The First Battle of Manassas
The First Battle of Manassas, also known as the First Battle of Bull Run, was the first large battle of the war. Union officials looked to an easy victory that would crumble the South's willingness to resist; Southerners looked to show that they could defend their vast territory. The Confederate forces dug in along a small stream called Bull Run near the town of Manassas, Virginia, protecting a vital rail connection there.
Confederate general Pierre G. T. Beauregard, in addition to being a skilled military tactician and soldier, designed the Confederate army's “Southern Cross” battle flag. Beauregard proposed the flag after the First Battle of Manassas, arguing that the flags of the Union and the Confederacy were easy to confuse in the chaos of battle.
The battle was set more for political than military reasons. Confederate leaders, eager to prove their mettle against the more industrial North, had moved the capital of the Confederacy to Richmond, Virginia, greatly angering Northern politicians. Meanwhile, the press and the public were loudly pushing for the Union to move “on to Richmond.” More importantly, by the time the battle was set, many of the 75,000 Northern volunteer recruits were nearing the end of their ninety-day enlistment and were getting ready to go home.
Battle Plans
Union general Irvin McDowell's strategy was simple: approach the Confederate forces, crush them, and push on to Richmond. Opposing him was Confederate general Beauregard, already a Southern war hero for his role in the fall of Fort Sumter. Beauregard reasoned that a Confederate victory might impress upon the Union the strength and fortitude of the Confederate army and result in a truce and an early peace.
Both the North and the South had three armies in the area. McDowell had 30,600 troops along the Potomac facing 20,000 Confederate soldiers under Beauregard. Union general Robert Patterson had 18,000 men facing 12,000 Confederates under Joseph E. Johnston near Harpers Ferry. And Union general Benjamin Butler commanded 10,000 men in Fort Monroe at the tip of the Virginia peninsula, guarded by a small unit of Confederates under John B. Magruder, although neither Butler nor Magruder would play a role in Manassas.
McDowell left Washington for Manassas Junction on July 16, 1861, but did not arrive until July 18. His large army was slowed by a huge number of supply wagons and the carefree attitude of the neophyte soldiers, who often broke rank to gather berries or rest in the shade. Union reconnaissance troops sent to feel out the enemy were met and driven back by Confederate forces at Blackburn's Ford, a small Confederate victory that demoralized the green Union troops.
The Fighting Commences
McDowell meant to drive Beauregard from Manassas Junction by feigning an attack on the Confederate center, then clobbering the Confederate left. Patterson was to keep Johnston from joining Beauregard, giving McDowell a decided advantage in numbers. However, Johnston gave Patterson the slip and was able to come to Beauregard's aid.
“Steady, men. Hold your fire until they're on you. Then fire and give them the bayonet. And when you charge, yell like furies!” — Colonel Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson to his men at the First Battle of Manassas
The battle itself began on July 21. Beauregard's grand plan to attack McDowell, based on Napoleon's strategy at Austerlitz, was a dismal and immediate failure. His troops were simply too inexperienced. McDowell's army gained an early advantage thanks to its greater numbers, and it appeared the Union would win; several Confederate units were defeated as Union infantry advanced on a small plateau called Henry House Hill. It was here that “Stonewall” Jackson earned his nickname.
Just when a Union victory seemed assured, Johnston's army arrived from Harpers Ferry to reinforce Beauregard. Fighting aggressively, the Confederate forces caused the Union line to crumble. Retreat was called, and the Union soldiers, most of whom had never been in battle before, began to race to the rear as the Confederates shot at them. The retreat turned into a rout as officers abandoned their troops, terrified soldiers fled in panic, and the entire Union supply train became a horrible, tangled mess of carts, trucks, and ambulances. Chaos reigned, and the situation was made worse by the presence of hundreds of sightseers, many with picnic baskets in hand, who had arrived from Washington in carriages and buggies to watch from a grassy slope a few miles away. Federal losses totaled 2,896 men dead, wounded, or missing. Confederate losses totaled 1,982.
The First Battle of Manassas would foreshadow a great many other battles in which outmanned and outgunned Confederate forces would defeat the Union army through skill, bravery, and sheer battlefield tenacity. It also proved to Lincoln and others that the short, clean war they had hoped for was not going to happen.
