Kids History: Civil War Battles of 1861 and 1862 After the first shot was fired at the Battle of Fort Sumter, the American Civil War would escalate. Many more battles would be fought over the next few years. First Battle of Bull Run This was the first major land battle of the war. It took place on July 21, 1861 near the city of Manassas, Virginia. General Irvin McDowell led the Union troops against P.T. Beauregard's Confederate Army. The goal was to capture the Confederate capitol of Richmond, Virginia. The Union forces were doing well at first until reinforcements came for the south. The Confederate Army started to gain ground and soon the Union forces were fleeing. The Capture of Fort Donelson On February 14-15, 1862, the Union Army under Ulysses S. Grant captured Fort Donelson from the Confederates. This is the first major Union victory in the war and opened up a route for the Union Army into Northern Alabama.

The Battle of the Monitor and Merrimac CSS Virginia by Clary Ray This was one of the most significant naval battles during the civil war primarily because of the new kinds of warships used. It was fought on March 8-9, 1862 near Hampton Roads, Virginia. The Monitor and Merrimac were the first iron clad warships. This meant that instead of just being made of wood, like all the ships before them, they had hard iron on the outside making them very durable against cannon fire. These new ships could easily defeat wooden ships and changed the way navy warships were made around the world. In the actual battle, both ships survived and the fight was largely inconclusive. Battle of Shiloh Fought in Tennessee on April 6-7, 1862, the Battle of Shiloh was the largest battle fought in the western part of the country. The Confederate Army, led by General's Albert Johnston and P.T. Beauregard, attacked the Union Army led by General Ulysses S. Grant . They won the first day, however, General Johnston was killed and they stopped the attack. The next day reinforcements arrived for the North.

The North counterattacked and drove back the Confederate Army. Both sides suffered heavy losses. There were around 20,000 casualties and 3500 deaths in this battle. The Battle of New Orleans The city of New Orleans was the largest city in the Confederacy and a major port as well. Flag officer David G. Farragut led the attack of the Union Navy from the Mississippi River. He first attempted to bombard the two forts, Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip, but was unsuccessful. Then he broke through the chain between the two forts in the river and proceeded to the city of New Orleans. Once in New Orleans he took control of the city on April 24, 1862. This was an important victory for the Union. Seven Days Battles The Seven Days Battles took place between June 25, 1862 and July 1, 1862. There were six major battles fought during this time near the city of Richmond, Virginia. General Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army attempted to capture the Union Army under General George B. McClellan. As McClellan's army retreated, Lee continued to attack.

McClellan managed to escape, but Lee had gained a victory which increased the moral of the South. Battle of Antietam and Troops at Antietam by The New York Times This was the first major battle fought in the North. It was fought near Sharpsburg, Maryland on September 17, 1862. The Battle of Antietam is known as the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War. There were over 23,000 casualties and 4600 deaths. The Confederate Army, led by General Robert E. Lee, was vastly outnumbered, but still managed to harass and fight off the more conservative Union Army, led by General George B. McClellan. Eventually, though, the Union Amy was able to push back Lee's army and cause them to retreat from Northern soil. Battle of Fredericksburg This battle took place on December 11-15, 1862 at Fredericksburg, Virginia. It was a huge battle involving over 180,000 soldiers. The North was led by General Ambrose Burnside and the South was led by General Robert E. Lee. The North was leading a major attack into the South.

General Lee managed to fight them back with a much smaller force. It was considered a major victory for the Southern forces. Activities First Battle of Bull Run - American Civil War - HISTORY.com First Battle of Bull Run First Battle of Bull Run Author First Battle of Bull Run URL A+E Networks Introduction On July 21, 1861, Union and Confederate armies clashed near Manassas Junction, Virginia, in the first major land battle of the American Civil War. Known as the First Battle of Bull Run (or Manassas), the engagement began when about 35,000 Union troops marched from the federal capital in Washington, D.C. to strike a Confederate force of 20,000 along a small river known as Bull Run. After fighting on the defensive for most of the day, the rebels rallied and were able to break the Union right flank, sending the Federals into a chaotic retreat towards Washington. The Confederate victory gave the South a surge of confidence and shocked many in the North, who realized the war would not be won as easily as they had hoped.

Google Prelude to the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) By July 1861, two months after Confederate troops opened fire on Fort Sumter to begin the Civil War, the northern press and public were eager for the Union Army to make an advance on Richmond ahead of the planned meeting of the Confederate Congress there on July 20. Encouraged by early victories by Union troops in western Virginia , and by the war fever spreading through the North, President Abraham Lincoln ordered Brigadier General Irvin McDowell to mount an offensive that would hit quickly and decisively at the enemy and open the way to Richmond, thus bringing the war to a mercifully quick end. The offensive would begin with an attack on more than 20,000 Confederate troops under the command of General P.G.T. Beauregard camped near Manassas Junction, Virginia (25 miles from Washington , D.C.) along a little river known as Bull Run. Did You Know? After First Manassas, Stonewall Jackson further distinguished himself in the Shenandoah Valley, Second Manassas and Fredericksburg.

The man Lee called his "right arm" was accidentally shot by his own men at Chancellorsville and died of complications relating to the injury. The cautious McDowell, then in command of the 35,000 Union volunteer troops gathered in the Federal capital, knew that his men were ill prepared and pushed for a postponement of the advance to give him time for additional training. But Lincoln ordered him to begin the offensive nonetheless, reasoning (correctly) that the rebel army was made up of similarly amateur soldiers. McDowell’s army began moving out of Washington on July 16; its slow movement allowed Beauregard (who also received advance notice of his enemy’s movements through a Confederate espionage network in Washington) to call on his fellow Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston for reinforcements. Johnston, in command of some 11,000 rebels in the Shenandoah Valley, was able to outmaneuver a Union force in the region and march his men towards Manassas. Battle Begins at Bull Run McDowell’s Union force struck on July 21, shelling the enemy across Bull Run while more troops crossed the river at Sudley Ford in an attempt to hit the Confederate left flank.

Over two hours, 10,000 Federals gradually pushed back 4,500 rebels across the Warrington turnpike and up Henry House Hill. Reporters, congressmen and other onlookers who had traveled from Washington and were watching the battle from the nearby countryside prematurely celebrated a Union victory, but reinforcements from both Johnston and Beauregard’s armies soon arrived on the battlefield to rally the Confederate troops. In the afternoon, both sides traded attacks and counterattacks near Henry House Hill. On Johnston and Beauregard’s orders, more and more Confederate reinforcements arrived, even as the Federals struggled with coordinating assaults made by different regiments. The “Rebel Yell” at Bull Run (Manassas) By four o’clock in the afternoon, both sides had an equal number of men on the field of battle (about 18,000 on each side were engaged at Bull Run), and Beauregard ordered a counterattack along the entire line. Screaming as they advanced (the “rebel yell” that would become infamous among Union troops) the Confederates managed to break the Union line.

As McDowell’s Federals retreated chaotically across Bull Run, they ran headlong into hundreds of Washington civilians who had been watching the battle while picnicking on the fields east of the river, now making their own hasty retreat. Among the future leaders on both sides who fought at First Manassas were Ambrose E. Burnside and William T. Sherman (for the Union) along with Confederates like Stuart, Wade Hampton , and most famously, Thomas J. Jackson, who earned his enduring nickname, “Stonewall,” in the battle. Jackson, a former professor at the Virginia Military Institute, led a Virginia brigade from the Shenandoah Valley into the battle at a key moment, helping the Confederates hold an important high-ground position at Henry House Hill. General Barnard Bee (who was later killed in the battle) told his men to take heart, and to look at Jackson standing there “like a stone wall.” Impact of Bull Run (Manassas) Despite their victory, Confederate troops were far too disorganized to press their advantage and pursue the retreating Yankees, who reached Washington by July 22.

The First Battle of Bull Run (called First Manassas in the South) cost some 3,000 Union casualties, compared with 1,750 for the Confederates. Its outcome sent northerners who had expected a quick, decisive victory reeling, and gave rejoicing southerners a false hope that they themselves could pull off a swift victory. In fact, both sides would soon have to face the reality of a long, grueling conflict that would take an unimaginable toll on the country and its people. On the Confederate side, accusations flew between Johnston, Beauregard and President Jefferson Davis over who was to blame for the failure to pursue and crush the enemy after the battle. For the Union, Lincoln removed McDowell from command and replaced him with George B. McClellan, who would retrain and reorganize Union troops defending Washington into a disciplined fighting force, thereafter known as the Army of the Potomac. Tags Dates: August 28 – 30, 1862 Generals: Union: Major General John Pope | Confederate: General Robert E.

Lee Soldiers Engaged: Union: 62,000 | Confederate: 50,000 Outcome: Confederate Victory Casualties: Union: 14,000 | Confederate: 8,000 Second Battle Of Bull Run Summary: The Second Battle of Bull Run (Second Battle of Manassas) was fought August 28–30, 1862, during the American Civil War . It was much larger in scale and in the number of casualties than the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) fought in July 1861 on much of the same ground. In this second battle, Major General John Pope, appointed by President Abraham Lincoln in March 1862 to command the newly formed Army of Virginia, was soundly beaten by Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, due in part to Pope’s misapprehension of the battlefield, confused orders and the reluctance of other Union commanders to come to his aid. Confederate lieutenant general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson and Lt. Gen. James Longstreet hemmed in and crushed the Federals.

Unlike the full-scale rout of inexperienced Union troops that occurred during the First Battle of Bull Run , in Second Bull Run, Pope and his more experienced troops made a determined stand that allowed the army to retreat in an orderly fashion after darkness fell. In March, 1862, Lincoln demoted Maj. Gen. George McClellan from overall command of Union armies, giving him command of only of the Army of the Potomac. A new Army of Virginia was formed from various elements and Maj. Gen. John Pope, whose family had close connections to Lincoln, was chosen to lead it. Pope had achieved a victory at Island No. 10 in the Mississippi River and had shown verve at Corinth, Mississippi , but he was elevated to army command primarily because of his political leanings and approach to the war, which was much more aggressive than McClellan’s. Pope was not held in high esteem by most of his men or McClellan, who viewed him as vain, self-righteous, and obnoxious. In July 1862, Lincoln appointed General in Chief Henry W. Halleck to coordinate the effort between McClellan and Pope.

Lincoln had approved McClellan’s plan to advance with the Army of the Potomac against the Confederate capitol of Richmond, Virginia, in what is known as the Peninsula Campaign. To make it easier for McClellan to attack Richmond from the east, Pope was to distract Lee by attacking the Virginia Central Railroad near Gordonsville 65 miles northwest of Richmond. However, McClellan’s cautious advance was thrown back in the Seven Days Battle . On July 29, 1862, Pope took to the field. It was clear to Gen. Robert E. Lee that Pope was planning an attack on the railroad, and Lee sent Jackson to defend it, resulting in the Battle of Cedar Mountain, a Confederate victory. Pope withdrew to the Rappahannock and asked Halleck for reinforcement from McClellan’s army. Unfortunately, Halleck was in Washington and his orders held little sway with McClellan, who dragged his feet in withdrawing from the Peninsula. On August 25, Jackson began a rapid march north around Pope while Longstreet remained facing Pope on the Rappahannock.

Pope assumed Jackson was heading towards the Shenandoah Valley and, under orders from Halleck to hold, remained where he was, defending the Rappahannock crossings. Jackson was able to turn his army east, passing through Thoroughfare Gap in the Bull Run Mountains, advancing toward Bristoe Station, a lightly defended whistle stop southwest of Manassas Junction. Following the easy capture of Bristoe Station, Jackson pushed into Manassas Junction and captured the Union supply depot there on August 27—which was perhaps the best day in his men’s military career, due to the large amount of food and supplies they were able to obtain. They burned what they couldn’t carry. On hearing of the capture of his supply depot, Pope began marching the Army of Virginia north. He saw an opportunity to surround Jackson at Manassas Junction for what he felt was a sure victory, assuming his troops moved quickly and Jackson remained in place without reinforcement from Longstreet. McClellan had arrived in Washington with part of his army, and the corps of Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter and Samuel Heintzelman had been dispatched to reinforce Pope, bringing his strength to over 70,000 men.

McClellan did not want to be placed under Pope’s command and refused to take the field, retaining two corps for protecting Washington. He claimed the size of the enemy force between Washington and Pope’s army was unknown—indeed, Pope’s position was unclear because Jackson had clipped the telegraph line at Manassas. Longstreet’s men were also advancing toward Manassas, but on the west side of the Bull Run Mountains, following the route that Jackson had taken. On August 28, they met with light Federal resistance at the Battle of Thoroughfare Gap. Longstreet was able to defeat the small Union force and continued on toward a union with Jackson. Jackson, instead of occupying Manassas Junction, moved to nearby Groveton, where he found the perfect place to lay in wait for Pope while still being able to reunite with Longstreet. Stony Ridge was a low rise near the old Manassas battlefield where Jackson’s men would be concealed by woods but could clearly see the enemy advancing. At the base of the rise an incomplete railroad bed provided ready-made trenches, a position that would become known as the Deep Cut.

The Army of Virginia’s march to Manassas Junction on August 28 was marked by confusion and indecision as Pope changed course several times, eventually deciding to concentrate the Army of Virginia in Centreville. At about 6:30 p.m., Jackson engaged Federal troops passing before his position on Warrenton Turnpike on their way to Centreville. Jackson had ridden out to observe (or perhaps, provoke) the Federals himself, although they thought he was a lone scout and ignored him. Jackson’s artillery fire erupting from the woods on units from Brigadier General Rufus King’s division was a complete surprise. Although the Battle of Brawner Farm ended in a stalemate, the Federals now knew exactly where Jackson was, and Pope prepared to launch a frontal assault on him on August 29. Longstreet began the march from Thoroughfare Gap at about 6 a.m. on August 29. Jackson sent a guide to position the initial elements of Longstreet’s column into positions along Jackson’s right flank and positioned his own depleted men in a line along Stony Ridge. Pope planned to attack Jackson’s left, ordering Maj. Gen.

Franz Sigil to attack at daybreak, and then in a coup de grace, the corps of Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter and Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell—the latter had been the Union commander in the First Battle of Bull Run—would attack Jackson’s exposed right flank later in the day. Elements of Sigil’s corps were the first to make contact, encountering Jackson’s men around 7 a.m. The Rebels, instead of merely defending their positions, responded to each attack with a counterattack. The 82nd Ohio, part of Sigel’s corps, had minor success and broke through the Confederate line, but were eventually pushed back. By 1 p.m., Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker (III Corps) and the brigade of Brig. Gen. Isaac Stevens (IX Corps) reinforced Sigel. Porter and McDowell had begun their advance north along the Gainesville-Manassas Road, but halted after exchanging fire with Rebel cavalry. Pope issued orders to them at around 10 a.m.

intended to clarify his original orders but the "Joint Order," as it became known, only muddied the waters further: it ordered Porter to advance, then to halt, and finally to pull back behind Bull Run. While Porter was trying to decipher the Joint Order, McDowell arrived with the news that Longstreet had been spotted nearby. McDowell’s assessment was that "This is no place to fight a battle; we are too far out," so Porter, on the extreme left of the Federal flank, halted to await further clarification from Pope. McDowell left to confer with Pope but failed to inform his commander of a report from Brig. Gen. John Buford’s cavalry that Longstreet had arrived and blocked the Gainesville road. Not until early in the evening, long after the information would be useful, did McDowell think to impart that critical information. Pope, who steadfastly believed Longstreet was still more than a day’s march away, had based his entire strategy that afternoon on the false assumptions that he was facing only Jackson and that both Porter and McDowell would attack.

Arriving on the field around 1 p.m., Pope ordered more assaults on Jackson, all of which failed, to keep pressure on him until Porter attacked his right flank. When Porter still had not attacked late in the afternoon, Pope finally issued explicit orders for the corps commander to attack at 4:30 p.m. Based on clear evidence of Longstreet’s presence on his left flank, Porter instead ordered his men to take defensive positions and settle in for the night. Pope was irate when he discovered that Porter had not attacked and would have arrested him had McDowell not talked him out of it. The following morning Pope received reports of Confederate troops moving west along Warrenton Turnpike that he interpreted as a Confederate retreat, instead of the repositioning it actually was. Not wanting to miss a chance to prove himself in what he thought would be a clear victory against Jackson, Pope again ordered Porter to attack. In reality, the Confederates had the Union hemmed in and when Porter finally attacked around 3 p.m., his men were decimated by Rebel artillery fire. As soon as Jackson reported that the Union line was giving way, Lee ordered Longstreet to attack the Union left—which Longstreet had outflanked by nearly two miles.

When the fresh Confederate corps poured off Chinn Ridge, it outnumbered the Federals in its front 10 to 1. By this time, Pope’s conception of the situation finally matched the reality of what was taking place, and he began planning a retreat to Centreville to protect his line of withdrawal to Washington. He moved his headquarters to Henry Hill—the central point of the fighting in the battle a year ago—and established a defensive position and issued withdrawal orders. His army escaped without repeating the humiliating skedaddle of First Bull Run . At the time, the staggering Union loss at Second Manassas was blamed on Pope, McClellan, McDowell, and Porter. All of their reputations were stained by what had happened, but Porter and McDowell were, for all intents and purposes, ruined. McDowell was exonerated of any wrong-doing but would never fully escape the opinion that he was incompetent and disloyal. Pope squarely blamed the defeat on Porter for disobeying the order to attack on August 29. Porter was court-martialed and discharged from the army, spending much of the rest of his life trying to restore his reputation.

Pope was relieved of command on September 5 and spent the remainder of the war in the west, first quelling the Sioux Uprising and then as commander of the Division of the Missouri, the largest department under the Federal army. McClellan was given command of the Army of the Potomac, which absorbed the Army of Virginia. Second Manassas emboldened Lee, leading him to march north to invade Maryland in the Maryland Campaign, resulting in the battles of Harper’s Ferry, South Mountain , Antietam , and Shepherdstown. Banner image Cedar Mountain, Va. Federal battery fording a tributary of the Rappahannock on the day of battle, created by Timothy H. O’Sullivan, Library of Congress. Articles Featuring Second Battle Of Bull Run From History Net Magazines Featured Article Second Battle of Bull Run: Destruction of the 5th New York Zouaves Of the dozens of colorfully outfitted Zouave regiments that served in the Civil War — units whose uniforms were inspired by the exotic regalia of the famed French colonial troops — none surpassed the reputation of the 5th New York Volunteer Infantry for tactical proficiency, military discipline and steady bearing under fire.

Organized in April 1861 by wealthy Manhattan lumber merchant Abram Duryée, the unit attracted many young professionals to its ranks — students, college graduates, lawyers and businessmen. ‘I expect every man to do his duty and I expect to do mine,’ Colonel Duryée told his assembled troops as they prepared to embark for Virginia. ‘I intend to make this regiment a glory for the State.’ Bloodied in the clash at Big Bethel in June 1861, Duryée’s Zouaves subsequently spent eight months on garrison duty in Baltimore, Md., where they continued to hone their tactical skills under a new commander, Colonel Gouverneur Kemble Warren. Private William McIlvaine characterized Warren as ‘very efficient’ but found his personality ‘cold, precise and scientific.’ On the last day of March 1862, the Zouaves disembarked on the Virginia Peninsula, where they joined Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac in the campaign intended to capture Richmond. Colonel Warren was soon given command of a brigade in Brig. Gen. George Sykes’ division of the V Corps.

It was a distinct honor for the Duryée Zouaves and their comrades of the 10th New York ‘National Zouaves,’ as the other units in Sykes’ command were troops of the U.S. Regular Army. Regular infantryman Augustus Meyers conceded the Zouaves’ ‘discipline, efficiency and drill was not equaled by any other volunteer regiment in the Army of the Potomac,’ while artillery Major Charles Wainwright thought the 5th New York was ‘equal in all respects to the regulars and better drilled.’ In the ferocious clash at Gaines’ Mill on June 27, 1862, the men of the 5th proved they were more than colorful parade ground ornamentation, launching repeated assaults with fixed bayonets against the oncoming Confederates and losing 162 of the 450 men engaged. ‘Our regiment well sustained its reputation,’ Private Richard Ackerman wrote his father.

‘The Regulars think everything of it, and they almost deify Colonel Warren.’ A captured and released Federal surgeon informed Warren of the enemy’s admiration for the colorful New Yorkers, reporting, ‘From their Generals on down through all grades they concluded that they never had seen the superiors of the ‘red legs’ for unflinching courage and coolness.’ With their ranks thinned by battle and disease to the point that some companies were led by sergeants, and their uniforms soiled by months of fruitless campaigning, the 5th New York departed McClellan’s base at Harrison’s Landing on August 14. Along with the rest of the V Corps, they were bound for service with Maj. Gen. John Pope’s forces in northern Virginia. As they prepared to board a northbound steamer at Newport News they were joined by nearly 100 new recruits, whose pale faces, full knapsacks and immaculate Zouave finery were in striking contrast to those of the sunburned and tattered veterans. Colonel Warren still exercised brigade command, and Captain Cleveland Winslow, the eldest son of the unit’s patriarchal fighting chaplain, Dr. Gordon Winslow, was in charge of the regiment.

A severe disciplinarian with an almost fanatical insistence on military formality, the dapper captain was far from popular with the rank and file. ‘He has one large bump of self esteem which occupies the whole of his brain,’ Private Alfred Davenport lamented. ‘He has drum & bugle calls for everything except the calls of nature.’ By August 29 the Zouaves had arrived at Manassas Junction. Major Rufus Dawes of the 6th Wisconsin, a regiment savaged in the fight at Brawner’s Farm on August 28, recalled the arrival of Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter’s V Corps and how the hardened veterans jibed at those they considered’something quite inferior to the Army of the Potomac.’ Dawes heard one man respond to a Zouave’s disparaging remark: ‘Wait till you get where we have been. You’ll get the slack taken out of your pantaloons and the swell out of your heads.’ The statement was to prove tragically prophetic. Like the rest of Fitz Porter’s corps, Warren’s troops took no part in the fighting on August 29.

On the morning of August 30, however, the brigade moved closer to the scene of battle. But while elements of the V Corps prepared to renew the attack on Maj. Gen. Thomas J. ‘Stonewall’ Jackson’s forces — posted along the grade of an unfinished railroad — Warren’s 1,100 men remained in reserve on the Warrenton Turnpike. Some Zouaves took advantage of the lull to boil coffee while others chatted, or bantered with the passing columns of Union soldiers. After washing his face in a little stream, Company F Captain George Hager proudly displayed his new gold-braided officer’s jacket to a group of enlisted men. ‘Boys,’ the captain laughed, ‘won’t I make a fine-looking corpse?’ The officer’s bravado masked a grimly realistic sense of the dangers ahead. ‘If I die t’is in a noble cause,’ Hager had written his family, ‘and one too, that had I stayed inactive at home, I should blush to say I did not join in.’ In early afternoon, 1st Lt. Charles E. Hazlett’s Battery D, 5th U.S.

Artillery, came rumbling up the road alongside Warren’s troops. Warren called his men to attention, and Captain Winslow detailed a squad from Company E to tear down a section of rail fence so that Hazlett’s Parrott guns could deploy atop the knoll south of the pike. At that moment several enemy shells exploded nearby, splintering the fence posts. ‘All right!’ Zouave Corporal John Carroll laughed nervously. ‘If the Johnnies want to take down the fence I’m willing to stand aside!’ At approximately 2 p.m., Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds’ division abandoned its position on Hazlett’s left, moving east to Chinn Ridge. An hour later Reynolds was ordered north, across the Warrenton Pike, to join in the assault on Jackson’s force, which was still holding its position along the unfinished railroad. Unwilling to believe the warnings of a Confederate presence opposite his left, John Pope was fixated on Jackson’s destruction, marshaling his forces to achieve that end. The departure of Reynolds’ division concerned Hazlett, who had been ordered to the knoll south of the pike by corps commander Porter.

The lieutenant rode to his left and saw that all his support had gone, ‘not even leaving pickets.’ Realizing the vulnerability of his position, Hazlett asked Colonel Warren ‘if he could not give me some support while I sent back word to General Porter of the state of affairs.’ Warren called his brigade to attention, ordering the men to toss away their coffee. Most did so, though some still toted steaming tin cups as they maneuvered into line facing a 75-acre wood to the left of Hazlett’s guns. Behind them, at the foot of an open slope, flowed Young’s Branch, a tributary of Bull Run. On the opposite side of the muddy stream rose the western face of Chinn Ridge, dotted with small cedar trees and the occasional clump of pines. All seemed quiet. Uncertain if any Confederate forces lay beyond the woods to his front, Colonel Warren rode to the left of the brigade and ordered Colonel John E. Bendix of the 10th New York to send six companies forward as skirmishers. Bendix allotted the detail to his lieutenant colonel, John W. Marshall.

Largely clad in blue regulation issue as they awaited the arrival of new Zouave attire, the National Zouaves moved west through the trees to the fields that lay beyond. The remaining four companies of the 10th New York stayed in reserve on the left front of the 5th. Hazlett’s guns fired a few shells, and north of the pike the roar of battle grew in intensity. But except for an occasional shot from the skirmish line, for the better part of two hours it remained quiet in Warren’s sector. Muskets were stacked, and the troops rested in place, some taking the opportunity for a catnap. More than an hour passed. The skirmishers of the 10th New York were engaged in a desultory firefight with their Confederate counterparts when, just after 4 p.m., the Rebel skirmish line suddenly rose and started forward. The significance of their movement became immediately and shockingly apparent. Rank after rank of Southern troops emerged from the cover of a wood line, and came sweeping across the fields like a vast, gray wave, flecked with glinting steel and crowned with blood-red battle flags. It was Maj. Gen.

James Longstreet’s corps, nearly 30,000 strong, and the first obstacle in their way was Captain Cleveland Winslow’s little regiment. A soldier of the 18th Georgia noted that the Confederates ‘rushed forward at a charge from the word go, all the time keeping up an unearthly yell….’ When they encountered the 10th New York skirmishers, the latter ‘fired one volley and fled closely pursued.’ The command ‘Attention, battalion!’ brought the 5th New Yorkers to their feet, even as the first shots echoed from the woods in front. As the men seized their muskets and hastily loaded, the scattered rounds were followed by what Private Andrew Coats called ‘a terrific volley of musketry, the bullets from which came hurtling through the air with a sound like that which would be made by an immense flock of partridges.’ The first man hit was Private Patrick Brady of Company G, a 35-year-old piano maker who was regarded as a good soldier despite his fondness for alcohol. Brady ‘fell without saying a word,’ Alfred Davenport recalled. ‘He was dragged a few paces to the rear, where he undid his body belt himself.

He died there without a complaint.’ ‘There we stood like statues,’ Coats remembered. ‘We could not see any enemy — but we saw streaks of smoke drifting between the trees.’ Suddenly, shadowy groups of running figures appeared, moving through the underbrush toward the Federal line. Reflexively, some Zouaves aimed their muskets, but the cry rang out: ‘Don’t fire! Those men belong to the Tenth!’ The skirmishers were crowding back on their reserve companies, whose officers were frantically trying to form a line on the left of the 5th New York. Close on the heels of the scrambling Yankees came their assailants, firing as they advanced and screaming the Rebel yell. After driving the six companies of 10th New York skirmishers in on their reserve, who almost immediately began to give way, three units of the Texas Brigade — the 18th Georgia, the South Carolinians of Hampton’s Legion and the 5th Texas — engaged the 5th New York. Captain W.T.

Hill recalled how the soldiers of his 5th Texas, ‘yelling their loudest, came out of the timber into the open ground, practically face to face with the Zouaves, who in their red, white and blue uniforms, stood in as perfect alignment as if on dress parade.’ Regardless of the 10th New York men to their front, Colonel Warren and Captain Winslow gave the command to commence firing. A ragged volley crashed out, wreathing the line in thick, acrid smoke. The wooded terrain worked to the Southerners’ advantage, and for the most part the Yankee bullets showered the gray-clad ranks with leaves and twigs but did little damage. One soldier of the 18th Georgia, however, noted that the 5th ‘poured a most destructive fire into the ranks….At this first fire at least forty Georgians fell.’ The Rebels responded with a far more accurate volley of their own, at a range of less than 100 yards.

‘From the Zouaves we received a heavy fire, which was kept up by both sides for a few minutes,’ one Texan recalled, ‘but the steady well-directed aim of our Texas men told heavily on the enemy, and the carnage was terrible.’ Lieutenant Colonel Martin W. Gary of the Hampton Legion reported, ‘We received their volley and charged upon them, and delivered our fire at short range, killing, wounding and capturing a large number.’ Scores of Zouaves were scythed down where they stood, and the line wavered as bullets opened bloody gaps in their ranks. ‘Where the Regiment stood that day was the very vortex of Hell,’ said Andrew Coats. ‘Not only were men wounded, or killed, but they were riddled.’ Private Frederick Fowler of Company B would have agreed with Coats’ assessment. Simultaneously, four Minié bullets, a musket ball and a buckshot slammed into his body. One bullet passed through Fowler’s chest, puncturing his left lung and emerging from his back. He was shot through both thighs and both arms, two of the wounds fracturing bones, while a sixth shot traversed his left foot from toes to heel.

One of Fowler’s comrades in Company B, German-born Harry Greenwood, was desperately trying to reload his musket when he collapsed with a fractured skull. George Colwell, who stood next to Greenwood, was shot through the right wrist; the force of the blow flung his arm up and back, breaking it at the elbow. Company F Private William McGuffage was ramming a round down his Springfield musket when the piece discharged, sending ramrod and bullet through his right hand. McGuffage’s first sergeant, George Mitchell, was knocked off his feet by a Minié bullet that smashed through his haversack, a slab of salt pork, a tin plate and his morning report book before lodging in the pages of his diary. Thankful to be alive, Mitchell struggled to his feet and started for the rear. He would later write, ‘I never in all my life had anything hurt me as much as that did.’ On the far left of the regimental line, 2nd Lt. William Hoffman and the troops of Company I — one of two companies in the regiment armed with Sharps rifles — found the firepower of their breechloaders of little avail in stemming the Rebel onslaught.

While the Hampton Legion and 18th Georgia struck Warren’s front and right, the 5th Texas partially overlapped the left flank, enfilading the reserve companies of the 10th New York and flaying the left wing of the 5th with a vicious cross-fire. Soon after the opening volley, the Zouaves began to unravel from left to right while all along the line the newly arrived recruits began bolting for the rear. When he saw some of Company G’s file-closers vainly trying to keep the terrified novices in ranks, Corporal Colin Van Gelder Forbes shouted: ‘Let them go! Let them go!’ Recruit James Cathie stood his ground alongside Irish-born veteran James Patterson in the ranks of Company G. Grimly reloading amid the slaughter, Cathie turned to Patterson and said, ‘Look out for Siss — .’ A fatal bullet cut him down before he could finish. Another recruit, teenaged Private Eugene Geer, got off one round — his first and only shot of the war — and then crumpled with a bullet in the groin. One of the recruits in Company H was 15-year-old William H. Platt.

‘We fired three volleys at them when the rebels charged on us,’ Platt wrote. ‘We broke and run [;] they shot us down by hundreds.’ As he fled the field, Platt saw no need to haul his full knapsack and extra gear. As he later put it, ‘On the retreat I chucked them all.’ Second Lieutenant Edward O. Wright of Company D fell to earth face-forward when a bullet passed through his left shoulder and lung and lodged against his spine. The officer raised himself on his hands and knees. ‘Blood oozed from my mouth, my breath became short, and I bade good bye to father, mother and all kind friends,’ Wright wrote from a hospital two weeks later, ‘for the bullets were whistling over my head like hail, the secesh were coming on yelling like cats, and it was very likely I should receive a bullet from our men who were now retreating rapidly.’ Recognizing the hopelessness of his brigade’s position, Colonel Warren determined to execute a fighting retreat before the line was entirely enveloped. But Warren’s orders to retire went unheard above the din and chaos of battle.

The commander of Company A, Captain and acting Major Carlile Boyd, tried to echo the command, as did the regimental adjutant, Frederick Sovereign. Struck in the arm, Adjutant Sovereign started for the rear, but he was soon dropped by a shot through both thighs. Arteries severed, the adjutant bled to death where he fell. As Captain Boyd ran along the line, a bullet ripped two fingers from his right hand. Within seconds other shots struck Boyd in the left arm, left leg and side before he fell, to be taken prisoner. Finally Warren spurred his horse alongside the embattled color guard, grasped at the flag and, by his gestures, indicated that he wanted the color-bearers to pull back down the slope. As acting field officers, both Cleveland Winslow and Company D Captain Wilbur Lewis were mounted and conspicuous targets. Winslow’s horse was struck seven times and sank beneath him, though Winslow himself escaped injury. Lewis was not as fortunate. Noticing that Lieutenant Wright of Company D had fallen, Lewis shouted to Sergeant John H.

Reilly, ‘You are in charge of the company — do the best you can with it!’ Then, seeing the three companies to his left beginning to break, Lewis gave the command, ‘Fall back and save the colors!’ At that moment he was fatally wounded by a bullet, fell from the saddle and, with his foot stuck in the stirrup, was dragged over the field by the terrified animal. The captain’s 19-year-old brother, Edward Lewis, a corporal in Company B, was also slain on the line of battle. For all their pride and discipline, the 5th New York could take no more. With his comrades in Company G falling all around him, Davenport saw the panicked recruits take to their heels: ‘And then what was left of the Regiment broke and ran for their lives — the Rebels after us, yelling like fiends.’ Christian Neuber of Company F admitted, ‘[it was] every man for himself, what was left of us.’ Neuber’s captain, George Hager, lay dead on the line in his bloodstained finery, ‘a bully looking corpse,’ true to his own prediction.

‘I saw my comrades dropping on all sides,’ Davenport recalled, ‘canteens struck and flying to pieces, haversacks cut off, rifles knocked to pieces; it was a perfect hail of bullets.’ Hit in the left shoulder, Andrew Coats ‘fell where we stood in line of battle. Just as I fell our Regiment was driven back, and I saw Sergeant Joseph Gates reel and fall, his head and face covered with blood. The Confederates were charging over us then.’ Some men refused to retreat. Brawny, 6-foot-3-inch 1st. Sgt. William McDowell of Company G, a former New York City fireman, was bleeding from a wound in the torso but kept his place, glaring defiantly at the advancing enemy until killed by a bullet in the forehead. Sergeant Phil Wilson also stood his ground. He shot one charging foeman, then reloaded and took aim at a sword-waving officer who was shouting, ‘Kill every Yankee you can find!’ Before he could pull the trigger, Wilson crumpled, his right knee shattered. As the line disintegrated, a knot of desperate men clustered around the regimental colors, determined that the precious banners should not fall into Rebel hands.

Color Sergeant Andrew Allison, a British army veteran who carried the Stars and Stripes, was shot in the wrist. He passed the flag to another man and started for safety, but then turned back, retook the flag and was immediately shot dead. The banner was raised, shot down, and raised again. Ultimately Corporal Lucien B. Swain bore its bloody folds and splintered staff to safety. The guardian of the blue regimental colors, 22-year-old Irish-born Sergeant Francis Spelman, was shot in the left arm and fell to the ground. Two soldiers tried to get him off the field, but he spurned their aid and stood again, flag in hand. Moments later, a bullet ripped the length of his right arm to the shoulder and another shot tore through his neck. A group of Southern soldiers made a run for the stricken sergeant, yelling at him to surrender the trophy. In desperate agony, Spelman cried out to Sergeant William Chambers, like the fallen Allison a veteran of the British army, ‘For God’s sake don’t let them take my flag!’ Chambers responded, ‘I won’t if I can help it!’ and seized the flag from the stricken bearer.

At that moment another bullet slammed into Spelman’s head, nearly severing his lower jaw from his face. All but one of the regimental color guard lay dead or dying, but the banners were saved. The fight now became a hopeless butchery. Continued resistance meant death or capture; as wounded Private Richard Ackerman put it, ‘Our men had to run like dogs.’ With the Confederates blazing away at their backs, dozens of fleeing Zouaves were sent sprawling in the mad dash for Young’s Branch, or fell on the open slope that lay beyond the stream. Forty-year-old Private Robert Munnie was in full stride when bullets struck him in the buttocks, both legs and neck. Turning to fire one more round, Corporal Theodore Hart, a prewar accountant serving in the ranks of Company A, was shot in the face, the bullet ripping through his head and exiting from his neck. Both sides of Hart’s jaw were broken, his palate destroyed and most of his teeth shattered. One tooth was propelled upward and passed out of his right eye. As the demoralized ‘red legs’ splashed through the waters of Young’s Branch, Private Dennis Guinan tried to get off one last shot.

Before he could aim his musket it was shot from his hands, the blow bowling him over into the creek where he struck his head on a submerged log and was knocked unconscious. George Dobiecki of Company E, at 5 foot 312 inches one of the shortest men in the regiment, was bleeding from a buckshot in his right calf when he caught his foot on some submerged debris and slammed into the far bank of Young’s Branch. Gasping from a rupture of his left groin, Dobiecki was half dragged by two stalwart comrades up the bullet-swept slope. New recruits William Walker and William Alexander, file mates in the ranks of Company H, were crossing Young’s Branch amid a group of retreating 10th New York men when Walker collapsed from a wound in his right leg. As he struggled to rise, another round tore through his left thigh. ‘Can I help you?’ Alexander shouted. ‘No, I can’t stand on my feet,’ Walker replied.

At that moment a Rebel bullet sliced into the calf of Alexander’s left leg, and without further ado he limped up the far bank, leaving Walker ‘half covered with water.’ ‘There was a bunch of zouaves ahead of us going as rapidly as they could,’ recalled 5th Texan Sidney Virgil Patrick. ‘In passing the creek their big zouave pants got full of water, and their legs looked like balloons.’ Patrick saw one New Yorker sprinting up the hill beyond Young’s Branch ‘with several shots through his pants [and] at every jump the water squirted.’ Fifth Texas Private Joe Joskins noted that Young’s Branch was red with the blood of fallen Zouaves, ‘completely damming it up with their dead and dying bodies.’ Sergeant Thomas Albergotti of the Hampton Legion recalled the stream ‘was just full of dead and dying Yankee soldiers. It was pitiful to hear the poor devils crying from pain and drowning…some mortally wounded and unable to get out; terrible, terrible, to be placed in this predicament.’ There was at least one Zouave who managed to keep his wits amid the chaos.

Private James Webb of Company F had escaped what he described as ‘the song of death’ and was retreating with several other men down a ravine that led toward the Warrenton Pike. Above the little squad the Confederate officers were dressing their line before renewing the onslaught. Realizing that the Rebels would likely strike at Lieutenant Hazlett’s guns, Webb turned back to alert the artillery to their danger. ‘The enemy evidently surmised his intention,’ Company F Corporal William Carothers recalled, ‘and directed their fire to him. When Webb started, we never expected to see him return.’ Henry Jones of Company E called Webb’s gesture ‘a forlorn hope of the most desperate character.’ Webb sprinted through the enemy fire, bullets tearing his uniform and one round cutting across his side. When he got to Hazlett, Webb told the artilleryman that the enemy were on his left flank, in the woods, and he would lose his guns if he did not limber up and get them to the rear immediately. The proud West Pointer took his guns off at a walk, but picked up his pace when they reached the pike. Webb, who clambered atop a limber chest, would eventually be awarded the Medal of Honor.

Only 60 Zouaves managed to rally around Colonel Warren and the bullet-torn colors, making their way to the Henry House plateau, where they formed alongside the Regulars before joining in the general retreat. Shells were exploding nearby and Colonel Warren kept saying over and over, ‘Don’t dodge, men; men, don’t dodge!’ Appalled by the sight of the pitiful remnant, an officer of the 6th U.S. Infantry wrote, ‘A murmur of surprise and horror passed through the ranks of our Regulars at the fate of this brave regiment.’ Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Eugene Duryée was in reserve with his 2nd Maryland Infantry when he spotted Warren galloping across the field toward his position. Duryée, son of Abram Duryée who had organized the Zouave regiment, had formerly served as a lieutenant under Warren and now hailed his old commander. The colonel reined up his wounded horse and in a trembling voice said, ‘Jake, the old Fifth has been annihilated!’ ‘Good God!’ Duryée gasped, ‘Is that so!’ Warren merely nodded in reply.

‘I could plainly see that he was completely unnerved by this frightful loss,’ Duryée observed, ‘tears came from his eyes as he put spur to his horse, going … to General Head Quarters to report this dire disaster.’ Young Duryée was stunned. ‘I can never forget that afternoon,’ he later wrote, ‘and the sad depressing feelings it caused me.’ The walking wounded made their way from the field as best they could, some trudging eastward to Centreville, others collapsing by the roadside or crowding into improvised field hospitals. Private Robert Strachan of Company 1 tried to halt a passing ambulance to assist a wounded comrade. When the driver refused to stop, Strachan leveled his Sharps rifle at the man and forcibly commandeered the vehicle. Private William Alexander was sitting beside the road nursing his shattered ankle, and contemplating what seemed inevitable capture and imprisonment, when a mounted cavalry officer tendered Alexander the use of his horse. The good Samaritan was Lt. Col. Judson Kilpatrick-the future general-who had earlier served as a captain in the 5th New York.

Those who were too severely wounded to get off the field on their own faced a grim ordeal.’ Oh it was horrible,’ Richard Ackerman remembered, ‘lying there with dead, dying and wounded all around, and to hear their heart-rending groans:’Few Southern soldiers who witnessed the carnage above Young’s Branch would ever forget the sight. L.D. Hill of the 4th Texas, whose regiment arrived as the Zouave line gave way, recalled, ‘I never saw more dead men on the same space of ground on any battle field of the war.’ South Carolina artillery Captain William K. Bachman noted, ‘The ground was covered with the dead red-breeched fellows so that I actually had to pilot the drivers through the bodies, sometimes stopping to move them out of the way.’ Some Confederates paused to pillage the dead and wounded Yankees. ‘You won’t live anyhow,’ one Southerner told Private James Patterson,’so I guess I’ll take what you’ve got.’ Patterson begged the man to fill his canteen, but the Rebel refused.

Waving $2 he took from Patterson’s pocket, the Confederate said, ‘We are going toWashington and I will not fail to drink your health when I get there!’ Another Confederate approached Private James Sheridan, who had been struck down in the retreat by a bullet that entered just above his right hip and angled up to the breastbone. When Sheridan asked the Rebel for help, the man snarled, ‘I’ve got a good mind to put you out of your misery by running my bayonet through you.’ William Walker lay half submerged in Young’s Branch for nearly 24 hours before a group of enemy soldiers finally heeded his pleas and dragged him onto the bank. Virtually shot to pieces with six wounds, Frederick Fowler sprawled in a muddy hollow, unable to move. Two barefoot Rebel soldiers came up to him, remarking, ‘We’ll lift you out in exchange for your boots.’ Fowler gladly accepted the exchange. Not all Confederates behaved in such a callous fashion. Some passing Southerners covered grievously wounded Lieutenant Edward Wright with a blanket, made a pillow for his head and gave him a drink of water. ‘Although I did not sleep much that night, I managed to live till morning,’ Wright wrote.

‘It commenced raining, and after waiting until I was nearly wet through, I asked an old Texan to take me to a hospital, which he kindly consented to do.’ There a surgeon removed the bullet from Wright’s back, and two days later he walked through the lines to Centreville. But infection claimed his life in an Alexandria hospital on September 25. Those who remained alive battled pain and exhaustion as their comrades weakened and died around them. Private Levi Pond had been shot in the right thigh and groin by a bullet that ‘cut the scrotum so the testicle hung out.’ As if this were not bad enough, Pond was suffering from ‘the Chickahominy diarrhea’ with ’16 or 17 passages a day’. Meanwhile, wounded through the head, blinded and paralyzed but not sensing any pain, Corporal George Huntsman faded in and out of consciousness, insisting to those who lay near him that he was unscathed and wanted to go home. He was eventually taken to a hospital in Alexandria, where he died four days after the battle. Theodore Hart was determined to survive despite the terrible wound that had shattered his jaw and put out an eye.

‘To have lain around on the bare ground four or five nights and days, two of the nights under a drenching rain, I hardly know how I managed to stick it through,’ he later wrote his mother. ‘All I had to subsist on [was] just a little meat broth and a cup of tea.’ Some men lay where they had fallen for two days, many for five, and at least one manSergeant George Sinclair of Company Efor eight days before being evacuated through the lines to Fairfax Court House. Two days after the battle, regimental Chaplain Gordon Winslow and 10 Zouaves returned to the field under a flag o truce to do what they could for the wounded. The party was accompanied by Adjutant Sovereign’s father, who served as chaplain of the 5th New Jersey. He discovered his son’s naked body and buried the boy with his own hands. A correspondent from the New York Tribune reported: ‘Attracted by the red bags of Duryée’s Zouaves, we proceeded to the field where they lay-nearly a hundred of them-shattered, torn and bloody, in every conceivable stage of misery.

Exhaustion had been the cause of death with some whose wounds were not otherwise mortal. One man still clutched the earth, as in the last struggle for breath. Another, a tall, square-browed, Roman-faced hero, prone on his back-had his face turned to the sky in marble repose. By his side a mere boy laid, as if in death he had sought the protection of the stalwart arm which had befriended his weaker nature in life.’ A detailed examination of morning reports, muster rolls and military service and pension records indicates that in their 10 minutes at the vortex of hell, the 5th New York lost 332 men of the approximately 525 engaged. At least 119 of the casualties were killed outright or died of their wounds. The addition of two missing who were never accounted for would bring the death total to 121. It was the greatest battle fatality sustained by any Federal infantry unit in the war. The survivors would never recover the esprit de corps that had died with their comrades at Second Bull Run.

New recruits would arrive to fill the vacant ranks, but, as Sergeant Mitchell put it, ‘The regiment will never again be the regiment it has been.’ ‘We are getting well worn out,’ Gouverneur Warren confided to his brother, ‘and I expect the next battle will finish us all.’ Private Davenport echoed the colonel’s sentiments. ‘I hardly expect to survive another such engagement,’ he wrote. ‘Oh! this is a dreadful war.’ This article was written by Brian C. Pohanka and originally appeared in the September 2002 issue of America’s Civil War magazine. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to America’s Civil War magazine today! battles of Bull Run | American Civil War | Britannica.com Battles of Bull Run Alternative Titles: battles of Manassas, battles of Manassas Junction Related Topics Thomas Jonathan Jackson Battles of Bull Run, also called battles of Manassas or Manassas Junction , in the American Civil War , two engagements fought in the summers of 1861 and 1862 at a small stream named Bull Run, near Manassas in northern Virginia; both battles gave military advantage to the Confederacy.

The strategic significance of the location lay in the fact that Manassas was an important railroad junction. Catharpin Run, Sudley Church, and the remains of the Sudley Sulphur Spring house, Bull Run, … Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-B8171-0314 DLC) The First Battle of Bull Run (called First Manassas by the South) was fought on July 21, 1861. Although neither army was adequately prepared at this early stage of the war, political considerations and popular pressures caused the Federal government to order General Irvin McDowell to advance southwest of Washington to Bull Run in a move against Richmond, Virginia . The 22,000 Confederates under General P.G.T. Beauregard , after initial skirmishing, had retired behind Bull Run in defensive positions three days earlier. To counter a Union flanking movement, the Confederates swiftly moved in 10,000 additional troops from the Shenandoah under General Joseph E. Johnston . On July 21 the Union army assaulted the Confederates.

The battle raged back and forth, but finally the arrival of Johnston’s last brigade forced the Federals into a disorganized retreat to Washington. The victors were also exhausted and did not pursue them. From among 37,000 Northern men, casualties numbered about 3,000; of 35,000 Southern troops, between 1,700 and 2,000 were wounded or lost. First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas), lithograph by Kurz and Allison, 1889. Kurz & Allison/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-pga-01843) Federal cavalry at Sudley Ford, Bull Run, Virginia, photograph by George N. Barnard. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-B8171-0313 DLC) Confederate soldiers killed during the First Battle of Bull Run, July 1861. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Similar Topics Battle of Waterloo The Second Battle of Bull Run took place more than a year later on August 29–30, 1862, between a Confederate army of more than 56,000 men under General Robert E. Lee and a newly formed Federal force of 70,000 troops under Major General John Pope . It had become Pope’s responsibility to cover Washington until his army could be joined with the Army of the Potomac. To prevent this, Lee split his forces and ordered General Thomas J. (“Stonewall”) Jackson to march around Pope’s right flank; in two days Jackson had captured Pope’s supply depot at Manassas and had safely hidden his three divisions in a nearby wood. August 27–29 saw considerable maneuvering and fighting while Lee rushed forward the main body of his army to join Jackson. On the afternoon of August 30, Confederate artillery fire prevented the success of a Union assault on Jackson’s positions, after which Lee ordered his entire army forward in a grand counterattack. The Confederate victory was not complete because the Union forces withstood repeated assaults on certain defensive positions.

Finally, however, Pope withdrew his defeated army across Bull Run and eventually retreated to the fortifications of the capital. Casualties on both sides were high: 15,000 for the North, 9,000 for the South. At the second battle of Bull Run, Confederate forces under Gen. Robert E. Lee defeated a Union army … Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. First Battle of Bull Run By Robert McNamara The Battle of Bull Run was the first major battle of the American Civil War, and it occurred, in the summer of 1861, when many people believed the war would probably only consist of one big decisive battle. The battle, which was fought in the heat of a July day in Virginia, had been carefully planned by generals on both the Union and Confederate sides. And when inexperienced troops were called upon to execute the fairly complicated battle plans, the day turned chaotic. While it looked for a time like the Confederates would lose the battle, a fierce counterattack against the Union Army resulted in a rout. By the end of the day thousands of demoralized Union troops were streaming back to Washington, D.C., and the battle was generally seen as a disaster for the Union.

And the failure of the Union Army to secure a quick and decisive victory made it clear to Americans on both sides of the conflict that the Civil War would not be the short and simple affair many assumed it would be. continue reading below our video 10 Best Universities in the United States Events Leading to the Battle After the attack on Fort Sumter in April 1861, President Abraham Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 volunteer troops to come from the states which hadn’t seceded from the Union. The volunteer soldiers enlisted for a term of three months. Troops began arriving in Washington, D.C. in May 1861, and set up defenses around the city. And in late May portions of northern Virginia (which had seceded from the Union after the attack on Fort Sumter) were invaded by the Union Army. The Confederacy set up its capital in Richmond, Virginia, about 100 miles from the federal capital city, Washington, D.C. And with northern newspapers trumpeting the slogan “On to Richmond,” it seemed inevitable that a clash would occur somewhere between Richmond and Washington in that first summer of war.

Confederates Massed In Virginia A Confederate army began massing in the vicinity of Manassas, Virginia, a railroad junction situated between Richmond and Washington. And it became increasingly obvious that the Union Army would be marching south to engage the Confederates. The timing of precisely when the battle would be fought became a complicated issue. General Irvin McDowell had become the leader of the Union Army, as General Winfield Scott, who had commanded the army, was too old and infirm to command during wartime. And McDowell, a West Point graduate and career soldier who had served in the Mexican War , wanted to wait before committing his inexperienced troops to battle. President Lincoln saw things differently. He was well aware that the enlistments for the volunteers was only for three months, which meant most of them could be going home before they ever saw the enemy. Lincoln pressed McDowell to attack. McDowell organized his 35,000 troops, the largest army ever assembled in North America to that time. And in mid-July he began moving toward Manassas, where 21,000 Confederates had assembled. The March to Manassas The Union Army began moving south on July 16, 1861.

Progress was slow in the July heat, and the lack of discipline of many of the new troops didn’t help matters. It took days to reach the area of Manassas, about 25 miles from Washington. It became clear that the anticipated battle would take place on Sunday, July 21, 1861. Stories would often be told about how spectators from Washington, riding in carriages and bringing along picnic baskets, had raced down to the area so they could watch the battle as if it was a sporting event. The Battle of Bull Run General McDowell conceived a fairly elaborate plan to attack the Confederate army commanded by his former West Point classmate, General P.G.T. Beauregard. For his part, Beauregard also had a complex plan. In the end, the plans of both generals fell apart, and actions by individual commanders and small units of soldiers determined the outcome. In the early phase of the battle the Union Army seemed to be beating the disorganized Confederates, but the rebel army managed to rally. General Thomas J. Jackson’s brigade of Virginians helped turn the tide of the battle, and Jackson that day received the everlasting nickname “Stonewall” Jackson.

Counterattacks by Confederates were helped by fresh troops who arrived by railroad, something entirely new in warfare. And by late afternoon the Union Army was in retreat. The road back to Washington became a scene of panic, as the frightened civilians who had come out to watch the battle tried to race homeward alongside thousands of demoralized Union troops. Significance of the Battle of Bull Run Perhaps the most important lesson from the Battle of Bull Run was that it helped erase the popular notion that the rebellion of the slave states would be a short affair settled with one decisive blow. As an engagement between two untested and inexperienced armies, the battle itself was marked by countless mistakes. Yet two sides demonstrated that they could put large armies in the field and could fight. The Union side sustained casualties of about 3,000 killed and wounded, and Confederate losses were about 2,000 killed and wounded. Considering the size of the armies that day, the casualties were not heavy. And casualties of later battles, such as Shiloh and Antietam the following year, would be far heavier.

And while the Battle of Bull Run didn’t really change anything in a tangible sense, as the two armies essentially wound up in the same positions as where they had started, it was a powerful blow to the pride of the Union. Northern newspapers, which had bellowed for a march into Virginia, actively looked for scapegoats. In the South, the Battle of Bull Run was considered a great boost to morale. And, as the disorganized Union Army had left behind a number of cannon, rifles, and other supplies, just the acquisition of material was helpful to the Confederate cause. In an odd twist of history and geography, the two armies would meet about a year later in essentially the same place, and there would be a Second Battle of Bull Run, otherwise known as the Battle of Second Manassas. And the outcome would be the same, the Union Army would be defeated.

Question: The Battle of Bull Run was fought in which war?
Answer: American Civil War