Official Report Of Gen. Mcdowell

Ttie officia] report ol Gen. McDowell of the Buttlaol Buil Run is published. I In the narative portion we iind nofhing j bevond whut our readers are alreudy t:mii]i;ir with. But the concluding portion, which portalen of an exculpntory charaetor, and also shows the object of hls movements iu the field, we Hubjoin : As my position may warrant, if it does not culi, lor some exptnoution of the causes as far as Ihey can be seon, whlüh lud to the resulta herein stated, I trust it may not be out of place if I refer in u few iwli to the minediute antecedents of the battle. W'hen I submitted to the General in Chief, in ! compliunce with liis verbal inslructions, ! ihe pluOB of operations and estímate ot furce recjuired, the tiirie I was to proceed to carry it oto effect was tixed for the 8th of Julv, Mónday. Every fauility possibile was fuiven tne ly iho General-in-Chief and heads oi the administrativo departments in miiking tho necessary preparatinns. Uut the regiments, owing I was told to want of transportation, caine over very slowly. Many of thein did nOt come aeross till eigbt or nine clsys alter the lime fixed upon, and without having been toge'.her befo re in a brigade. The sending of reinforceraints to General Patterson, by d.awing off thb wagons, was a further and unavoidable cause of delay. Notvvithstanding the hercule:m efforts of ths Quar.ennaster General, and his (avoring me in evei v way, the wagons for iinimunition, subsistence, &c, and the horses for the trains and the artiüery, did not all arrive fnr more than n week lifter the time nppoiutod lo move. I was not even frepard ;is late as tho 15 tb, ultimo, and the desiro that I should move becime groat, and it [was wished I should not. if possihle, I delay longer than Tuesday the lGth ultimo. W'hen I did set out on the 16, 1 was still deficiënt in wagons for subsistence. But I went forward, trusting to their being procured in time to follow me. Tho truins thus huniedly gathered together, witb horses, wagons, drivers, and wagon managers, all new and unused to oui-h other, moved with difficulty and disorder, and was the cause of i day's delay in getting the provisions forward, making it necessary to rnako on SundhV the altack wo should have made on Saturday. I could not, with evtry exertion, get forward with the troops earlier than we did. I wished to go to Centerville the socond day, which would have taken us thero on the 1 7 1 h , and enabled us, so far as they were coi;cerned, togo into action on the 19ih, instead f the "ilst; but wheu I went forward froin Fairfax Court House, bevond Germantown, to urge t'hem forward, I was told that it Was imposible for lbo men to maivli farther. Th;.y had only come f rom Vienna, about sis miles, and it was not more than six and a half miles further to Centerville - in all a mareh ol twelve and a half miles; but the men were loot weary, not ao much, I was told, by tiio distance marched, as by tho time they had been on foot, cansed by tho obstructions in the road, and the slow pace we had to move to 'avoid atnbuscades. The men were, moreover unaccustomed to mirching, their bodies not in condition for th it kind of Work, and not used to carrying oven the load of iight marching order. " V'e crossed Bull's Run with about 18.000 men of all arms, the fifth división (M les and Kichardson's brigade) no the ieft, at lilaokburn'i! ford to Oenterville, and Schenck's brigade, ol Tyler's división, on the !eft of road, imar the stone bridge, mt participatn.g iii the main action. The minibars opposed tu us have been variously estimated. I may salely say, and avold even tho appoarance of' exaggei'ation, that the enemy brought up all be could which wro not kept eftguged e'se here. He had no'.ice of our coming no the 17th, and had from that tima until the 21st, to bring up whatever he liad. It is known that in eitimatiiig the forco to go against Marmsea, I enaaged not to have to do witli the enemy's forco under Johnston,thon kept in ';h"eck in the valley by Mjor-Gwiei'al Patterson, or those kopt eugaged by Mitjor-Genoral Butler, and l know every efl'ort was made by the General-in Ohief that this should be done, and that even if Johnston joined Beaurc"ard, it wonld not be becausn hu coiild not be f. 'Ho wed y Gen Patterson, but from causen not. necessary for me to refer to, if I knew them all. Tliis was not done, and the e tien V was free to assemble in every direclion in nutn bers only limited by the imiount of his railroad rolling stock and his supply of provisions. To the forces, therefore, we drove in from Fairfax Court House, Fairfax Station, Germantown and Centerville, and those under Boaur gard a( Manafsw, mt he added thoso under Johnston f. ftiu Winchester, and th"' brought up by Davis from fèichmond and olher places f.t the South, to whi-h is to be added the levy en ynasse ordered by the Riohmond aüthonties, which was ordered to agsemble at M iti-na?. What all this amonnted t, I cannot say- certainly much more than we attacked them with. I could not, as I have said. inoro j earlv push P.n taster, nor could I deíay. j A arge and best part :f my iorces were three rnonths' volunteers, whose term of service was about to expire, but who wero sent f.irwafd as having longenough to serve for thi; pUFpOSfl ol the esparl'ition. On to eya ii tb.ohat tle the Fourth Ponusylvania regiment of volunteers and the battory of volut, teer artillery of New York Eighth militia, whose term of sorvico e.vp.rod, insistedon their discharge. I wrate to the regiment, expressing a req nest for them tü remain a short time, and the ; Secretary of War, h was at tho time on the gronnd, tried to inducco tho battery to remain at least tive days But in vuin. They insisted on thcr discharge that night. It was granted, and the next morning vvhen the urmy movi-d forward into battle, theso troops moved to the rear to tho sound of tho enemy's cannon. In the next few days, day by dav, I should have lost ten thousand of the . bestem cd, drilled, offleered and disciphned. troops in tho army. Inother woids, every day which added tn the ; strf ng th of tho enemy rr.ade us woaker. In conclusión, I desire to say in reierenco to the events of tho 21st uit., thqt th general ovdor of bnttlo to whiuh I relerred was vvith slight modi fications, literally onnformed to ; tho" corps were biought over Uull's Kun in the inimner pioposed, and put into actioo as before arranged, and tbat up to late in the afternoon every inovemenfc ordered was earrying us suocesafully to, iho object we liad proposud befor -thatof getting tothe milroad leadifig from Manassas to the valley ot Virj{inin, and on goins; on it fur enouglj, to breuk up and destroy the uoinpanii cntton and interview betwi-eij, tho foreen u n der Beauregarcl nnd thone undcr Johnslon. And could ive have fought i Q doy or a few honrs sooner, there i ovorything to show bow we cou!d havo continuad successfu], uvon against tlio odds svvith rhiph we contended. I havo the honor to be, verv respect lullv, vour most obcdient nervant. ' " TRWfN.McDOWELL. Brigadier General Commanding.