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First Battle Of Bull Run Essay

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The First Battle of Bull Run is one of the Civil War’s major battles. Even though the Civil War started due to the fact that the Confederate troops shelled Fort Sumner on April 12, 1861, the war didn’t really begin until the Battle of Bull Run, which was fought and began in Virginia, which is many miles from Washington D.C, and it took place on July 21, 1861.
Due to popular decision, it led President Lincoln to a decisive action of sending Brigadier General Irvin McDowell, a commander of the Union Army in Northern Virginia, to attack Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard’s Confederate troops along Bull Run, which is northeast of Manassas Junction. The plan of the attack is to quickly diminish the Confederate Army, open the path to Richmond, (the …show more content…

The Confederate’s plan had major mistakes. First of all, there were several communication failures and a bad lack of coordination between the units. McDowell’s plan also had problems as well. His plan is severely complicated and it needed a complex synchronization from the troops.
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. As Beauregard sent small armies to take care of what he thought was a distraction, he also sent a larger group to perform attacking a flanking movement of his own on the Union’s left side.
As fighting raged throughout the day, the Confederate forces were being driven back, even though Thomas Jackson’s impressive efforts to hold the important high ground at the location called Henry House Hill. Because of this, he earned the nickname of

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