Another Letter from Billy Glenn.
Manassas Junction, July 26, 1861.
Dear Father: You have doubtless been very uneasy about me, fearing that I was killed or wounded. I assure you I came out perfectly unharmed, and I am in the best of hopes that this war will come to a speedy close. When that Yankees that are left get back home and take the scales off the eyes of their fellows in regard to Southern men’s feelings in this war, it will be hard to rally men enough to meet us again, for it was the most complete victory ever gained on this continent.
Our Seventh Regiment was in the thickest of the fight, the left wing especially, of which our company (the Davis Infantry) formed a part, was highly spoken of by Beauregard. – We captured, by a series of charges, Sherman’s celebrated battery. We turned their own cannon against them, killing nearly all their engineers and horses. We were engaged with the best men they had, including Ellsworth’s Zouaves. All those New York Fire Zouaves were killed but about two hundred. We also had the regulars to contend with. The prisoners say we fought not like men or soldiers, but like devils, and that God is surely on our side. We all know it to be so, for nothing in the world but a Divine power could have saved us from being out done. We were almost surrounded by treble our number. We fought like lions, and no man seemed to care a straw for his life, preferring death to defeat.
I was standing by Mr. Puckett’s side when he was shot through the breast.
I am proud to be able to say that I was in that great battle – not for the honor of the thing, but to know that I did my whole duty for my country.
There is no used in trying to describe the consternation and panic of the foe after they were routed. The papers have told you something of that. The funniest thing was that most of their big men – Congressmen – and some two or three hundred ladies in carriages, had come out to greet their officers with their smiles and kisses, and the soldiers by the waving of their little hands, and to have a grand pic-nic after they had conquered us. Imagine their surprise and mortification, when these heroes of theirs whom they had come out to cheer, encourage, and bless, came back in all haste, filled with consternation and running for their lives! Some without guns or knapsacks, coats and shirts off, shoes and hats lost, pitching headlong through them, running over women, carriages and everything in their way; and then closely followed by our cavalry, cutting and slashing them at every jump, and taking prisoners by the hundreds!
The prisoners and wagons are coming in yet every hour and sent off by the car load to Richmond.
All the wounded are well cared for. Tell Mrs. Wm. T. Wilson, that Mr. Wilson is not in a dangerous condition. I helped him off his horse and gave him water from my canteen, and took his boot off. He got on his horse and went to the cars. He rallied and encouraged the men long after he was shot, and he is a whole regiment himself in time of battle.
Well, I won’t say any more about the fight this time. You must not be uneasy about me, for if I get wounded I will be well taken care of, and if killed, I will die for my county.
Your son, WM. GLENN
(Atlanta, GA) Southern Confederacy, 8/6/1861
Harry Smeltzer
Bull Runnings 
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