Into Battle at Bull Run (Manassas)

Visitor Center at Henry House Hill

Cottontop, my Confederate neighbor, is determined to get me further involved in the War of Northern Aggression, a conflict that is still very much alive in Southern hearts.  So, several weeks ago, I was taken off to Manassas National Battlefield Park about 25 miles south of D.C.


We arrived at 8.30 a.m. and I was surprised to find the car park very full already.  Along with all the Virginian and other Southern cars, there were also a remarkable number of cars from New York and Wisconsin. Did the War of the Rebellion still burn in Northern hearts as well?  More on that later.

For the next seven hours, we walked and drove many miles around the trails and roads snaking through the battlefield.  Looking across the peaceful fields and woods surrounding Bull Run, a small wooded river that we crossed later in the morning, it was hard to believe that two hellish battles had been fought here in the space of one year.

The Battle of First Manassas (a.k.a. First Bull Run if you prefer the Northern nomenclature) was the major opening land battle of the opposing armies in Virginia.  Hopes were high on both sides; and many believed that this battle would rapidly conclude the war.

On July 21, 1861, the Union army with 35,000 raw recruits under Brigadier General McDowell confronted 22,000 equally raw Confederate troops drawn up behind Bull Run under the command of General Beauregard.

Critical Confederate reinforcements were slipped in by rail under General Johnston and, in the nick of time, General Jackson's Virginian brigade arrived from the Shenandoah Valley.  About 18,000 troops on both sides actually fought in the battle.

In a series of ferocious engagements which raged from dawn until dusk and ended on Henry House Hill (seen in the photo above), the battle was convincingly won by the Southerners.  Some 900 troops were killed and over 3000 wounded, figures that were shocking and almost unthinkable to both sides

This defeat was a huge psychological blow to the North and ended any idea that the war would be a short-term affair.

5th New York Volunteer Infantry

One year later, over 100,000 battle-hardened troops fought the Battle of Second Manassas (Second Bull Run).  Savage battles took place over a three day period (August 28-30, 1862).

The Confederates under General Lee forced General  Pope's Union troops to withdraw towards the defenses of Washington.
The North suffered over 10,000 killed and wounded while the South suffered some 8,000 killed and wounded.  The death toll was mounting at an alarming rate.

Within days of his victory, General Robert E. Lee determined to cross the Potomac and take the war into Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Artillery used during Fist Bull Run

The Southern victories at First and Second Bull Run propelled the war forward.  The South was overly confident and morale was high.  But, ironically, the North's humiliation led to a renewed determination (especially after Gettysburg) that paved the way for the South's later devastation.

Cottontop understood that irony but was more taken with the fact that Second Manassas led to Gettysburg where his great grandaddy, James Calvin Smith, fought and was captured.  No problem though.  He was part of a prisoner exchange and went on to fight in the hellish Battle of the Wilderness where thousands were killed when the forest burst into flames.  Amazingly, he survived the war.

Wandering around the battlefield was fascinating but the human stories surrounding those battles, skirmishes, heroics and routs were just as compelling.

Judith Henry was an 85-year old bed-ridden widow living in her farmhouse at Henry Hill.  There had been rumors of troop movements but suddenly her house became the scene of a fierce battle during First Bull Run.

At one point Union artillery near her house was turned towards the oncoming Confederate soldiers and a number of marksmen who had taken up positions around the house. Several artillery rounds were fired directly at the house and Widow Henry was killed.  The Union gunner was "mortified" when he later learned that an old lady had been killed, the only civilian casualty in the battle.

Cottontop reading about Sudley Church
(the white building in the background)

In the Battle of Second Manassas, the locals were making their way to nearby Sudley Church in their best Sunday clothes when suddenly all hell broke loose.

As Chaplain Woodbury of the 1st Rhode Island Infantry ruefully commented: "... the little building was to witness no worship that day. By the time usually assigned for the beginning of the service, it had become a hospital, and was full of wounded and dying men".

Churchgoing continued to be a dangerous occupation in Virginia throughout the war.

Courtesy http://mrkash.com/activities/civilwarbattles1.html

At the end of First Bull Run, the fleeing Union troops trampled on congressmen and other spectators who had ridden down to Centerville, picnic baskets in hand, to watch the battle from afar.

As one congressman wrote: "a cruel, crazy, mad, hopeless panic possessed them and communicated to everybody about in front and rear".

 Like many of our congressmen today who send men and women off to war, they had absolutely no personal experience of combat.

Presumably, the congressman inconvenienced in Centerville had forgotten that troops on both sides had never seen combat before--let alone experienced the devastation of artillery fire.  In spite of their lack of battle experience, the raw recruits on both sides in First Bull Run fought with incredible ferocity and bravery.   One soldier described a "wall of flame" which he endured for over an hour of continuous shooting just 80 yards away from the opposing side.  Insane!

Statue of General "Stonewall" Jackson at Manassas

As mentioned above, Thomas J. Jackson, a former professor at VMI, commanded a brigade of Virginians from the Shenandoah Vally.  I don't know why, but of all the generals on both sides, I find Jackson the most interesting and compelling.

James McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom describes Jackson as "a legend in his own time" and says that the legend began at Henry House Hill during First Manassas.

While a number of Confederate regiments had retreated across that Hill in the morning, Jackson brought his fresh troops into line in the afternoon just behind the crest of Henry House Hill.  McPherson says: "General Barnard Bee of South Carolina tried to rally his broken brigade and pointed to Jackson's men and shouted something like: "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall.  Rally behind the Virginians!"  And so "Stonewall" Jackson earned his name and went down in history.

McPherson also recounts a rather different take on that story.  One observer said that General Bee had angrily pointed to Jackson's troops standing immobile behind the hill and said: "Look at Jackson standing there like a damned stone wall".  Whatever the truth, Bee certainly used the words "stone wall".  Unfortunately, Bee did not live to tell the story himself.

While I was wandering around the various battlefields, I got talking to several people.  One trio asked me if I knew how to get to Henry House Hill.  Luckily, I had just come from there so was able to point them in the right direction.  They detected my Brit accent and asked me what my interest was in the Manassas Battlefield.

I had to tell them that I was there because of Cottontop, a Southerner.  And, of course, they turned out to be Unionists.  Actually, they were from Wisconsin and told me that their great grandfather had fought at Second Manassas.  

The sign (above) might give you some idea of the temperament of those Wisconsin boys.   Now I knew why there were so many cars from Wisconsin in the car park.  Later that afternoon, as if to prove the point, two busloads of folks from Wisconsin rolled into the Visitor Center and just about overwhelmed the staff.  Like their ancestors, they would not "fall back".  (I hope my fly-fishing Wisconsin friend, Wayne Rusch, reads this.  Now I know why he won't give those big mouth bass a chance!).

I also met a guy from upstate New York.  He told me that several family members had fought in the Civil War and that he thought one of his great uncles had fought at Second Manassas.

Based upon what I had seen in the Visitor Center, the New York boys did not come out of Second Manassas too well.  The 5th New York Volunteer Infantry suffered 330 casualties, with 120 of them being killed in eight minutes.   They were by far the most colorful soldiers on the field being dressed in uniforms patterned on the French Zouaves in the Crimean war.

Once again, the significance of all those cars from New York became clear.  Hallowed ground.

I learned a lot in the course of one day but you could spend a lifetime trying to come to grips with the full course of the Civil War.  I know that Cottontop has a lot more trips in mind so I will tag along and attempt to learn a bit more.  The history books are a lot more interesting when you have visited the battlefields in person.

Next year is the 150th anniversary of the fateful Battle of Gettysburg.  I have to make sure that I get Cottontop up to Pennsylvania for that.  He can't only go to battlefields where the South won.  Luckily, my dear friends, Bill and Sue George, will be over from England next July on a tour of the Gettysburg battlefield.  So, I will have Cottontop outnumbered for once!

Weary (young) troops wander home from the battlefield!