First Battle of Bull Run (1861): The Civil War's First Big Battle

The First Battle of Bull Run, known in the South as the First Battle of Manassas, was fought on 21 July 1861 near Manassas Junction, Virginia, about 25 miles southwest of Washington, D.C. It was the first major land battle of the American Civil War. A Confederate victory that ended in a panicked Union retreat, it shattered Northern hopes of a quick war and earned Thomas J. Jackson the nickname “Stonewall”.

Background: “On to Richmond”

After the attack on Fort Sumter in April 1861, tens of thousands of volunteers poured into Washington. Many had enlisted for only 90 days, and Northern newspapers, led by Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune, demanded an immediate advance on the new Confederate capital at Richmond under the slogan “Forward to Richmond!”.

Brigadier General Irvin McDowell, commanding the army around Washington, warned that his troops were raw and poorly trained. President Lincoln reportedly replied that the enemy was just as green. Under political pressure, McDowell marched out on 16 July with roughly 35,000 men, the largest army yet assembled in North America.

His target was a Confederate force of about 22,000 under Brigadier General P. G. T. Beauregard, the victor of Fort Sumter, posted behind Bull Run, a stream guarding the vital railway junction at Manassas. A second Confederate army of about 11,000 to 12,000 under General Joseph E. Johnston was in the Shenandoah Valley, where a Union force under Robert Patterson was supposed to pin it down.

The approach

The march was slow, as inexperienced soldiers broke ranks to rest and pick blackberries. On 18 July a Union probe at Blackburn’s Ford was beaten back. Meanwhile Johnston slipped away from Patterson and moved most of his army by the Manassas Gap Railroad to Manassas, one of the first times a railway was used to shift troops to a battlefield. Most of his men arrived by 21 July, bringing Confederate strength roughly level with the Union force.

The battle

McDowell’s plan was ambitious. While part of his army made a show of force at the Stone Bridge, two divisions would march in a wide arc to cross Bull Run upstream at Sudley Springs and strike the Confederate left flank. The flanking column started in the early hours of 21 July but fell hours behind schedule.

The attack nonetheless began well. Union troops pushed back the outnumbered Confederate defenders on Matthews Hill during the morning, and the Confederates retreated in confusion to Henry House Hill. There Jackson’s Virginia brigade stood its ground. Brigadier General Barnard Bee, trying to rally his own men, pointed to Jackson’s line and compared it to a stone wall. Bee was mortally wounded soon after, and his exact words, and whether he meant them as praise, remain uncertain. The nickname, however, became legendary.

The early afternoon brought fierce fighting around the hilltop farmhouse of Judith Henry, an elderly widow too ill to leave her bed, who was killed when Union artillery fire struck the house. Two Union batteries under Captains James Ricketts and Charles Griffin were pushed forward onto the hill. A Confederate regiment approached them in uniforms that the gunners mistook for friendly blue, and its volley destroyed the batteries. The guns changed hands several times in savage fighting.

By mid-afternoon fresh Confederate brigades, including late arrivals from Johnston’s army under Edmund Kirby Smith and Jubal Early, struck the exhausted Union right flank. The Union line gave way.

The rout

At first the Union retreat was orderly, but it turned into chaos as units mingled with wagons, ambulances and the carriages of civilians, including several congressmen, who had driven out from Washington to watch. When a wagon overturned on the bridge over Cub Run under Confederate artillery fire, panic spread. Soldiers threw away their muskets and streamed back towards Washington through the night and into a rainy 22 July. One congressman, Alfred Ely of New York, was captured and held in Richmond for months.

The Confederates, almost as disorganised in victory, did not pursue in force. President Jefferson Davis, who had arrived on the field late in the day, and his generals later argued over whether Washington could have been taken.

By the numbers

Figures follow standard estimates and vary slightly between sources.

Key people

• Irvin McDowell: Union commander whose sound plan failed through delay and inexperienced troops; he was replaced within days.
• P. G. T. Beauregard: Confederate field commander, already celebrated for Fort Sumter.
• Joseph E. Johnston: Senior Confederate general whose arrival by rail turned the battle.
• Thomas J. Jackson: Brigade commander whose stand on Henry House Hill made him “Stonewall”; he later died after the Battle of Chancellorsville.
• Barnard E. Bee: South Carolina general who coined Jackson’s nickname and died of his wounds the next day.

Consequences

The defeat shocked the North and ended the illusion of a 90-day war. On 22 July Congress authorised the enlistment of up to 500,000 long-term volunteers, and Lincoln brought in Major General George B. McClellan, who built the Army of the Potomac into a disciplined force. The same days saw Congress pass the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution, declaring that the war was being fought to preserve the Union, not to interfere with slavery, a position that would change within little more than a year.

In the South, victory produced overconfidence, and some Confederates believed the war was all but won. Instead both sides settled in for a longer, far bloodier struggle. Thirteen months later the armies met again on almost the same ground at the Second Battle of Bull Run in August 1862, followed soon after by the Battle of Antietam.

Myths and facts

• Myth: Crowds of Washington society came out for a picnic and watched the whole battle. Fact: Some congressmen, journalists and other civilians did ride out, a few with food baskets, but they saw little of the fighting through the smoke and distance; their numbers and the picnic image grew in later retelling.
• Myth: Bee’s remark about the stone wall was certainly meant as praise. Fact: Bee died before explaining himself, and a minority of historians have suggested he was criticising Jackson for standing still; the evidence is inconclusive.
• Myth: The Union army was beaten by a much larger Confederate force. Fact: The two armies were roughly equal in size; Johnston’s arrival by rail and poor Union coordination decided the day.

Timeline

• 1861, 16 July: McDowell’s army marches out of Washington.
• 1861, 18 July: Union probe repulsed at Blackburn’s Ford; Johnston begins moving towards Manassas.
• 1861, 21 July, early morning: Union flanking column crosses Bull Run at Sudley Springs.
• 1861, 21 July, late morning: Confederates fall back to Henry House Hill; Jackson’s brigade holds.
• 1861, 21 July, afternoon: Confederate counter-attack breaks the Union line.
• 1861, 21-22 July: Union troops retreat in disorder to Washington.
• 1861, 26 July: McClellan takes command of the forces around Washington.

Why it matters

The First Battle of Bull Run taught both sides that the Civil War would not be decided by one battle. It led the Union to organise for a long war, created the legend of Stonewall Jackson and gave the Confederacy a confidence that would carry it through the hard years ahead. Today the battlefield is preserved as Manassas National Battlefield Park.