing a committee to lay the proceedings of the meeting before the President and Secretary of War. Resolutions were also adopted expressing a determination to resist the draft as made by the Governor.
—Brig.-Gen. W. F. Barry, late Chief of Artillery, under Gen. McClellan, was assigned to duty as Inspector-General of Artillery, and ordered to report to the Chief of Ordnance.
—The Secretary of War issued an order directing that the Seventy-first regiment New-York State militia be sent to New-York on the thirty-first instant, and then mustered out of the United States service, the time for which they volunteered having expired.—Lieut Godfrey Weitzel, of the Engineer Corps, was this day appointed a Brigadier-General.—A meeting called twelve miles south-east of Memphis, Tenn., to organize a guerrilla band, was surrounded and eighteen prisoners were captured by a company of National troops.
— A skirmish took place near Manchester, Tenn., between a small force of Union infantry, under the command of Captain Miller, Eighteenth Ohio, and a force of rebel cavalry, under General Forrest, resulting in the retreat of the latter, with very heavy loss.—Cincinnati Commercial.
—A reconnoitring expedition, consisting of two companies of infantry, a battery of two guns, and a small troop of cavalry, under the command of Col. Thomas, Eighth Vermont, left St Charles Court-House, La., and proceeded to Bonnet Carré, where they dispersed, after a short skirmish, a force of rebel guerrillas, and captured over fifteen head of oxen, horses, and mules, which were designed for the use of the rebel army. The expedition was entirely successful, and returned without losing a man.—N. O. Delta, Sept. 1.
—The Union gunboat Anglo-American, under the command of Captain Riley, left New-Orleans and proceeded up the Mississippi River on a reconnoitring expedition, as far as Vicksburgh. When opposite Port Hudson the Anglo-American received the fire of twenty-two guns. She was hit sixty or seventy times, but though completely riddled, proceeded on her course. The result of the reconnoissance was entirely successful.
