Though none of the border and seceded states sent troops, the response of the loyal states to Lincoln's call was so hearty that more than 75,000 men were furnished. The President decided to turn this outburst of patriotism to good purpose, and May 3, 1861, asked for 42,034 volunteers for three years unless sooner discharged, and ordered 18,000 seamen to be enlisted, and 22,714 men added to the regular army. Baltimore was now occupied by Union troops, and communication with Washington through that city was restored and protected.
On July 1, 1861, there were 183,588 "boys in blue" under arms and present for duty. These were distributed at various places north of the line, 2000 miles long, which divided the North and South. This line began near Fort Monroe, in Virginia, ran up Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac to the mountains, then across Western Virginia and through Kentucky, Missouri, and Indian Territory to New Mexico.
This line was naturally divided into three parts:
1. That in Virginia and along the Potomac.
2. That occupied by Kentucky, a state which had declared itself neutral.
3. That west of the Mississippi.
%431. The Battle of "Bull Run" or Manassas%.—General Winfield Scott was in command of the Union army. Under him, in command of the troops about Washington, was General Irwin McDowell. Further to the west, near Harpers Ferry, was a Union force under General Patterson. In western Virginia, with an army raised largely in Ohio, was General George B. McClellan. In Missouri was General Lyon, aided by all the Union people in the state, who were engaged in a desperate struggle to keep her in the Union.
In northern Virginia and opposed to the Union forces under General McDowell, was a Confederate army under General Beauregard, and these troops the people of the North demanded should be attacked. "The Confederate Congress must not meet at Richmond!" "On to Richmond! On to Richmond!" became the cries of the hour. General McDowell, with 30,000 men, was therefore ordered to attack Beauregard. McDowell found him near Manassas, some thirty miles southwest of Washington, and there, on the field of "Bull Run," on Sunday, July 21, 1861, was fought a famous battle which ended with the defeat and flight of the Union army[1].
[Footnote 1: Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. I., pp. 229-239.]
General George B. McClellan, who had defeated the Confederate forces in western Virginia in several battles, was now placed in command of the troops near Washington, and spent the rest of 1861 and part of 1862 in drilling and organizing his army. Bull Run had taught the people two things: 1. That the war was not to end in three months; 2. That an army without discipline is not much better than a mob.