THE FIRST BATTLE OF BULL RUN (OR MANASSAS)

Why do some battles have different names?

Many battles are known by more than one name The Union chose to name some after the closest

body of water The Confederates named them after the nearest

town or landmark

Examples: Antietam (creek)/Sharpsburg (town) Pittsburg Landing (river)/Shiloh (church) Bull Run (stream)/Manassas (town)

Enlistments

Enlistment: to join an army Union enlistments were for 90 days because

no one thought the war would last long Confederate enlistments were for the entire

war Had to be 18 years old to join army, but

poor birth records meant that younger men could fake their way in

Drummer boys could be as young as 10

How are armies made?

Squad: 10 men  Platoon: 5 squads (50 men) Company: 4 platoons (200 men) Regiment: 4 companies (800 men) Brigade: 4 regiments (3,200 men) Division: 4 brigades (12,800 men) Corp: 4 divisions (50,000 men) Army: 4 or more corps (200,000+

men)

Soldier Ranks

Lieutenant General ($758 a month) Major General ($457 a month) Brigadier General ($315 a month) Colonel ($212 a month) Lieutenant Colonel ($181 a month) Major ($169 a month) Captain ($115 a month) First Lieutenant ($105 a month) Second Lieutenant ($105 a month) Sergeant ($15 a month) Corporal ($15 a month) Private ($13 a month)

The Union Plan

General Winfield Scott, the former commander-in-chief of the American Army, who was now seventy-four years old proposed the “Anaconda Plan” to Washington. The Union was to raise a large army and navy, then surround (blockade) southern coastal ports, rivers and railroads, slowly strangling them and forcing them to surrender

The Eve of Battle

Union Army

Concerned about the location of the Confederate Army being so close to Washington, President Lincoln called for volunteers to arrive near the Potomac River. In the spring of 1861, more than 35,000 troops answered the call and they named themselves the Army of the Potomac.

Lincoln replaced the aging Winfield Scott as commander-in-chief and appointed Irvin McDowell to command of the Union army.

Immigrants in the Army

The Union army was made up of many immigrants from Ireland, Germany and Scandinavia

They wanted to prove they were good Americans by fighting and they were also given automatic citizenship at the end of their enlistment

The wage for a private in the army was $15 a month, which was a lot of money to immigrants and poor citizens alike. The monthly wage for a general was around $100

The Irish were placed in the 69th, 70th, and 71st brigades, and the 69th would become famous by the middle of the war as the “Fighting Sixty-Ninth”

Confederate Army

The Confederate army was under the command of PT. Beauregard and Joseph E. Johnston, who would later take command of the Confederate army before Robert E. Lee

McDowell’s Plan

McDowell’s plan was to march 35,000 men from Washington to Centerville capturing that town, then marching south toward Manassas Junction after crossing Bull Run to capture the railroad. He places 15,000 men under the command of General

Robert Patterson and sends them nearly fifty miles away to the Shenandoah Valley. He does this, hoping the Confederates will think that the actual attack was coming from that direction, and that the real attack, which was a head-on advance toward Bull Run and Manassas was only a feint

Feint: To pretend to attack in one direction while the real attack is directed somewhere else.

Picnic Baskets and Bullets

The Union Army becomes very arrogant and thinks the war will be over by the end of the day, and that they will all be partying in Richmond that evening to celebrate their victory

Wives of some of the top generals come along, while wealthy men and women bring picnic baskets and blankets to sit on top of a hill and watch the fight

McDowell then orders Tyler and Richardson to advance, but not to engage the enemy yet Tyler looks through his spyglass and sees

Manassas Junction straight ahead, with only a few Confederate soldiers getting off of a train, but because of the geography of Bull Run, he did not see thousands of Confederate troops waiting in the woods on the bank of the creek

Problems in the Ranks

Major fighting and troop movements begin on Henry House Hill, where an 88 year old widow, Ms. Henry, lived in a farmhouse. The Confederate army tried to get her to leave but she refused to depart from her home and was angered that the soldiers were on her land Only brigade from New Jersey refuses to fight Union General Dixon Miles is drunk McDowell halts his march in the middle of the

day for no reason

An attack on the flank is discovered by a Confederate scout in the mountains, who sees the reflection of the sun on Union bayonets and relays this information to Beauregard Beauregard then sends reinforcements to his left

flank to prevent the Union from outmaneuvering him Two brigades under Generals Barnard Bee and

Francis Bartow arrive in support of Evans on the flank This would essentially cause McDowell’s plan to fail

before it even began as he how had no advantage on the flank and 15,000 of his men were still stuck in the Shenandoah Valley

Uniform Confusion

Confusion was now starting to set in because men were running and marching all over the place and the armies did not have official uniforms.

Most of the Union had dark blue jackets with light blue pants, while regiments from Minnesota had black pants and the “Zouaves” from New York had red pants with blue jackets and a yellow sash at their waist. Zouaves: Regiments that used French style uniforms

instead of standard blue Some Confederate soldiers even had blue uniforms

because they were former US army troops that did not have time to get a change of clothes

Jackson’s Determination

Thomas Jackson was a brilliant general, but a little wacky

Marches his men 60 miles in a day and a half (36 hours) to get to Manassas to help Beauregard

The Union then attacked Jackson’s lines but could not move them

Before being fatally wounded, General Bee would remark that Jackson and his men were “standing like a stone wall”, and the nickname would forever stick to Thomas Jackson and his brigade

Both sides are now enduring heavy casualties and the Union can no longer advance

As the Union begins to retreat, Jeb Stuart and the Confederate cavalry attack them from the side and behind, forcing a massive panic and retreat. The army would then charge and further force the Union to run away in multiple locations

At the end of the battle, there were nearly 3,000 Union casualties and almost 2,000 Confederate

McDowell never used his entire force, and to this day, no one knows why he called a halt to his advance in the middle of the day that could have inflicted more damage on the Confederates

The Confederates used all their men and suffered fewer casualties, showing themselves to be a force to be reckoned with

The result of the battle shocked the nation because the war that was supposed to be over in a day ended up in an embarrassing defeat for the Union army

Lincoln would be angered and embarrassed at the defeat and would shortly after replace Irvin McDowell with George B. McLellan, a decision that would prove to be nearly fatal

Greg’s favorite general