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Conflict21 July 1861

First Battle of Bull Run

Also called: First Battle of Manassas, First Manassas

Marching on Richmond, the Union army was beaten by the Confederates on Bull Run creek near Manassas, Virginia, and fled back to Washington; hopes of a short war collapsed.

First Battle of Bull Run — Kurz & Allison chromolithograph, 1889, Library of Congress
First Battle of Bull Run — Kurz & Allison chromolithograph, 1889, Library of Congress

Kurz & Allison · Public domain · Source

Pushed by the cry of “On to Richmond!”, Irvin McDowell’s Union army of about 35,000 attacked the Confederates under Beauregard and Joseph Johnston along Bull Run on 21 July 1861; spectators, congressmen among them, came out from Washington to watch. The Union pressed forward in the morning, but when Thomas Jackson’s brigade held on Henry Hill a fellow general is said to have cried, “There stands Jackson like a stone wall” — the origin of the name “Stonewall”.

When Confederate reinforcements arriving by rail counter-attacked, the green Union troops broke and fled to Washington. Casualties were about 2,900 Union and 2,000 Confederate. Both sides realised the war would be long and bloody, and Lincoln had George McClellan rebuild the army.

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States and rulers at the time
United States · defeated — President Abraham Lincoln
Places
Manassas (Bull Run)

People

  • Stonewall Jackson1824 – 1863

    commander · Confederate general who earned the name “Stonewall” at First Bull Run and was mortally wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville

Before and after

Earlier
1861 Bombardment of Fort Sumter
Later
1862 Battle of Hampton Roads

Themes that include this event

  • The American Civil War1850 – 1865

    From the Compromise of 1850 to Lincoln’s assassination — a nation divided over slavery fought four years of civil war, preserving the Union and ending slavery