FIRST BATTLE OF BULL RUN/MANASSAS

PARTICIPANTS

• The defenders, the Confederate States of America (Confederacy), had an army of about 30,000 soldiers.
• The attackers, the United States of America (Union), had an army of about 28,400 soldiers.

CAUSES OF THE BATTLE

• Union Brigadier General Irvin McDowell was ordered to put a quick end to the war and drive the Confederate armies away from Washington D.C.
• The first step towards this was defeating the entrenched Confederate army at Manassas, Virginia.
• The two armies clashed on July 21, 1861.

LOCATION

• The battle was fought at Manassas, Virginia.
• Manassas is now a city with 37,821 residents as of 2010.

Here is a map of the battle, including troop movements, geographical stages, and key events of the battle.

CONFEDERATE GENERALS

• The most involved Confederate general at the battle, as well as the one who commanded the troops, was Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard.
• Beauregard had been gathering soldiers at Manassas for months. He led all of the Confederate troops at the battle.
• General Joseph Johnston arrived mid-battle with about 8,000 reinforcements. He handed control of these soldiers to Beauregard.

UNION GENERAL

• Brigadier General Irvin McDowell led the Union troops.
• He believed he needed to train his soldiers more, but his superiors wanted to act quickly, so they ordered McDowell to assault Manassas.
• McDowell intended to win the battle by cutting off the Confederates from reinforcements and supplies whilst attacking their flanks.

Union troops were to create a diversion while the main Confederate army was flanked. Early skirmishes resulted in the Confederates falling back, but not without stalling the Union long enough for the Confederates to set up artillery. Union and Confederate artillery fired at each other until "Stonewall" Jackson and his men charged and seized the Union artillery.

The Confederate soldiers continued to charge the Union positions, but they were unable to achieve a decisive victory. However, the arrival of Johnston's Confederate reinforcements frightened the Union soldiers. Eventually, the Union troops entered a full rout, unable to handle the sudden increase in enemy numbers.

RESULTS

• The Union army entered a full retreat, and the Confederates had won a shocking victory.
• The Union had lost about 2700 soldiers, while the Confederates lost 2000 men.
• The battle showed the more optimistic in the North that the war would not be a short one, and showed the more pessimistic in the South that victory against the Union was possible.

SOURCES MARK 1

• civilwar.org
• pinterest.com (images)
• historynet.com
• unionarmy.org
• city-data.com
• wikipedia.org (images)

SOURCE MARK 2

• thomaslegion.net
• thelatinlibrary.com
• history.com
• inklestudios.com
• manassascity.org

THE END