Sixty thousand was perhaps the maximum of the Union forces on the second day, while the Confederate army, as nearly as can be ascertained, numbered fifty thousand.

One great event of the battle was the death of Albert Sidney Johnston, a soldier of marked skill, a man of the highest personal character.

Jefferson Davis made his death the occasion of a special message to the Confederate Congress, in which he said that "without doing injustice to the living, our loss is irreparable." The personal affliction of Mr.Davis was sore.
The two had been at West Point together, and had been close friends through life.

William Preston Johnston, son of the fallen General, a young man of singular excellence of character and of most attractive personal traits, was at the time private secretary to Mr.Davis.
He has since been widely known in the South in connection with its educational progress.
Deep anxiety had preceded the battle throughout the North, and the relief which followed was grateful.

It was made the occasion by the President for a proclamation in which the people were asked "to assemble in their places of public worship and especially acknowledge and render thanks to our Heavenly Father for the successes which have attended the Army of the Union." But after the first flush of victory, the battle became the subject of controversy in the newspapers.