When the
first rush of the circling host had swept his little band back from the
Stone Bridge Tyler's army would then cross and the three divisions swoop
down on the doomed men.
Evans suddenly swung his regiment and two field pieces into a new line
of battle facing the onrushing host and sent his courier flying to
General Bee to ask that his brigade be moved instantly to his support.
When the shock came there were five regiments and six little field
pieces in the Southern ranks to meet McDowell's sixteen thousand
troops.
With deafening roar their artillery opened. The long dense lines of
closely packed infantry began their steady firing in volleys. It sounded
as if some giant hand had grasped the hot Southern skies and was tearing
their blue canvas into strips and shreds.
For an hour Bee's brigade withstood the onslaught of the two Federal
divisions--and then began to slowly fall back before the resistless wall
of fire. The Union army charged and drove the broken lines a half mile
before they rallied.
Tyler's division now swept across the Stone Bridge and the shattered
Confederate left wing was practically surrounded by overwhelming odds.
Again the storm burst on the unsupported lines of Bee and drove them
three quarters of a mile before they paused.
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