THE BATTLE OF FIRST BULL RUN
July 21st, 1861

The first major battle of the Civil War was fought at Bull Run, near Manassas railway junction (after which the battle is sometimes named). The armies involved were not large by Civil War standards. On the Union side, led by Brigadier-General Irvin McDowell, were approximately 30,000 men divided into four divisions under Tyler, Hunter, Heintzelman and Miles. On the Confederate side, led by Brigadier-General Pierre Gustav Toutant Beauregard, was a similar number of troops divided into thirteen infantry brigades under Bonham, Ewell, Jones, Longstreet, Cocke, Early, Holmes, Kershaw, Evans, Jackson, Bartow, Bee and Smith and one cavalry brigade under Stuart. Few of the troops on either side had been in battle before.
Each general had planned a turning movement on the right flank but confusion in the orders meant that the Confederate attack did not develop properly and it was on Beauregard's left flank that the battle was mostly fought. McDowell's plan involved a feint by Tyler's division at the stone bridge and a further feint by a brigade of Miles' reserve division at Blackburn's ford. Simultaneously, Hunter's and Heintzelman's divisions would attack from the north, having crossed Bull Run at Sudley Springs.
McDowell had allowed for the difficulties of moving hisinexperienced troops into position by starting the flanking movement at 2.00 am but even so they did not reach Sudley Springs until 9.30, some two and a half hours late. By this time the false attacks at the stone bridge and Blackburn's ford had been underway for some hours and Beauregard was becoming highly suspicious at their lack of progress. When
he received a message that troops were crossing the Bull Run at Sudley Springs he knew at once that this must be the main attack and moved accordingly.
McDowell had about 18,000 men in his attacking force and Beauregard was obliged to feed in troops piece-meal and several times the defence nearly broke. He was aided by men like Evans and Bee who moved in their brigades on their own initiative and by the staunchness of Jackson's Virginians. Bee's rallying cry "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall", was the origin of Jackson's famous nickname. By about 3.30 pm his line was not only solid, it overlapped the Union lines on their right flank and he gave the orders for an attack. The green Union troops gave back, at first in a fairly ordered retreat, but as the pressure continued cries of "Betrayal!" broke out and they panicked and ran. The equally green Confederate troops, however, were too disorganised to follow up and the Union army retreated safely to Washington. Casualties were about 2,000 Confederate to 3,000 Union.