BULL RUN, First Battle of. The first great battle of the Civil War occurred Sunday, 21 July 1861, in the vicinity of Manassas, Va. The Union forces were commanded by Briga dier-General Irvin McDowell, the Confederates by General Joseph E. Johnston, who had ar rived from Winchester at noon of the 20th with nine regiments of his army and assumed command. The battlefield was west of Bull Run and near the crossing of that stream by the turnpike running nearly west from Alex andria to Warrenton. This road, a mile and a half west of the Stone Bridge by which it crossed Bull Run, unexpectedly to the Confed erates, became the axis of the battle. Bull Run is a narrow,. winding stream with rugged and mainly precipitous banks, but with numerous • fords, flowing 'southeastwardly, being about 25 miles west of Alexandria and from three to five miles west of Manassas.
McDowell marched from his camps in front of Arlington and Alexandria on the afternoon of the 16th of July, with five divisions, com manded respectively by Brigadier-General Dan iel Tyler, four brigades; Colonel David Hunter, two brigades; Colonel S. P. Heintzelman, four brigades; Brigadier-General Theodore Runyon, two brigades, and Colonel Dixon S. Miles, three brigades. The Fourth Division was left as a reserve in the region of Fairfax, guarding the lines of communication. The advance divi sion, Tyler's, reached Centreville the morning of the 18th and sent a brigade to Blackburn's Ford in reconnoissance. After a sharp skirmish in which both sides lost about 60 men, it with drew toward Centreville, to which point Mc Dowell hearing of the operations at Black burn's concentrated four divisions.
Ford, Longstreet's at Blackburn's Ford, Bon ham's between Mitchell's and Ball's fords, Cocke's at Lewis' Ford, and Evans' demi brigade at the Stone Bridge forming the Con federate left. Of Johnston's Army of the Shenandoah, Jackson's brigade supported Bon ham, and Bee and Bartow supported Cocke.
From each of these fords fair roads led to Centreville. General Beauregard had planned an attack upon Centreville which involved an advance of his whole force upon that point. This was officially approved by General John The Confederate ((Army of the Potomac)) had been concentrated at Manassas under Gen eral Beauregard. In expectation of a Union
advance it occupied the south bank of Bull Run for eight miles from Union Mills Ford, at the crossing of the railroad to Alexandria, to the Stone Bridge, at the Warrenton turnpike, three brigades being thrown forward of that posi tion, one of them to Fairfax Court House. These brigades fell back before the Union ad vance, skirmishing slightly. Ewell's brigade, the right of the line, was at Union Mills, with Holmes in support, Jones' brigade at McLean's ston before daylight of the 21st, but at sunrise it was rendered impossible by McDowell's ini tiative. The plan was then changed to an attack on the Union left from Blackburn's Ford. This also was abandoned from the same cause.
McDowell, who had first intended to attack the enemy's right, after the affair at Blackburn's Ford, finding the ford at Sudley Spring two miles beyond the Confederate left, decided to attack from that direction. While Tyler feinted before the Stone Bridge, Hunter and Heintzel man, by a long detour, crossed at Sudley Spring and moved south toward the Warrenton turn pike in the enemy's rear. Evans, at the bridge, discovering the movement, withdrew 11 com panies and formed them on a ridge half a mile north of the road as the head of Hunter's col umn entered the open fields which extended a mile north of the Warrenton road. Evans made stubborn resistance and was soon supported by Bee's brigade and Imboden's battery. While the position was hotly contested, the Confeder ates were pressed back down the hill, across the valley of Young's branch, a tributary of Bull Run, to the plateau south of it upon which were the Robinson and Henry houses. Two of Ty ler's brigades crossed above the Stone Bridge and joined Hunter and Heintzelman in their advance. The fighting continued desperate until noon, and for new troops was, for both sides, most remarkable, but the Confederate line, though stubbornly contesting the ground, began to disintegrate, and the road to Manassas was crowded with retiring soldiers.