Civil War Journal - The Battle of 1st Bull Run

[Music] all the armies of Europe Asia and Africa combined with all the treasures of the earth but not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher as a nation of free men we must live through all time were died by suicide Abraham Lincoln 1838 before bull run no Americans really understood what the war would mean they couldn't because there was nothing in the American experience that could possibly have prepared them for what they were going to have to endure both sides were living in a dream world this was a moonlight and romance kind of attitude that both sides had which explains this joyful spirit of enlisting men dashing to the recruiting offices absolutely petrified the war might end before they could get in and and seek the Red Badge of Courage and about a woman was called in those days neither expected the other to be able to fight so both went forward filled with confidence that not only when they have a victory but that they would have an easy victory it would be a short war a summer's war and by fall they would all be humbled by the summer of 1861 north and south who was so far apart they could not even agree on a name for the war's first great clash each side named battles differently now the North would name its battle after the closest stream the south will name its bottle after the closest tie on so this first explosion in the north will be called the Battle of Bull Run in the south it will be known as the Battle of Manassas not only the attention of the country but the attention of the world was focused on in the Manassas Washington front none of the things that Americans had been involved in resembled in scope or intensity what was about to begin on the plains of Manassas in July 61 long / economic and cultural differences America had finally reached the breaking point with Lincoln selection as president in 1860 the so-called United States consisted of 34 states by the time of its inauguration in March 1861 7 deep seven states have formed a new nation the southern has viewed themselves as really fighting a second American Revolution they was seeking liberty and they were seeking independence which the American colonies had done in 1776 when they were called rebels in southern soldiers were nicknamed Johnny Reb's they took no offense at this whatsoever because that grand palace had been called the American levels by the British government within weeks of Newcomb taking office southern forces captured a federal garrison at Fort Sumter outside Charleston South Carolina when finally the firing on Fort Sumter takes place on April 12th of 61 it's like a lightning bolt to a powder keg it's what finally releases all the pent-up emotions of decades the military excitement in Washington is intense Civil War is actually upon us and strange to say brings a feeling of relief the suspense is over Congressman John Sherman April 1861 we can call for 75,000 troops to crush the rebellion outrage the upper South joined the Confederacy Lincoln in their eyes was not raising an army to further defend the flag which was his constitutional obligation this was an army they saw raised to invade the south and there's no way Lincoln's going to invade the Confederacy without marching across border states like Virginia and North Carolina and Tennessee if we are conquered we will be driven penniless and dishonored from the land of our birth I had rather fall in this cause than to see my country dismantled in its glory and independence where you may Smith 14th North Carolina 1861 he's fighting in defense of his Hoth in his home the Union Army to him is an invader it is coming down to overrun his land to take away what he has been able to speak together through a lifetime [Music] southerners saw themselves as fighting in self-defense but could not imagine what motivated their enemy southerners could not envision why northern boys would die for something as vague and films as the Union what they did not know of course was that one out of every 5 Billy Yanks was an immigrant that men had traveled halfway around the world on behalf of this little flimsy dream known as the Union it's difficult for us to understand now in the late 20th century what Union meant to northerners in the mid 19th century the United States represented a democratic beacon to the rest of the world and if we let this beacon be snuffed out by dismemberment of the Union the world may lose a something that it can never regain there may not be another spark that will lead to another democratic society such as the United States it's something worth fighting for something worth dying for the first Manassas was a port in most of all it was an almond of what was to come and what would be the bloodiest event in all of our walk in history and it all begins one hot Sunday LOL a junction call Manassas Junction [Music] standing before a long mirror I put in many hours of weary work and soon thought myself quite a soldier Elisha hunt Rhodes every young fellow who went to war got a kiss from his best girl and as it was the first that many of us had ever enjoyed it is not surprising that a last farewell was repeated over and over again before we actually took our departure JP cannon 27th Alabama the entire society was at war there was almost no opportunity not to go off to war the drums were beating and the bands were playing and the girls were at the County Courthouse while almost every able-bodied male of the appropriate age headed in and signed up and went off with all of his friends and his neighbors and his brothers and his cousins and his other relatives your community was going to war and you went with them many sages would recall their hometown farewells is one of the most stirring moments of their lives [Music] at last the regiment was formed in companies and we marched was there ever such an ovation handkerchiefs fluttered in the air like myriads of white butterflies an avenue of brave honest faces smiled upon us as we passed and sent a sunshine into our hearts that lives there still its James O'Brien 79 New York [Applause] there were regiments who marched a war clatters of French swabs or even wearing a kilt and tartan and Glengarry cap an emulation of Highland regiments nobody knew at that point that one side would wear gray and one side would wear blue so you had this colorful hodgepodge of uniforms of the wildering variety of weaponry hurrah we are in Washington and what a city mud pigs geese Negroes palaces shanties everywhere I was not well pleased with the appearance of the city but was struck by the magnitude of the public buildings Elisha hunt Rhodes these militia units were all gathering in the national capital to defend the union with all these lofty ideals and principles and the capital was just loaded with soldiers in all kinds of uniforms from all parts of the country and this was all new and gay and that autumn a lady from new a New England named Julia Ward Howe would come to Washington and she would be struck by what she called the watchtowers of a hundred circling camps which became a line in her immortal song the Battle Hymn of the Republic so Washington was alive with excitement not reality but excitement [Music] along with the seriousness of purpose came a mission of high spirits one thing regimen the New York fire swabs was comprised entirely of firemen and dressed in colorful uniforms in imitation of French Algeria soldiers they were one of the most reckless undisciplined rowdy hard to control bunch of scoundrels that ever was encamped in Washington they cavorted to cross the unfinished Dome of the Capitol they escaped from their camp ran the sentries in order to get a hold of fire engines and help battle fires that broke out in Washington [Music] the swabs were organized and commanded by Colonel Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth a debonair young militia officer and a close friend of the Lincoln family on May 24th 1861 Ellsworth became the first great martyr to the Union calls shot dead while attempting to remove a giant Confederate flag from atop of Virginia in remember Ellsworth became a union battle cry to the north but this was an outrageous murder of a great national celebrity a dashing young hero Lincoln himself goes into tremendous mourning because he was extremely fond of young Ellsworth it was almost a father-son relationship between the two so this is the first but certainly not the last time that Lincoln very personally feels the pain of loss in the war an outraged public demanded that Union forces crushed the rebels an increasing pressure to act Union commander Irvin McDowell struggled to transform his raw recruits into an army if anyone wanted to look for a perfect example of how no one was trained or equipped to take command of an army of the kind being raised at the beginning of the Civil War urban league dolls got to be it he had never led troops in battle at all he'd spent most of his army career on staff work in Washington he had no training for commanding even a company much less an army of 35,000 men no curse could be greater than invasion by a volunteer army mcdowell and all the generals tried their best but to say we commanded that army is no such thing they did as they pleased Colonel William Tecumseh Sherman we have these huge aggregations of civilians who have come into the military and they're trying to grope their way toward becoming soldiers Irvin McDowell knew that they weren't ready to go into battle but there was tremendous political pressure for a battle the Lincoln administration was under pressure to make something happen we've got all these men in uniform let's go smite the rebels let's chastise them let's crush the rebellion and restore the Union let's move now there's a drumbeat in the newspapers move now move against Richmond move against the rebels so mr. Lincoln was quite anxious to go down and fight this one bottle that would end the war and so he ordered the formic Dalton to take this miss Mothman in and go March out and end the Civil War on July 16 1861 McDowell marched his 35,000 men toward Manassas Junction years later poet and novelist Herman Melville would describe the volunteers and his set off into the unknown all they feel is this tis glory a rapture sharp though transitory yet lasting in Vellore old story so they gaily go to bite chatting left and laughing right but some who this blithe mood present as in light some files they fair shall die air three days are spent perish enlightened by the volleyed glare [Music] [Music] the hostilities of the generation would finally clash at tiny Manassas Junction the rebel armies were led by generals Joseph E Johnston and PGT Beauregard the hero of Fort Sumter Virginia is cut in half by the Blue Ridge Mountains the eastern half is protected at the beginning by Beauregard in his army the western portion the Shenandoah Valley is held by Josephine Austin by using that rail line between these two halves either force could shift back and forth to support the other thus the two armies really could almost double their strength 69 year old Union General Robert Patterson commanded a small force facing Johnston in the Shenandoah Valley meanwhile the Federal Army under McDowell moved from Washington to confront Beauregard at Manassas McDowell moved very slowly toward Manassas moving 30,000 35,000 men over a road onek marching six eight ten abreast at best could mean that your column could be stretched out for ten miles and all it took was one slower regiment someplace to deadlock everybody behind them on top of which McDowell was simply slow himself he was terrified he didn't want to be making this campaign because he knew he and his army weren't ready the young soldiers soon discovered that this was no holiday excursion they expected to make a quick march and have a quick victory and that March would just proves to be a night now for them they're bumping into each other are they having to double-time a mile here and stand-in in position and alibi the food is running out there the heat is awful the humidity is awful it was just a horrible ordeal for these men at the Union Army crept forward more guards stood on the banks of ball one anxiously awaiting reinforcements it's difficult to over emphasize just how hairsbreadth a thing this Battle of Manassas was for the Confederates as of the morning of July 18th Beauregard is on his own along Bull Run with an army of only about eighteen to twenty thousand men and he knows that McDowell's Yankee army is in front of them with a strength perhaps a 35 to 37 thousand men unknown to Beauregard Johnston had already decoy Patterson into holding his position and while Patterson wrote messages to Washington assuring Washington that Johnston's army was still in the Shenandoah Valley Johnston was in fact marching over the mountains and about to board the trains to join Beauregard on the plains of Manassas all during the day before the main battle most of the Federals can hear the steam whistles on locomotives coming into Manassas Junction and going out and a number of McDowell's officers suspect that what's happening is that Beauregard is receiving substantial reinforcements but they don't know for sure despite the skivvies McDowell is shoot the final battle orders s night though on July 20th soldiers on both sides move at the dawn would forever change their lives all is hushed and still as I look up at the starry vault and think of tomorrow I must confess I am a bit homesick caleb clark ii Ohio at two o'clock one drum sounded for the camp and was repeated through the numerous camps around us and in half an hour 40,000 men stood ready to battle for the Union Union private Edwin s Barrett what a McDowell's mistakes was starting his movement on Sunday the 21st so early in the morning he started 2:30 a.m. long before the Sun came up night marches were difficult for veteran troops never mind men who'd never marched more than 5 miles in their lives many of the Union troops when they reached that battlefield at Bull Run were in a condition of almost utter exhaustion they had been marching for several days through the heat and dust they had had to cut their way through the brush they had had to march towards the battle they were covered with sweat their legs were chafed the wool uniforms were sticking to their clammy flesh minutes before encountering the enemy yuya's soldiers were greeted by the sight of Washington High Society literally hundreds of civilians a load out when that bug is that Sunday they came out with that picnic baskets and in that cottages and they spread that blankets on the buy-out hillsides and though they set like participa sand a great grandstand watching this bottle unfold those people in their frilly carriages carrying their picnic lunches faithfully reflect what this nation expected this war to be like they thought it was going to be a picnic [Music] - first blood 10,000 federal soldiers attacked at Matthews healed overwhelming point thousand confetti the air was filled with a medley of sounds shouts cheers commands oaths the sharp retort of wipers and craters Second World men in any one company probably were serving alongside boys they gone all through school with in many cases with their own brothers what they were most unprepared for was the horror of seeing their friends struck down around them and writhing in agony on the ground nothing glorious about that usually not a very quick death my first thought was this is unfair somebody is to blame for getting us all killed I didn't come out here to fight this I wish the earth would crack open and let me drop in Daniel Ashman eighth Jordan the technology had outpaced the tactics and that meant that men would go marching up to their deaths in tight formation elbow to elbow just as Napoleon's men had done when the weapons had progressed to an extent that those formations could be torn to pieces at a much greater range the war would be fought by these geometrical blocks of flesh-and-blood maneuvering to deliver their fire on an opponent after suffering through an outlet of deadly firepower the Confederates begin to fall back the Federals for the moment think they're victorious in fact Irvin McDowell arrives on the battlefield his staff waving their hats yelling victory victory victory outnumbered ten to one the rebels struggled to slow the Union advance [Music] the Confederates on Matthews Hill and fought for time they had bought about 90 minutes dearly with hundreds of lines but earthen mcdowell followed those ninety minutes by awarding the Confederates two hours of time cost free simply because he stopped and it was that delay more than any other that would turn the tide of this battle [Music] in those critical hours between noon and 2:00 p.m. thousands of Joseph e Johnson's men would arrive by railroad and join ranks under the command of a little-known general named Thomas Jonathan Jackson [Music] as the battle vain of the critical phase would have been fierce fighting turned ferocious battered but unbowed the Confederates and the general bernard d retreated from matthew sealed to nearby him real as B was falling back toward him the house heel he galloped up onto the hill to see what foots if any without a give him an ankle and they he encountered his old West Point comrade that Thomas J Jackson and the B said something to the effect general they're pushing us back to which Jackson very common sense well sir we shall give them the bayonet Jackson's personal style was a clenched jaw determination a stern power of will to succeed and on a field peopled by military innocence on both sides of the line Jackson's determination his intent nasaan winning his confidence that he was doing God's will these things combined to make him a rock [Music] with that reinforcement from Jackson vivos back down the hill and in the bottom as his disorganized men were falling back be looked up at op Henri house heel pointed and shouted above the din of battle looked men last stand is Jackson like a Stonewall rally behind the Virginians in that moment the legend of Stonewall Jackson was born Confederate troops did rally around Jackson and his Brigade fortifying INRI healed undaunted Union soldiers charged up the hill if they could secure that Hill they could turn the entire Confederate Army and from their vantage point down in the valley and looking up to the hill it looked empty and so of course they charged up this hill with great enthusiasm and about 30 yards from the top of this hill suddenly from behind the brow of the hill up wises this Confederate Brigade from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia which just delivered a point-blank volley of musketry right into that faces the minie ball made musket fire for both sides far deadlier than in earlier Wars the bullet itself would often cream around inside the body shattering bones tearing vital organs and arteries it's one reason why you have so many amputations in the Civil War the caliber of those bullets 58 caliber was so great that the damage incurred couldn't be rectified even today with anything other than amputation there just wasn't anything left of the bone there were at least 40 men some with both legs shudder others with horrid flesh wounds they lay so thick around me that I could hardly step between them and every step was in blood some besought me to kill them and put an end to their agony Union private Edwin s Barrett with Jackson's forces gaining strength MacDonald brought out the Union cannons they roll two artillery batteries up to within about 300 yards of Jackson's line Jackson's men hunkered down below the slope of the hill Union shells whistle over their heads what McDowell apparently wanted to do was the to role as cannon up and blast a hole in the Confederate line that's what Napoleon had done but Napoleon that didn't have rifles to contend Confederate guns from atop the hill decimating artillery there was never such a destructive fire it looked as if every horse and man if that battery just laid down and died right off Union Lieutenant William Abel [Music] a regiment of New York finest walls the same men who had growls in Washington who rushed in to support the artillery these men who hadn't quite figured out yet how you deploy exactly from column into line we're sort of stumbling about the field they're officers shouting and cursing trying to get them in some sort of formation into the confusion world Colonel James you'll brown Stewart and his Virginia Calvary and as Jeb Stewart and his horsemen plowed into the fires of wahb's those zealous New York firemen felt their patriotism draining out of them and many of them then in there took to their heels big smoke from muskets and cannons rallying the field the fight was fast disintegrating into a battle between two armed mobs the wide variety of uniforms added to the chaos there was a symphony of color on the plains of Manassas that once the shooting started often became very deadly because one of the hallmarks of the First Battle of Manassas is that these men simply had a hard time figuring out who was who on the battlefield at Bull Run both armies had some troops in blue with the fighting at its most intense Union artillery captain Charles Griffin spotted align the uniforms bearing down on his position Charles Griffin saw a Confederate line of battle coming toward him and he turned his two guns on those Confederates but as he did so his commanding officer came up to him and said don't fire there those men are Union men and Griffin said slow and Griffin is a pretty cantankerous fellow he said I swear for the world those men are Confederates and the commanding officer said no those your battery support I just sent them there they leveled their guns at Griffin's battery and they fired a volley the Griffin said later that was the end of us the men in blue were in fact the junior 33rd infantry their assault captured the Union batteries turning the tide of battle his forces in disarray Irvin McDowell committed one final blunder that sealed the seat instead of sending in his attacks by full brigades or by even a division he sends in a regiment at a time and what happens is when one regiment attacks against three or four regiments of the enemy that regiment gets cut up MacDowell then sends in another regiment the same thing happens to them and it's very easy to use up a major portion of your army achieving nothing as you use soldiers died by the hundreds Confederate reinforcements from the Shenandoah Valley port in Port Beauregard and Jackson every minute that passed during the fighting on Henry Hill meant more Confederate troops would be arriving on the field and by four o'clock that afternoon the Yankees had no regiments left to put into the fight overwhelmed by fresh troops the Federals fled the battlefield in final defeat the faces near me were inhuman we didn't see our foes they were obscured in smoke and trees one of my close comrades was smashed by a solid shot and what / plate - that men fell writhing and others melted from sight and we saw the glitter of bayonets coming against our flank and we heard the order to retire Union Major Abner our small [Music] through a combination of determination and luck the Confederates had won the wars first great battle for surviving Union soldiers the worst was yet to come the Union Army fell back from Henry House Hill it had been fighting for seven hours it was just exhausted it had done all that recruits could be asked to do and then occurred this unforeseen disaster that would haunt the Union war effort for months to come that retreating rabble of troops came up to the terribly frightened group of civilians who had come out to watch the great battle come out from Washington in their Sunday best the ladies with their parasols the men in their linen coats and straw hats to watch the great Union victory along with all of these soldiers and the cannons and the wagons and the caissons in the ambulance trains all of these civilians get out on that same road in their buggies encourages and they created the mother and daddy of all traffic jams in this country and just at that moment very fortuitous Confederate artillery shell off the bridge and exploded and blew up a wagon which completely tied up the bridge panic spreads very easily among men who already knows they're beating seeing their escape route cut off in that fashion is all it took to put McDowell's army from a retreat into a panic as men drop their knapsacks drop their guns dropped everything else and simply ran for their lives swam across and didn't stop running in some cases until they got all the way back to Washington we tried to tell them there was no danger called on them to stop and lured them to stand we call them cowards put out our heavy revolvers and threatened to shoot but all in vain General Irvin McDowell [Music] prominent civilians were taken prisoner by the rebels including New York Congressman Alfred Ely who was brought before Colonel EBC cash cashed absolutely exploded with a tremendous string of oaths which essentially boiled down to you son-of-a-bitch you're one of the politicians who caused this war if it weren't for people like you there wouldn't be a war now and I'm gonna kill you and he pulled his pistol the colonel did and tried to get a clear shot at Ely who was crouching behind the sergeant so that the colonel couldn't get a clear shot at him and there's this this comic opera going on of an officer spurring his horse around and a civilian crouching behind a sergeant so that he won't be shot on the field congressman Ely escaped with his life but would spend the next several months in a Confederate prison meanwhile remnants of the Union army fled 20 miles to Washington one Confederate wag noted after the battle that took the Union Army four days to get the bull run and it took him only 12 hours to get back to Washington afterwards those 12 hours were an ordeal really from exhaustion awake for as long as 30 hours the Federals staggered to be denied [Music] [Applause] I suffer untold or thirst and fatigue but struggled on claim to my gun and cartridge box many times I sat down in the mud determined to go on no further and willing to die to end my misery Elisha hunt Rhodes as dawn broke on July 22nd Union soldiers began to trickle back into the cabin for civilians in Washington to get the first sight of their returning soldiers in men covered with dirt some covered with mud not carrying their weapons hands heads arms bandaged with panic on their faces had to be the most demoralizing sight that a national capital could encounter when Lincoln himself saw it he could only say to another congressman nearby it's bad it's damned bad for a few anxious days Washington was gripped with the fear of a Confederate attack but the rebels were far too disorganized to press their advantage Washington remained safe and shame order defeat and retreat gateway to a newfound determination to win at all costs one of Lincoln's first actions just a few days after the battle is to issue a call for 500,000 volunteers he followed that almost immediately with a call for another five hundred thousand volunteers to serve for three years so he has put out a call for a million men which shows that he now had a much better understanding of what he was facing flush with the victory the south at first believed that the war was over but euphoria turned to mourning as the population realized that his victorious army had suffered grievous losses in a few days every local newspaper starts to publish the lists of the boys from that county or that town who went to war and went to the great battle and who are now not going to be coming home it was the first taste the Confederate civilian population had of what the war was going to be like they couldn't hear the guns perhaps they didn't see the blood in the battlefields but in the black and white of newsprint they could see the cost of the war that they were now engaged in the suddenly the moonlight in Magnolia aspect of war disappears that's no longer the bands playing gaily and the flags flying beautifully and that's going to be a stinking war war that smells a war with blood a war with death once the excitement of battle faded these men saw something that no American had ever seen before and indeed no American had truly expected nine hundred dead three thousand wounded scattered across these fields strategically both sides went back to where they had been didn't amount to much but emotionally it was the signal that this war would be different it will be fought in a higher infinitely more awesome in destructive level I cannot give you an idea of the terrors of this battle for 10 long hours it literally rained balls shells and other missiles of destruction the site of the dead the cries of the wounded the thundering noise of battle can never be put on paper the dead the dying and the wounded all mixed up together friend and foe embraced in death some crying for water some praying their last prayers some trying to whisper to a friend a last farewell message to the loved ones at home it is heart-rending I cannot go on any further mine eyes are damp with tears Jessie we ate South Tara [Music] [Music]

Channel: Rebel Rally Point

Views: 19,701

Rating: 4.8235292 out of 5

Keywords: Battle of Bull Run, American Civil War, Confederate, First Bull Run, 1st Bull Run, Manassas, Battle of Manassas

Id: ZkkkaAd9auQ

Length: 38min 16sec (2296 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 25 2019