When did the first battle of bull run happen

US Army, Corps of Engineers. Map of the battlefield of Bull Run, Virginia, 1877

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National Tribune. The first battle of Bull Run. July 21, 1861, 1895

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Whipple. Plan of the battlefield at Bull Run, July 21st 1861, 1861

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On July 21 1861, Federal forces and Confederate troops converged near Manassas Junction, the junction of the Manassas Gap Railroad and the Orange and Alexandria Railroads. Federal troops hoped to seize the junction and thereby deny Confederate forces the advantages of using the railroads to transport troops or resupply.

The battle developed slowly but eventually involved over 35,000 Federal troops and 32,000 Confederate forces. Federal forces under General Irvin McDowell attempted to flank Confederate positions by crossing Bull Run but were turned back. The end result of the battle was a Confederate victory and Federal forces retreated to the defenses of Washington, DC. One week later, General George McClellan was appointed head of the Army of the Potomac.

The three maps cited below all use the name “Bull Run” to identify the battle. A convention developed during the war whereby Federal maps named battles after local water features (Bull Run, Antietam, etc.) while Confederate maps named battles after local towns (Manassas, Sharpsburg, etc.).

Map Citations

United States Army, Corps of Engineers. Map of the battlefield of Bull Run, Virginia. Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell commanding the U.S. forces, Gen. [P.] G. T. Beauregard commanding the Confederate forces, July 21st 1861 Compiled from a map accompanying the report of Brig. Genl. McDowell and a map made under the direction of Genl. Beauregard. Published by authority of the Hon. the Secretary of War in the office of the Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army. [S.l.], office of the Chief of Engineers, 1877. 1 map, col., 61 x 92 cm.
Catalog record: http://lccn.loc.gov/99439142

National Tribune. The first battle of Bull Run. July 21, 1861. Washington, Dec 26, 1895. [S.l., 1895] 1 map, 32 x 39 cm., col., on sheet 58 x 42 cm.
Catalog record: http://lccn.loc.gov/99439122

Whipple, Amiel Weeks. Plan of the battlefield at Bull Run, July 21st 1861. 1 ms. map : col., cloth ; 50 x 62 cm.
Catalog record: http://lccn.loc.gov/2009655025

The first land battle of the Civil War was fought on July 21, 1861, just 30 miles from Washington—close enough for U.S. senators to witness the battle in person. Southerners called it the Battle of Manassas, after the closest town. Northerners called it Bull Run, after a stream running through the battlefield.

After a Confederate artillery fired on Fort Sumter in April, members of Congress complained about the Union army's inactivity. They traded rumors that President Abraham Lincoln was delaying military action in order to forge a compromise with the South. They demanded a quick campaign to prevent the Confederate Congress from convening in Richmond. Horace Greeley's New York Tribune summed up the sentiment with repeated headlines that demanded: "Forward to Richmond!" Such outcries pressured Lincoln to launch an offensive. It occurred at Bull Run.

On the morning of July 21, 1861, civilians from Washington rode out to Centreville, Virginia, to watch a Union army made up of very green recruits—they signed up for a 90-day war—march boldly into combat. Men, women, and even children came to witness the predicted Union victory, bringing along picnic baskets and opera glasses. Bull Run soon became known as the "picnic battle." Among the civilian ranks were some of Congress's most powerful senators—many of whom had called for just such a campaign. They quickly learned that war can be unpredictable.

The Union army performed well that morning, but by early afternoon the Confederates had brought in reinforcements, forcing an intense battle over a space known as Henry Hill. When Union generals finally called retreat around 4:00 p.m., the frightened soldiers fled for their lives. "I saw the 12th New York regiment rush pell-mell out of the wood," commented one reporter. Soldiers threw down their weapons and ran from the battlefield, sweeping up civilians in the retreat.

Near the battlefield, a group of senators was eating lunch. They heard a loud noise and looked around to see the road filled with soldiers, horses, and wagons—all headed in the wrong direction. "Turn back, turn back, we're whipped," Union soldiers cried as they ran past the spectators. Startled, Michigan senator Zachariah Chandler tried to block the road to stop the retreat. Senator Ben Wade of Ohio, sensing a disastrous defeat, picked up a discarded rifle and threatened to shoot any soldier who ran. While Senator Henry Wilson distributed sandwiches, a Confederate shell destroyed his buggy, forcing him to escape on a stray mule. Iowa senator James Grimes barely avoided capture and vowed never to go near another battlefield.

Senators returned to Washington "with gloomy faces," noted one reporter, where they delivered eyewitness accounts to a stunned President Lincoln. Only one member of Congress, New York representative Alfred Ely, made it to Richmond that day—as a prisoner of war. The Union army's defeat at Bull Run shocked and sobered members of Congress, making it painfully clear that the war would last much longer than 90 days and be harder fought than anyone had expected. It certainly would be no picnic.

Cheers rang out in the streets of Washington on July 16, 1861 as Gen. Irvin McDowell’s army, 35,000 strong, marched out to begin the long-awaited campaign to capture Richmond and end the war. It was an army of green recruits, few of whom had the faintest idea of the magnitude of the task facing them. But their swaggering gait showed that none doubted the outcome. As excitement spread, many citizens and congressman with wine and picnic baskets followed the army into the field to watch what all expected would be a colorful show.

These troops were 90-day volunteers summoned by President Abraham Lincoln after the startling news of Fort Sumter burst over the nation in April 1861. Called from shops and farms, they had little knowledge of what war would mean. The first day’s march covered only five miles, as many straggled to pick blackberries or fill canteens.

McDowell’s lumbering columns were headed for the vital railroad junction at Manassas. Here the Orange and Alexandria Railroad met the Manassas Gap Railroad, which led west to the Shenandoah Valley. If McDowell could seize this junction, he would stand astride the best overland approach to the Confederate capital.

On July 18 McDowell’s army reached Centreville. Five miles ahead a small meandering stream named Bull Run crossed the route of the Union advance, and there guarding the fords from Union Mills to the Stone Bridge waited 22,000 Southern troops under the command of Gen. Pierre G.T. Beauregard. McDowell first attempted to move toward the Confederate right flank, but his troops were checked at Blackburn’s Ford. He then spent the next two days scouting the Southern left flank. In the meantime, Beauregard asked the Confederate government at Richmond for help. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, stationed in the Shenandoah Valley with 10,000 Confederate troops, was ordered to support Beauregard if possible. Johnston gave an opposing Union army the slip and, employing the Manassas Gap Railroad, started his brigades toward Manassas Junction. Most of Johnston’s troops arrived at the junction on July 20 and 21, some marching directly into battle.

On the morning of July 21, McDowell sent his attack columns in a long march north towards Sudley Springs Ford. This route took the Federals around the Confederate left. To distract the Southerners, McDowell ordered a diversionary attack where the Warrenton Turnpike crossed Bull Run at the Stone Bridge. At 5:30a.m. the deep-throated roar of a 30-pounder Parrott rifle shattered the morning calm, and signaled the start of the battle.

McDowell’s new plan depended on speed and surprise, both difficult with inexperienced troops. Valuable time was lost as the men stumbled through the darkness along narrow roads. Confederate Col. Nathan Evans, commanding at the Stone Bridge, soon realized that the attack on his front was only a diversion. Leaving a small force to hold the bridge, Evans rushed the remainder of his command to Matthews Hill in time to check McDowell’s lead unit. But Evans’ force was too small to hold back the Federals for long.

Soon brigades under Barnard Bee and Francis Bartow marched to Evans’ assistance. But even with these reinforcements, the thin gray line collapsed and Southerners fled in disorder toward Henry Hill. Attempting to rally his men, Bee used Gen. Thomas J. Jackson’s newly arrived brigade as an anchor. Pointing to Jackson, Bee shouted, “There stands Jackson like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians!” Generals Johnston and Beauregard then arrived on Henry Hill, where they assisted in rallying shattered brigades and redeploying fresh units that were marching to the point of danger.

About noon, the Federals stopped their advance to reorganize for a new attack. The lull lasted for about an hour, giving the Confederates enough time to reform their lines. Then the fighting resumed, each side trying to force the other off Henry Hill. The battle continued until just after 4p.m., when fresh Southern units crashed into the Union right flank on Chinn Ridge, causing McDowell’s tired and discouraged soldiers to withdraw.

At first the withdrawal was orderly. Screened by the regulars, the three-month volunteers retired across Bull Run, where they found the road to Washington jammed with the carriages of congressmen and others who had driven out to Centreville to watch the fight. Panic now seized many of the soldiers and the retreat became a rout. The Confederates, though bolstered by the arrival of President Jefferson Davis on the field just as the battle was ending, were too disorganized to follow up on their success. Daybreak on July 22 found the defeated Union army back behind the bristling defenses of Washington.