Irvin McDowell Irvin McDowell ( October 15 , 1818 – May 4 , 1885 ) was a career American army officer . He is best known for his defeat in the First Battle of Bull Run , the first large - scale battle of the American Civil War . Early life . McDowell was born in Columbus , Ohio , son of Abram Irvin McDowell and Eliza Seldon McDowell . He was a cousin - in - law of John Buford , and his brother , John Adair McDowell , served as the first colonel of the 6th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Civil War . Irvin initially attended the College de Troyes in France before graduating from the United States Military Academy in 1838 , where one of his classmates was P . G . T . Beauregard , his future adversary at First Bull Run . He was commissioned a second lieutenant and posted to the 1st U . S . Artillery . McDowell served as a tactics instructor at West Point , before becoming aide - de - camp to General John E . Wool during the Mexican - American War . He was brevetted captain at Buena Vista and served in the Adjutant General ' s department after the war . While in that department he was promoted to major on May 31 , 1856 . Between 1848 and 1861 , McDowell generally served as a staff officer to higher - ranking military leaders , and developed experience in logistics and supply . He developed a close friendship with General Winfield Scott while serving on his staff . He also served under future Confederate general Joseph E . Johnston . Civil War . McDowell was promoted to brigadier general in the regular army on May 14 , 1861 , and given command of the Army of Northeastern Virginia , despite never having commanded troops in combat . The promotion was partly because of the influence of his mentor , Treasury Secretary Salmon P . Chase . Although McDowell knew that his troops were inexperienced and unready , and protested that he was a supply officer , not a field commander , pressure from the Washington politicians forced him to launch a premature offensive against Confederate forces in Northern Virginia . His strategy during the First Battle of Bull Run was imaginative but ambitiously complex , and his troops were not experienced enough to carry it out effectively , resulting in an embarrassing rout . After the defeat at Bull Run , Maj . Gen . George B . McClellan was placed in command of the new Union Army defending Washington , the Army of the Potomac . McDowell commanded a division in the new army , but McClellan soon reorganized his command and McDowell was given I Corps the following spring . His corps stayed behind to defend Washington , and was eventually supposed to march to McClellan ' s support while the latter fought in the Peninsula Campaign ; however , the nervous politicians who feared that General Thomas J . " Stonewall " Jackson ' s Valley Campaign would eventually attack Washington kept McDowell ' s 40 , 000 soldiers behind . Eventually , the three independent commands of Generals McDowell , John C . Frémont , and Nathaniel P . Banks were combined into Maj . Gen . John Pope ' s Army of Virginia and McDowell led the III Corps of that army . Because of his actions at Cedar Mountain , McDowell was eventually brevetted major general in the regular army ; however , he was blamed for the subsequent disaster at Second Bull Run . He escaped culpability by testifying against Maj . Gen . Fitz John Porter , whom Pope court - martialed for alleged insubordination in that battle . Despite his formal escape , McDowell spent the following two years in effective exile from the leadership of the Army . Later service and postbellum career . In July 1864 , McDowell was given command of the Department of the Pacific . He later commanded the Department of California from July 27 , 1865 to March 31 , 1868 , briefly commanded the Fourth Military Department , then commanded the Department of the East from July 16 , 1868 - December 16 , 1872 . On November 25 , 1872 , he was promoted to major - general . On December 16 , 1872 , McDowell succeeded General George G . Meade as commander of the Division of the South , and remained until June 30 , 1876 . From July 1 , 1876 to his retirement on October 15 , 1882 , he was commander of the Division of the Pacific . In 1879 , when a Board of Review commissioned by President Rutherford B . Hayes issued its report recommending a pardon for Fitz John Porter , it attributed much of the loss of the Second Battle of Bull Run to McDowell . In the report he was depicted as indecisive , uncommunicative , and inept , repeatedly failing to answer Porter ' s requests for information , failing to forward intelligence of Longstreet ' s positioning to Pope , and neglecting to take command of the left wing of the Union Army as was his duty under the Articles of War . Following his retirement from the army in 1882 , General McDowell exercised his fondness for landscape gardening , serving as Park Commissioner of San Francisco , California until his death on May 4 , 1885 . In this capacity he constructed a park in the neglected reservation of the Presidio laying out drives that commanded views of the Golden Gate . He is buried in San Francisco National Cemetery in the Presidio of San Francisco .