In the first major land battle of the Civil War, a large Union force under General Irvin McDowell is routed by a Confederate army under General Pierre G.T. Beauregard.
Three months after the Civil War erupted at Fort Sumter, Union military command still believed that the Confederacy could be crushed quickly and with little loss of life. In July, this overconfidence led to a premature offensive into northern Virginia by General McDowell. Searching out the Confederate forces, McDowell led 34,000 troops–mostly inexperienced and poorly trained militiamen–toward the railroad junction of Manassas, located just 30 miles from Washington, D.C. Alerted to the Union advance, General Beauregard massed some 20,000 troops there and was soon joined by General Joseph Johnston, who brought some 9,000 more troops by railroad.
On the morning of July 21, hearing of the proximity of the two opposing forces, hundreds of civilians–men, women, and children–turned out to watch the first major battle of the Civil War. The fighting commenced with three Union divisions crossing the Bull Run stream, and the Confederate flank was driven back to Henry House Hill. However, at this strategic location, Beauregard had fashioned a strong defensive line anchored by a brigade of Virginia infantry under General Thomas J. Jackson. Firing from a concealed slope, Jackson’s men repulsed a series of Federal charges, winning Jackson his famous nickname “Stonewall.”
Meanwhile, Confederate cavalry under J.E.B. Stuart captured the Union artillery, and Beauregard ordered a counterattack on the exposed Union right flank. The rebels came charging down the hill, yelling furiously, and McDowell’s line was broken, forcing his troops in a hasty retreat across Bull Run. The retreat soon became an unorganized flight, and supplies littered the road back to Washington. Union forces endured a loss of 3,000 men killed, wounded, or missing in action while the Confederates suffered 2,000 casualties. The scale of this bloodshed horrified not only the frightened spectators at Bull Run but also the U.S. government in Washington, which was faced with an uncertain military strategy in quelling the “Southern insurrection.”
We don’t know a lot about my Great-grandfather except that he arrived from Ireland in 1859. He then joined up,as they usually did, in the army in order to get a bonus that would give them a modest financial start in America. Bad timing. He was in Bull Run. Survived that and survived the war.
My GG grandfather was also there. 1st Lt. Francis John Power, 17th Virginia Infantry. Wounded and captured in July 1863 covering Lee’s retreat from Gettysburg. Released from Johnson’s Island Prison (Ohio) in June of 1865 after being one of the last to take “the oath of allegiance”. Died in Alexandria, Virginia, 1902 aged 65. I sometimes smilingly wonder if anyone ever said to him………..”lighten up Francis”.
I am not a civil war historian, but by memory it is at this point that the Confeds could have marched into Washington with little opposition, only thirty miles away, and by so doing possibly have won the war. Carpe diem obviously was not understood by the Confed generals.
You’re absolutely correct. The Union was routed and the Confederate could have rolled them up all the way to Balitimore being limited only by their supply wagons. That said, the Confederate government at that time was still hoping for a negotiated peace and felt that the initial asskicking the Federals received might turn the trick. A serious miscalculation.
Mrs Ragman and I just visited Gettysburg for the 6th time. Without the kids. Standing on Little Round Top I had time to ponder just what happened in the vast field in front of me 155yrs ago. How thousands of men died right here in front of me and why. Certainly part of the reasons they died was to “free the slaves”. I can’t help but see what the descendants of the freed slaves have accomplished in their 155yrs of freedom. I look around me and must conclude that these descendants totally destroy civilization wherever they are located in this country. Their contribution to the USofA is to loot, riot, rape and murder her citizens. We must recognize that bringing them into our country was the biggest mistake in our history. Imagine the USofA without negroes. They belong in Africa where this type of behaviour is the accepted norm. We shouda picked our own cotton!
General George Pickett speaking years later of Robert E. Lee said:
“That old man had my division slaughtered”.
Lee, honorable man that he was, took full responsibility for his error.
i don’t know enough to be sure on this issue but wasn’t gettysburg the battle where a confederate general didn’t attack for several hours after he received the attack order,which allowed the union army to bring in reinforcements?
Unfortunately, I believe it was David Duke who pointed out the ‘horse’ did far, far more than the negro in the building of America.
I was a young boy when my mother took me to the centennial of the 1st Battle of Manassas, as it was known in the South. Still a very rural area the battlefield looked just as it probably did in 1861 Large numbers of men in blue and grey took their positions and reenacted the fighting. It was a scorching hot day and soon the ‘soldiers’ were dropping for real from the heat. A custom parade dress uniform was probably not what the actual soldiers that day wore but to a boy’s eyes it made the battle look real as the cannons and muskets fired but then those old style Cadillac ambulances started arriving to carry the ‘wounded’ away!
the republican party was ostensibly formed for 2 primary reasons–end slavery & end polygamy–
polygamy is nobody’s business & slavery was on the way out because it was becoming economically unsustainable–
if the north would have either grandfathered slavery until a certain date or purchased the slaves & then freed them it could have avoided the war,assuming that slavery was the real reason for the war,which i do not believe it was–