BATTLE OF BULL RUN. 293 dvised it, but for the simple reason that the North was tired of waiting and was impatient to strike a decisive blow. It was The battle began on a sweltering hot Sunday in July (July 21, 861). At first the Union troops drove the Confederates from heir position. General Bee, one of the Southern leaders, rushing up to General Jackson cried out, "General, they are beating us back." "We will give them the bayonet," said Jackson quietly. That reply encouraged General Bee. Rallying his men, he shouted, Look! there is Jackson standing like a stone wall! true; and "Stonewall" Jackson,1 as the Confederate general was ever after called, used "the bayonet" so effectually that the Union advance was checked, and the Southerners held their ground until heavy reinforcements came from the Shenandoah Valley and drove the national troops from the hard-fought field. They fled back to Washington in confusion and terror. It was the first panic of the war. 324. Results of the Defeat at Bull Run. - Some failures are simply stepping stones to final success. The defeat at Bull Run was such a case. Instead of discouraging the people of the North, it roused them to new and greater effort. At the very time the defeated and disheartened Union soldiers were pouring over the Long Bridge across the Potomac into Washington, Congress voted to raise 500,000 men and $500,000,000 to carry on the war. The cry now was, "Drill and organize!" General McClellan came fresh from his victories in West Virginia to take command of the army. He taught them the great lesson, that enthusiasm without military organization is of no more use than steam without an engine. For the next six months and more 1 General Thomas J. Jackson, of Virginia, was born in 1824; died 1863. He was one of the most remarkable men who fought on the side of the South. His character may be fitly summed up in his motto, —“Do your duty, and leave the rest to Providence." His death was the heaviest personal loss the South sustained during the war. Next to Lee, "Stonewall" Jackson was the ablest general in the Confederacy, respected alike by those who fought under him and those who fought against him. |