Bull Run : its strategy and tactics by R. M. Johnston

Author:R. M. Johnston
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Bull Run, 1st Battle of, Va., 1861
Published: 2013-01-17T05:00:00+00:00

in the way of the direct advance through Blackburn's Ford. But the planning of the march was clearly defective, for it involved covering a distance of over ten miles along a doubtful line of approach. In hot July weather and for troops such as those, this was a very considerable enter-. prise, and one that was insufBciently worked out, as appeared when the troops attempted to carry out the order. With his right once moved as far as Sudley Spring, it became imperative for McDowell to establish a communication at Stone Bridge, and to resist all possible counterstrokes against the Centreville ridge, else he might easily see his army broken at either point or turned. 1 Even more dangerous than this was the fact that his turning movement prolonged his line of operations so as to open a wide flank to an enemy's counter-stroke ; so extended was his right that his left had actually to be thrown back and to face one of its brigades towards Alexandria, the base. Yet it may be questioned whether there was any other move open; and some military experts, General Sherman chief among them, have considered his plan an admirable one. That

^ A comparison of the reports of Barnard and McDowell suggests that the latter possibly made a mistake. Barnard reported that the ford below Stone Bridge, that is Lewis' Ford, was guarded; McDowell may hdve understood the ford above Stone Bridge, and therefore decided to swing far around by Sudley Spring. A long and fatiguing march would have been avoided had the troops crossed at Poplar Ford, while the army would have avoided the dispersal that the advance along the Sudley Spring road eventually caused.

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