First battle of Bull Run

The first battle of Bull Run at the time of the American Civil War, the July 21st 1861 was the first true confrontation between the Union (Northern) and the Confédération (Southern).

Involved forces

Union:

General commander: general sergeant Irwin Mac Dowell ¨

1 division: colonel David Tyler

1 brigade: colonel Erasmus Darwin Keyes
2 brigade: general sergeant Robert Cumming Schenck
3 brigade: colonel William Tecumseh Sherman
4 brigade: colonel Israel Bush Richardson

2 division: general sergeant David Hunter, then general sergeant Andrew To carry.

1 brigade: general sergeant Andrew To carry
2 brigade: colonel Ambrose Everett Burnside

3 division: general sergeant Samuel Peter Heintzelman

1 brigade: general sergeant William Buel Franklin
2 brigade: Bolivar colonel Orlando Wilcox, then colonel John Henry Hobart Ward
3 brigade: colonel Oliver Otis Howard

4 division of reserve: general sergeant Theodore Runyou

Confederation:

General commander: general sergeant Joseph Eggleston Johnston

1 body: general sergeant Pierre Gustave Toutant de Beauregard

1 brigade: general sergeant Milledge Luke Bonham
3 brigade: general sergeant David Rumph Jones
4 brigade: general sergeant James Longstreet
5 brigade: colonel Philip Saint-George Cocke
6 brigade: colonel Jubal Anderson Early
Brigade of reserve: general sergeant Theophilus Hunter Holmes

2 bodies: general sergeant Joseph Eggleston Johnston

1 brigade: general sergeant Thomas Jonathan Jackson
2 brigade: colonel Francis S. Bartow
3 brigade: general sergeant Barnard Elliott Bee
4 brigade: general sergeant Edmund Kirby Smith, then colonel Arnold Elzey

The battles of Bull Run (Manassas) is memorable for the manpower deployed on the ground. The July 21st 1861, the northerner staff, believer with a final battle, pointed out all the army corps of the various faces to take part in the combat. Moreover, one proposed to the civilians to attend the confrontation which seemed to be lost in advance for Confédérés. The Northerners were ordered by the general-in-chief Winfield Scott

After all, according to the Northerners, the army of the Union was the only true army of State-Plain and was going to fight against rebels. But was to forget that the news Armée with the confederated States was also made up of former officers and soldiers of the Union. Moreover at the time of this battle much of soldiers and officers of the South were vêtus of their old blue uniform.

The frontline Southerner was crushed soon because the general Mc Dowell sent forces to circumvent the Southerners, but reinforcements Southerners arrived by engine. Those made their junctions with the forces in rout in the Henri House Hill, and then pushed back an attack of the Yankees who were too trustful. Resistance Southerner is especially due to the resistance of colonel Jackson and his virginiens which gained the nickname of stonewall (stone wall). The Southerners ordered by the general Pierre Gustave Toutant de Beauregard operated a counter-offensive of scale then and dismantled the army Yankee quickly. The northerner armies were weakened, in addition to Bull Run, on several other faces by the lack of soldiers. The Northerners were completely taken of short and were folded up with the civilians in a complete confusion.

The consequences of this defeat were enormous. The South which was not prepared with such a result, missed little taking Washington and changing the course of the history. North left as gaining as the South, its determination being with most, the majority of the historians estimate today that the battle of Bull Run at advantageous summer for the two camps.

Sources

description of the battle by the National Park Service
Eicher, David J., The Longest Night: In Military History off the Civil War , Simon & Schuster, 2001.
Hankinson, Alan, First Bull Run 1861: The South' S First Victory , Osprey Campaign Series #10, Osprey Publishing, 1991.
Livermore, Thomas L., Numbers and Roofing stones in the Civil War in America 1861-65 , reprinted with errata, Morninside House, 1986.
Professor Thaddeus Lowe' S Official Carryforward (Share I)

To read

Cartoon: Bull Run , collection Blue Tunics, by Lambil & Cauvin, Dupuis.

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