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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