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First Battle Of Bull Run Essay

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The First Battle of Bull was the first major land battle of the American Civil War.
Bull Run proved to be more challenging than both the Union and Confederacy had expected it to be due to the lack of organization and number of men on both sides, The South and North both thought that this war would be short lived but Bull Run demonstrated that it would in fact be four long years.
PRELUDE TO THE BATTLE The battle took place in Manassas, Virginia. The Union General McDowell was hesitant to advance toward Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy. He had told Lincoln that his forces were not ready to fight and it would be a lot longer until they were. However, the already strained Lincoln still pushed for action. On July 16th McDowell marched his lacking army to Manassas, an important railroad junction to confront General P.G.T Beauregard and his soldiers. McDowell’s slow movement allowed Beauregard to call on General Joseph E. Johnston for reinforcements.
THE BATTLE
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The first battle of Manassas as it’s known in the south cost the Union 3,000 casualties to the confederate’s 1,750. This sent the northerners reeling, because they thought it would be a quick and decisive win, and gave a false hope to the southerners that they could pull off a speedy win themselves. In truth they would have to face four long and trying years of war that would take an unbelievable loss on both the land and its people. However in the confederacy allegations flew between the Generals of Bull Run and President Jefferson Davis on who was to blame for the failure to go after and overcome the enemy after the battle. In addition McDowell was removed from command and replaced him with George B. McClellan, who would retrain and reorganize the troops defending Washington into a trained fighting force, known later as the Army of

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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

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