MANASSAS - The First Battle

They were simply trying to get to the train depot at Manassas Junction. Their orders were to squash the Southern uprising.  Richmond was its capitol and the easiest and quickest way to end the rebellion was to capture that city. Many of the Union soldiers were 90 day volunteers with no army experience. The same held true for the Confederates, they were volunteers and green. The problem for General Irvin McDowell was that the Confederates, numbering around 22,000, were encamped at Manassas Junction.

McDowell devised a plan to battle and defeat the Rebels, but due to Southern sympathizers in Washington D.C. that operated a successful spy ring, his troop movements had been passed onto Confederate General G.P.T. Beauregard at Manassas Junction. Beauregard, the General that ordered the shots fired on Fort Sumter to open the Civil War, dispatched his troops and formed a line of defense along Bull Run.

McDowell’s troops marched for two days in the hot July heat and humidity, eventually reaching Centerville, north of the Junction, and rested.  Unable to cross at the Stone Bridge on Warrenton Turnpike, McDowell assigned a division to attack the Rebels here as a diversionary tactic, and marched the remainder of his troops (approximately 31,000) around the left flank of the Confederates with the intention of collapsing their left flank and taking the field. Then onto Richmond; or so he thought.  

As McDowell planned to attack his enemies’ left flank; likewise, Beauregard made plans to attack his enemies’ left flank. If this had happened, the battle would have turned into a counter clockwise motion of troops attacking each other.

This is not what happened.

As skirmishes occurred at Blackburn’s Ford as well as the Stone Bridge and various spots on Bull Run, the Union was arriving at Sudley Spring and marching down Sudley Road toward the Warrenton Turnpike. Believing the Union were feinting attacks supported by some intelligence information, the Confederates pulled 900 men from the Stone Bridge defenses and moved to Matthews Hill to halt the Federal march. With the reduced forces at the Stone Bridge and Bull Run, the Confederates’ lines were breached and they retreated south to Henry Hill. As the Union and Confederates exchanged infantry and artillery fire, the Rebels were also overrun at Matthews Hill. They, too, retreated to Henry Hill.

McDowell, thinking he had taken the day, did not pursue but rather celebrated what he determined to be a victory over the Rebels. McDowell elected to shell Henry Hill instead, which allowed the Confederate troops to regroup along with being reinforced by General Joseph E. Johnston’s troops from the Shenandoah Valley arriving by rail. Also reinforcements came in the form of General J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry and General Thomas J. Jackson’s Virginia Brigade.

As the battle resumed and moved to Henry Hill, the Confederates now had the advantage – higher ground and artillery for closer range usage. Here is where General Jackson was given his name “Stonewall” by General Bernard Bee. As Bee's troops started to break, he shouted to them "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall. Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer. Rally behind the Virginians."

The conflict waged for hours on Henry Hill with the Southerners taking the upper hand.  Chinn Ridge experienced this struggle also when late in the afternoon, the Union lines crumbled under a strong attack. With fierce and bloody fighting throughout the afternoon, and certain cannon changing hands several times, the Northern lines finally broke as the soldiers fled the field and ran, helter-skelter, back across Bull Run, through Centerville, and all the way to Washington, D.C.  

The first battle of the Civil War was over and the field belonged to the Confederates. They were able to rally their troops, and being led by outstanding generals, drove the Yankees into retreat. Both sides realized that their thoughts of one simple battle and the war would be over were gravely wrong.

This was the beginning of a long, bloody, and costly rebellion.

Thirteen months later, in 1862, these fields and hills would, again, bear witness to this conflict as the Second Battle of Manassas would take place on Chinn Ridge, Henry Hill, Matthews Hill and the surrounding areas.