First Battle of Bull Run

First Battle of Bull Run
Part of the American Civil War
Cub Run in Centreville, Virginia. View with destroyed bridge.
Date July 21 1861 Location Fairfax County and Prince William County, Virginia Result Confederate victory
Belligerents
United States of America	Confederate States of America
Commanders and leaders
Irvin McDowell	Joseph E. Johnston P.G.T. Beauregard
Strength
35,000 effectives	32,500 effectives
Casualties and losses
2,896 (460 killed, 1,124 wounded, 1,312 captured/missing)	1,982 (387 killed, 1,582 wounded, 13 missing)

The First Battle of Bull Run (named after the closest body of water), also known as the First Battle of Manassas (named after the closest town), took place on July 21 1861, and was the first major land battle of the American Civil War. Unseasoned Union Army troops under Brigadier General Irvin McDowell advanced against the Confederate Army under Brig. Gens. Joseph E. Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard at Manassas, Virginia, and despite the Union's early successes, they were routed and forced to retreat back to Washington, D.C.

Background

Irvin McDowell was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to command of the Army of Northeastern Virginia. Once in this capacity, McDowell was harassed by impatient politicians and citizens in Washington, who wished to see a quick battlefield victory over the Confederate Army in northern Virginia. McDowell, however, was concerned about the untried nature of his army. He was reassured by Lincoln, who responded, "You are green, it is true, but they are green also; you are all green alike." Against his better judgment, McDowell commenced campaigning. On July 16, 1861, the general departed Washington with the largest field army yet gathered on the North American continent, 28,452 effectives.

The Confederate Army of the Potomac (21,883 effectives) under Beauregard was encamped near Manassas Junction, approximately 25 miles (40 km) from the United States capital. McDowell planned to swoop down upon this numerically inferior enemy army, while Union Major General Robert Patterson's 18,000 men engaged Johnston's force (the Army of the Shenandoah at 8,884 effectives, augmented by Theophilus H. Holmes's brigade of 1,465) in the Shenandoah Valley, preventing them from reinforcing Beauregard.

After two days of marching in the sweltering heat, the Union army was allowed to rest. In the meantime, McDowell searched for a way to outflank Beauregard who had drawn up his lines along Bull Run. On July 18, the Union commander sent a division under Brig. Gen. Daniel Tyler to pass on the Confederate right (southeast) flank. Tyler was drawn into battle at Blackburn's Ford over Bull Run and made no headway. Becoming more frustrated, McDowell resolved to attack the Confederate left (northwest) flank instead. He planned to leave one division at the Stone Bridge on the Warrenton Turnpike and send two divisions over Sudley Springs Ford. From here, these divisions could march into the Confederate rear. Though he had arrived at a sound plan, McDowell had delayed long enough that Johnston's Valley force was able to board trains at Piedmont Station and rush to Manassas Junction to reinforce Beauregard's men.

On July 19 and July 20, significant reinforcements bolstered the Confederate lines near Bull Run. However, it was not enough to hold back the flood of Union soldiers. General McDowell was getting contradictory information from his intelligence agents, and so he called for the balloon Enterprise, which was being demonstrated by Prof. Thaddeus S. C. Lowe in Washington, to perform aerial reconnaissance.

Battle

Map of the events of the battle

On the morning of July 21, divisions under David Hunter and Samuel P. Heintzelman crossed Sudley Springs and struck the Confederate left. All that stood in the path of the 6,000 Union soldiers were Confederate Col. Nathan Evans and his reduced brigade of 900 men. Evans had been informed of the Union flanking movement and had hastily led most of his men from their position fronting the Stone Bridge to a new location on the slopes of Matthews Hill, a low rise to the northwest of his previous position.

Evans soon received reinforcement from two other brigades under Barnard Bee and Francis S. Bartow, but the Confederate line slowly crumbled, then broke completely. In a full run from their Matthews Hill position, the remainder of Evans's, Bee's, and Bartow's commands ran into a solid line of reinforcement on Henry House Hill. This was Thomas J. Jackson's Virginia brigade. "The Enemy are driving us," Bee exclaimed to Jackson. Jackson, a former U.S. Army officer and professor at the Virginia Military Institute, is said to have replied "Sir, we will give them the bayonet." Bee exhorted his own troops to re-form by shouting, "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall. Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer. Follow me."

There is some controversy over Bee's statement and intent, which could not be clarified because he was killed almost immediately after speaking and none of his subordinate officers wrote reports of the battle. Major Burnett Rhett, chief of staff to General Joseph E. Johnston, claimed that Bee was angry at Jackson's failure to come immediately to the relief of Bee's and Bartow's brigades while they were under heavy pressure. Those who subscribe to this opinion believe that Bee's statement was meant to be pejorative: "Look at Jackson standing there like a damned stone wall!"

Scattered units began to group around the Virginia brigade, and the fighting continued as the Union tide rolled onward, up the face of Henry House Hill. As soon as the Federal troops crested the hill, they were face to face with the rifles of Jackson's men, and they took a full volley with devastating effect. They broke and began to retreat in what was called the "Great Skedaddle". Eventually, more fresh Confederate brigades entered the fray and turned the tide of battle completely in favor of Beauregard's army. McDowell's flanking column was blunted, then crumbled and broke. In the disorder that followed, hundreds of Union troops were taken prisoner. A Union wagon overturned on a bridge spanning Bull Run and incited panic in McDowell's force. Beauregard and Johnston decided not to press their advantage, since their combined army had been left highly disorganized as well.

The wealthy elite of nearby Washington, expecting an easy Union victory, had come to picnic and watch the battle. When the Union army was driven back in a running disorder, the roads back to Washington were blocked by panicked civilians attempting to flee in their carriages. Further confusion ensued when an artillery shell fell on a carriage, blocking the main road to the north.

Union forces and civilians alike feared that Confederate forces would advance on Washington D.C. with very little standing in their way. On July 24, Prof. Lowe ascended in Enterprise to observe the Confederates moving in and about Manassas Junction and Fairfax and ascertained that there was no evidence of massing Rebel forces, but he was forced to land in enemy territory. It was overnight before he was rescued and could report to headquarters. He reported that his observations "restored confidence" to the Union commanders.

Aftermath

Union casualties were 460 killed, 1,124 wounded, and 1,312 missing or captured; Confederate casualties were 387 killed, 1,582 wounded, and 13 missing. Among the latter was Col. Francis S. Bartow, who was the first Confederate brigade commander to be killed in the Civil War. General Bee was mortally wounded and died the following day.

Irvin McDowell bore the brunt of the blame for the Union defeat at Bull Run and was soon replaced by George B. McClellan, who was named general-in-chief of all the Union armies. McDowell was also present to bear significant blame for the defeat of John Pope's Army of Virginia by Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia just thirteen months later, at the Second Battle of Bull Run.

Battlefield confusion relating to battle flags, especially the similarity of the Confederacy's "Stars and Bars" and the Union's "Stars and Stripes", led to the adoption of the Confederate Battle Flag, which eventually became the most popular symbol of the Confederacy and the South in general.

See also

• Manassas National Battlefield Park
• Edward Porter Alexander
• Wilmer McLean
• First Bull Run Confederate order of battle
• First Bull Run Union order of battle
• Manassas, a historical novel from the James Reasoner Civil War Series

References

• National Park Service battle description
• Eicher, David J., The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War, Simon & Schuster, 2001, ISBN 0-684-84944-5.
• Freeman, Douglas S., Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command (3 volumes), Scribners, 1946, ISBN 0-684-85979-3.
• Goldfield, David, et al, The American Journey: A history of the United States, Second Edition, Prentice Hall, 1999, ISBN 0-13-088243-7.
• Hankinson, Alan, First Bull Run 1861: The South's First Victory, Osprey Campaign Series #10, Osprey Publishing, 1991, ISBN 1-85532-133-5.
• Livermore, Thomas L., Numbers and Losses in the Civil War in America 1861-65, reprinted with errata, Morninside House, 1986, ISBN 0-527-57600-X.
• McPherson, James M., Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States), Oxford University Press, 1988, ISBN 0-19-503863-0.
• Robertson, James I., Jr., Stonewall Jackson: The Man, The Soldier, The Legend, MacMillan Publishing, 1997, ISBN 0-02-864685-1.
• Professor Thaddeus Lowe's Official Report (Part I)

Further reading

• Davis, William C., Battle at Bull Run, Louisiana State Press, 1977, ISBN 0-8071-0867-7.
• Detzer, David, Donnybrook: The Battle of Bull Run, 1861, Harcourt Inc., 2004, ISBN 0-15-100889-2.

External links

• Manassas National Battlefield Park website
• Harper's Weekly 1861 Report on the Battle of Bull Run
• Civil War Home website on First Bull Run
• Animated History of The First Battle of Bull Run

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