ipl-logo

Battle Of Bull Run Essay

1258 Words6 Pages

If the Union won at The First Battle of Bull Run The purpose of this paper is to examine the historical events that occurred during the Battle of Bull Run. Although it is known that the Confederate Army defeated the Union Army in July 1861, I believe the battle would have ended differently if not for valuable intelligence that was given to the Confederates during the beginning of the battle. The information the Confederates received helped them redirect their efforts and defeat the Union Army at Henry Hill. If not for this information, the Union would have defeated the Confederate Army and would have marched on to Richmond, Virginia. The Beginning of the Battle In mid-July 1861, Union General (Gen.) McDowell pushed is army westward from Washington D.C. to confront the Confederate force. “The Union and Confederate armies clashed near …show more content…

Beauregard during the Battle of Bull Run. This message warned Gen. Beauregard of the Unions plan to go on the offensive which was delivered by a 16-year-old girl named Betty Duval a Confederate spy. “McDowell's plan counted in part on Union Major Gen. Robert Patterson’s troops preventing Gen. Joseph Johnston’s Army of the Shenandoah in Winchester from providing reinforcements to Beauregard, ensuring the Union would outnumber the Confederates at Manassas” (HistoryNet, 2017). McDowell would go on the offensive towards Beauregard in order to push the Confederates back away from the rail junction and allow the Union to push towards Richmond. Greenhow was able to obtain this plan and quickly sent to Beauregard who took this and began to plan his own scheme. Beauregard contacted Johnson and told him to slip away from Patterson’s army and to merely come and reinforce his army. While waiting, for Patterson Beauregard fell back to the railroad junction where Johnston’s troops would arrive. Once Johnston troops arrived, they defeated the Union Army and pushed them back to

Show More
Related
195 Words | 1 Pages

His military experience began when he was placed in command of the defenses of Charleston, South Carolina. At the battle of Fort Sumter Beauregard fired the first shots. Later became second in command to General Joseph. E. Johnston and soon became general after Johnson was killed in the Battle of Shiloh. His mistake at Shiloh made Jefferson Davis hate him more when Beauregard

Read More
530 Words | 3 Pages

Jackson and Hancock are both given brigade commands (Jackson Confederate and Hancock Union). Chamberlain becomes a Lieutenant colonel in the 20th Main regiment (Union). At the Battle of Manassas junction, the first battle of the war, the Confederacy drove the Union Army away in a panic. Soon after, the weight of the battle came crashing down on both sides and they came to the realization that this was going to be bloodier than they thought.

Read More
1137 Words | 5 Pages

But they were met only by a deadly volley of rifle fire. At this point the Confederate Colors fell many of times. Finally realizing they could no longer hold their position the Confederates fell back crossing the bridge trying to still defend their position and losing many Confederate soldiers. They were order to retreat to Honey Springs were they held their

Read More
1338 Words | 6 Pages

The confederate had a lot of trained tactics in the war for their generals and soldiers as show in this quote by SIR “Finding that our battery did not provoke the enemy to discover his force and his batteries, I ordered Colonel Richardson to advance his brigade and to throw out skirmishers to scour the thick woods with which the whole bottom of Bull Run was covered. This order was skillfully executed, and the skirmishers came out of the wood into the road and close to the ford without provoking any considerable fire from the enemy.” This is because the confederacy troops were a little more trained then the United States troops and even the generals of the United States didn’t believe they were trained enough for the upcoming battles and the battle at bull run which this would give the United States a disadvantage compared to the more trained troops and officers of the south. Another quote told by R. Patterson explains how he felt “That I have suffered additional injustice at the hands of the General-in-Chief who sanctioned and fixed the impression that the enemy at Winchester was inferior to me in force in every arm of service, and yet has not corrected that report, although he knew two days after the battle of Bull Run that siege artillery heavier than mine, and three times as numerous, had been left by the enemy at

Read More
1274 Words | 6 Pages

Leaders of the Lost Cause New Perspectives on the Confederate High Command is a two hundred and ninety four page book edited by Gary W. Gallagher and Joseph T. Glatthaar. In 2004 it was published by STACKPOLEBOOKS. This book is a collection of essays that describes eight Confederate generals. In this collection of essays the reader is presented with a new perspective concerning the decisions and lives of these eight Confederate generals. In this book the reader learns that without each general making the careful decisions they did the life many Americans know today many not exist.

Read More
689 Words | 3 Pages

He was afraid to risk failure so he never would risk doing anything. On the other hand, the Confederates leaders had General Robert E. Lee, who commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. He was considered a big risk taker. McClellan was not too worried about Lee or his army thinking that Lee was weak and too cautious but Lee was anything but that. General Lee gathered as many men as was available and attacked General McClellan on June 26, 1862 repeatedly for seven days.

Read More
299 Words | 2 Pages

In 1863, tensions ran high between the Confederates and the Union as they were in a race to claim Chattanooga, Tennessee. Between both of their armies stood each other, with hundreds of men, thousands of weapons, and two skillful commanders, Braxton Bragg and William Rosecrans. Through the video, Bragg and Rosecrans have very similar ideas on attacking their opponent, most of the time; it was division of the large army into multiple parts and attack on different sides. In the video, Bragg is described to be a non-social man, with no one really liking him and him not really liking anyone else. For Bragg, one of the most detrimental moments of the war which was suppose to be the signal for the Confederate’s to attack was the exchange with Lieutenant

Read More
869 Words | 4 Pages

Chamberlain and his men move to the middle of both Union flanks. Longstreet still wants to move the army to D.C. but Lee still refuses. They plan an attack on the Union army but it doesn’t do much harm to them because of the artillery shooting too high. The Union start their fire and most of the soldiers are killed leading the Confederate to retreat and the Battle is

Read More
491 Words | 2 Pages

The battle was one of several that took place as a result of the Federal objective of trying to take the Confederate capital, Richmond, in Virginia. The Union army had been defeated in four major encounters with the same objective in the previous two years. As a result of these defeats, morale was low and the Union army was suffering from a high desertion rate. Major General Ambrose Burnside wanted to implement widespread changes in the Army of the Potomac by removing many if its most senior officers, but failed to get the necessary approval from Congress. Disillusioned, he offered his resignation to the President, Abraham Lincoln, but Lincoln persuaded him to accept a different command.

Read More
853 Words | 4 Pages

In spite of his determination, he had many weaknesses. He had never made a clear combat policy, leaving generals like Robert E. Lee and Braxton Bragg to develop strategies that suited their purposes. He was also unwilling to replace incompetent or lying generals, shown in the cases of P.G.T. Beauregard and Braxton Bragg. Beauregard thought he should have been appointed President of the Confederacy after the first battle of Bull Run. He filed a report three months after the battle claiming he could have taken Washington following his victory at Bull Run but was ordered by Jefferson Davis not to do so.

Read More
544 Words | 3 Pages

General Robert E. Lee ordered his troops to stay at a specific place near the Bull Run River. After the Union attacked the Confederates, the Confederates had fewer people but knew the map better of where everything was. With fewer people, the Confederate managed to beat the Union, which had twice as many troops as the Confederate! This war is known as one of the bloodiest battles in American history. After the First Battle of Bull Run, a lot of events happened.

Read More
518 Words | 3 Pages

When you think about the Civil War, you usually think about people like Robert E. Lee or Ulysses S. Grant. They aren’t the only important people in the war, there are many more. One of these important people is Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, mostly known as PGT Beauregard. Beauregard was a huge help to the Confederate in the beginning of the war. He helped at a lot of the major battles.

Read More
902 Words | 4 Pages

Johnston's successor, Beauregard, was very certain he had control of the situation. He was not aware that Buell's men had arrived. They wrapped around the Tennessee river and advanced slowly. The troops managed to split from there. They split into several divisions and took over the important area.

Read More
989 Words | 4 Pages

Major General John Pope lead approximately 62,000 Union soldiers in the Second Battle of Bull Run. On the other side, the Confederates were lead by General Robert E. Lee. Despite having fewer men, the Confederates were ultimately victorious as a result of their superior military strategy and their understanding and use of the local terrain. The Second Battle of Bull Run was greatly impacted by both the resources of the both the Union and the Confederate troops, as well as by the local geography of the battle.

Read More
637 Words | 3 Pages

Since there was a constant and repeated delay in the march and the results of the effective scouting from the Confederates, it gave Patterson’s movements away. Worst of it all, he was unable to get the attention of Johnston’s Confederate forces from the west, which is a disadvantage for Patterson. McDowell’s forces then began shelling the Confederates across the place called Bull Run. Some of the other forces began crossing Sudley Ford and gradually but slowly made their way toward the Confederate’s left flank.

Read More

More about Battle Of Bull Run Essay

Related Topics

Open Document