Okla-homey
7/21/2007, 07:56 AM
July 21, 1861: First Battle of Bull Run/Manassas
http://aycu37.webshots.com/image/23236/2004097122705876299_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004097122705876299)
A slugfest of amateurs. Here, Michael Corcorans regiment of NYC Irish are depicted in the fight.
Since the war began three months earlier when rebel batteries fired on Ft Sumter at Charleston SC, things had been pretty quiet in the eastern theater.
146 years ago today, the Civil War erupted on a large scale in the east when Confederate forces under Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard of Louisiana turned back Union General Irwin McDowell's troops along Bull Run Creek in Virginia.
http://aycu34.webshots.com/image/18353/2004009900030907411_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004009900030907411)
Irwin McDowell
The inexperienced soldiers on both sides slugged it out in a chaotic battle that resulted in a humiliating retreat by the Yankees and signaled, for many, the true start of the war.
At the insistence of President Lincoln, Federal Major General Irwin McDowell set out to make a quick offensive against rebels concentrated in the vicinity of Manassas Junction, a key rail center 30 miles from Washington.
http://aycu15.webshots.com/image/21974/2004085896040794869_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004085896040794869)
McDowell's opposite was P.G.T. Beauregard. Here he is depicted in command of Rebel batteries with Ft. Sumter in their sights. The Creole West Pointer had been in command at Charleston when the war began three month's earlier and was itching for a chance to lead infantry in a stand-up fight.
On July 18, the Yankee advance was halted in a small skirmish at Blackburn's Ford on Bull Run Creek. McDowell paused for three days as he prepared to move around the Rebels. This was a crucial delay, because it allowed forces under CS General Joseph Johnston, guarding the Shenandoah Valley to the west, to join Beauregard. A brigade of Virginians commanded by former VMI professor Thomas J. Jackson was among the reinforcements.
When McDowell attacked on July 21, the Federal troops seemed poised to scatter the Confederates in front of them. While part of the Union force held the attention of the center of the Confederate line, the main attack came around the Rebel left.
http://aycu18.webshots.com/image/23977/2002489721213923921_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002489721213923921)
By noon, the Yankees had broken the line and sent the Confederates in retreat. Then McDowell moved in for the kill by attempting to capture Henry House Hill, the key terrain on the battlefield. McDowell did not apply the full pressure of his army, and that respite allowed Beauregard to strengthen his force on the hill. Jackson's brigade moved artillery into place, and McDowell now faced a much stronger Confederate position.
http://aycu24.webshots.com/image/22823/2001935696709323571_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001935696709323571)
A view from Jacksons position toward Henry House Hill, Inside that little white frame house lies a bed bound Mrs. Judith Carter Henry. The poor old widow was killed by an errant shot that found her lying in bed. She was the first civilian to be killed in the Civil War. She will not be the last. Note to Fanima: there is no evidence to suggest the death of Mrs. Henry was ordered by Abraham Lincoln
During the battle, General Bernard Bee of SC led his Sandlappers to reinforce Jackson on Henry Hill. When they began to falter in the face of the blue-clad storm, Bee was reported to have shouted, "There stands Jackson like a stone wall! Rally on the Virginians boys!" Minutes after passing that order, Bee was killed, but the nickname "Stonewall" stuck.
http://aycu08.webshots.com/image/23487/2001936739510009589_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001936739510009589)
A monument to Jackson stands at the approximate location where he sat his horse when Bee saw him standing "like a Stone Wall."
Jackson's men held their ground. Later in the afternoon, the Rebels launched a counterattack that broke McDowell's force and triggered a panicked and confused retreat.
http://aycu08.webshots.com/image/23247/2004094716250594714_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004094716250594714)
The inexperienced Federals found their escape route clogged by the vehicles of "tailgaters" who had driven their wagons, buggies and coaches from Washington to watch the action while drinking and eating fried chicken. The clot of panicked Federal soldiers and shocked and horrified civilian spectators eventually made it back to the relative safety of D.C. by the next morning.
The green Union troops may have had a difficult time of it, but the equally green Confederates did not pursue.
Casualties at Bull Run shocked the nation. The Union count came to 2,800, including 460 killed, and the Confederates had 1,900, with nearly 400 dead. Although future battles would make these numbers appear small, they were a wake-up call to a public, in both the North and the South, unprepared for such a bloody conflict.
http://aycu26.webshots.com/image/20985/2004051402094747470_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004051402094747470)
The first Civil War battlefield monument erected by either side was put up at Bull Run by US veterans almost before the smoke cleared.
First Bull Run demonstrated that the war would not be won by one grand battle, and both sides began preparing for a long and bloody conflict. In the North, Lincoln called for an additional 500,000 volunteers with three-year enlistments, and the men with ninety-day enlistments were sent home.
In the South, once the euphoria of victory had worn off, Jefferson Davis called for 400,000 additional volunteers. The battle also showed the need for adequately trained and experienced officers and men. One year later many of the same soldiers who had fought at First Bull Run, now combat veterans, would have an opportunity to test their skills on the same battlefield.
Incidentally, one other thing of significance happened on this day in 1861. When Joe Johnston's columns, some of which wore blue Virginia militia uniforms, came marching in, there was some confusion because their flags, (now known as the First National flag) looked too much like the US flag in the chaos, smoke, dust and haze of the battlefield. Thus, shortly after the battle, CS forces in the east adopted a distinctive "battle flag" which was more easily distinguished from the US flag.
http://aycu38.webshots.com/image/23757/2004057915327123982_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004057915327123982)
Jackson in his blue Virginia militia duds leads his brigade of Virginians onto the field. Note the First National flag and its similarity to the US flag.
http://aycu22.webshots.com/image/19261/2004071511029174599_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004071511029174599)
Subsequently adopted typical Army of Northern Virginia battle flag
http://aycu37.webshots.com/image/23236/2004097122705876299_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004097122705876299)
A slugfest of amateurs. Here, Michael Corcorans regiment of NYC Irish are depicted in the fight.
Since the war began three months earlier when rebel batteries fired on Ft Sumter at Charleston SC, things had been pretty quiet in the eastern theater.
146 years ago today, the Civil War erupted on a large scale in the east when Confederate forces under Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard of Louisiana turned back Union General Irwin McDowell's troops along Bull Run Creek in Virginia.
http://aycu34.webshots.com/image/18353/2004009900030907411_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004009900030907411)
Irwin McDowell
The inexperienced soldiers on both sides slugged it out in a chaotic battle that resulted in a humiliating retreat by the Yankees and signaled, for many, the true start of the war.
At the insistence of President Lincoln, Federal Major General Irwin McDowell set out to make a quick offensive against rebels concentrated in the vicinity of Manassas Junction, a key rail center 30 miles from Washington.
http://aycu15.webshots.com/image/21974/2004085896040794869_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004085896040794869)
McDowell's opposite was P.G.T. Beauregard. Here he is depicted in command of Rebel batteries with Ft. Sumter in their sights. The Creole West Pointer had been in command at Charleston when the war began three month's earlier and was itching for a chance to lead infantry in a stand-up fight.
On July 18, the Yankee advance was halted in a small skirmish at Blackburn's Ford on Bull Run Creek. McDowell paused for three days as he prepared to move around the Rebels. This was a crucial delay, because it allowed forces under CS General Joseph Johnston, guarding the Shenandoah Valley to the west, to join Beauregard. A brigade of Virginians commanded by former VMI professor Thomas J. Jackson was among the reinforcements.
When McDowell attacked on July 21, the Federal troops seemed poised to scatter the Confederates in front of them. While part of the Union force held the attention of the center of the Confederate line, the main attack came around the Rebel left.
http://aycu18.webshots.com/image/23977/2002489721213923921_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002489721213923921)
By noon, the Yankees had broken the line and sent the Confederates in retreat. Then McDowell moved in for the kill by attempting to capture Henry House Hill, the key terrain on the battlefield. McDowell did not apply the full pressure of his army, and that respite allowed Beauregard to strengthen his force on the hill. Jackson's brigade moved artillery into place, and McDowell now faced a much stronger Confederate position.
http://aycu24.webshots.com/image/22823/2001935696709323571_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001935696709323571)
A view from Jacksons position toward Henry House Hill, Inside that little white frame house lies a bed bound Mrs. Judith Carter Henry. The poor old widow was killed by an errant shot that found her lying in bed. She was the first civilian to be killed in the Civil War. She will not be the last. Note to Fanima: there is no evidence to suggest the death of Mrs. Henry was ordered by Abraham Lincoln
During the battle, General Bernard Bee of SC led his Sandlappers to reinforce Jackson on Henry Hill. When they began to falter in the face of the blue-clad storm, Bee was reported to have shouted, "There stands Jackson like a stone wall! Rally on the Virginians boys!" Minutes after passing that order, Bee was killed, but the nickname "Stonewall" stuck.
http://aycu08.webshots.com/image/23487/2001936739510009589_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001936739510009589)
A monument to Jackson stands at the approximate location where he sat his horse when Bee saw him standing "like a Stone Wall."
Jackson's men held their ground. Later in the afternoon, the Rebels launched a counterattack that broke McDowell's force and triggered a panicked and confused retreat.
http://aycu08.webshots.com/image/23247/2004094716250594714_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004094716250594714)
The inexperienced Federals found their escape route clogged by the vehicles of "tailgaters" who had driven their wagons, buggies and coaches from Washington to watch the action while drinking and eating fried chicken. The clot of panicked Federal soldiers and shocked and horrified civilian spectators eventually made it back to the relative safety of D.C. by the next morning.
The green Union troops may have had a difficult time of it, but the equally green Confederates did not pursue.
Casualties at Bull Run shocked the nation. The Union count came to 2,800, including 460 killed, and the Confederates had 1,900, with nearly 400 dead. Although future battles would make these numbers appear small, they were a wake-up call to a public, in both the North and the South, unprepared for such a bloody conflict.
http://aycu26.webshots.com/image/20985/2004051402094747470_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004051402094747470)
The first Civil War battlefield monument erected by either side was put up at Bull Run by US veterans almost before the smoke cleared.
First Bull Run demonstrated that the war would not be won by one grand battle, and both sides began preparing for a long and bloody conflict. In the North, Lincoln called for an additional 500,000 volunteers with three-year enlistments, and the men with ninety-day enlistments were sent home.
In the South, once the euphoria of victory had worn off, Jefferson Davis called for 400,000 additional volunteers. The battle also showed the need for adequately trained and experienced officers and men. One year later many of the same soldiers who had fought at First Bull Run, now combat veterans, would have an opportunity to test their skills on the same battlefield.
Incidentally, one other thing of significance happened on this day in 1861. When Joe Johnston's columns, some of which wore blue Virginia militia uniforms, came marching in, there was some confusion because their flags, (now known as the First National flag) looked too much like the US flag in the chaos, smoke, dust and haze of the battlefield. Thus, shortly after the battle, CS forces in the east adopted a distinctive "battle flag" which was more easily distinguished from the US flag.
http://aycu38.webshots.com/image/23757/2004057915327123982_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004057915327123982)
Jackson in his blue Virginia militia duds leads his brigade of Virginians onto the field. Note the First National flag and its similarity to the US flag.
http://aycu22.webshots.com/image/19261/2004071511029174599_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004071511029174599)
Subsequently adopted typical Army of Northern Virginia battle flag