The opening battle of the war found ill-trained citizen armies of the North and South engaged in a struggle for this strategic railroad junction. On an eminence, known as Henry House Hill, 6 miles north of Manassas, Confederate arms finally put to rout the Federal force. This victory, the English historian Fuller points out, was very important because it led “Southern politicians... to underestimate the fighting capacity of the enemy” and because it “so terrified Lincoln and his Government, that from now onwards until 1864, east of the Alleghanies, the defense of Washington became the pivot of Northern strategy.”
Approximately a year later, both armies, now composed of seasoned veterans, were locked in a bitter struggle on the same field. After heavy fighting, the Federal Army was forced back upon the defenses of Washington. Second Manassas stands with Chancellorsville as one of the two most significant Confederate victories of the war—in both cases the military result was invasion of the North. After Second Manassas came Antietam; after Chancellorsville came Gettysburg.
First Battle of Manassas
July 21, 1861
The Manassas campaign began shortly after the outbreak of hostilities in 1861. Twenty-four days after the firing on Fort Sumter, Lee ordered the fortification of Manassas Junction, and 7 days later Beauregard took command of these defenses. Meanwhile, the North clamored for a quick move to capture Richmond and end the war. Forced on by this popular pressure, McDowell launched his drive on July 16 with an army composed chiefly of 3-months volunteers. He planned to attack the Confederate forces at Manassas while Patterson prevented a Confederate Army, under Gen. J. E. Johnston, from leaving Winchester and reinforcing Beauregard. Patterson’s failure to do his part contributed heavily to McDowell’s defeat.
Action began on July 18th, when a part of McDowell’s forces was repulsed at Blackburn’s Ford by Longstreet’s brigade. Finding the Confederates intrenched along Bull Run in about an 8-mile line, McDowell determined to turn their left flank at the Stone Bridge. On July 21, he made a feint attack on Evans’ men near the bridge and sent his main column around by Sudley Ford to strike the Confederate rear. Evans accidentally learned of the march and moved his small force to meet it. Reinforced by Bee and Bartow, he made a gallant stand on the hills north of the Warrenton Turnpike. The pressure of the Federal attack, however, was overwhelming. Burnside, Porter, and Heintzelman, later joined by Sherman, struck the small Confederate force and drove it back across the pike in disorder.
General Beauregard
General McDowell
