Dark Day at Bull Run
21 JULY 1861
DARK DAY AT BULL RUN
North and South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Virginia had all seceded from the United States and established their capital in Richmond. US Army installations in the disputed territory had been bombarded, and rebel armies were on the march. Still, skeptic Northerners believed this rebellion would last only until one decisive blow by the US Army dashed the upstart southern cause. In July 1861, when Confederate forces were seen at the Manassas Junction railhead 28 miles west of Washington, the time for US Army Commander BGEN Irvin McDowell to strike that blow had come.
The Civil War caught the US Army small and largely unprepared. Most of McDowell’s troops were untrained recruits for whom the ink had not yet dried on their enlistment papers. Many were without weapons or uniforms. As they marched out of Washington on July 16th, this motley collection was clad in various shades of blue, gray, or red and bore a confusing array of regimental standards. Attached to McDowell’s army as it left Washington was a USMC regiment of 336 men and 12 officers under the command of (brevet) MAJ John G. Reynolds. All of Reynolds’ men, save 5 officers and 9 non-comms, were raw recruits as well. The Marines had been totally absorbed into the 1st Brigade of the Army’s 1st Division, even their two naval howitzers were re-assigned to the “West Point Battery,” the Army artillery unit of CPT Charles Griffin.
The opposing armies met on Sunday morning, July 21st, along a stream, Bull Run, seven miles northeast of Manassas Junction. McDowell sent 16,000 men around the left flank of the rebel line, which the Confederates countered with a 900-strong force deployed across the Sudley Road. They clashed on Matthews Hill where the plucky Confederates briefly held. Outnumbered 16:1, the rebels began to give, but a mile to their rear, BGEN Thomas J. Jackson’s Virginians stood fast on Henry Hill, “like a stone wall.” McDowell directed artillery to blast Jackson, deploying them on a small rise only 200 yards from Jackson’s line–Griffin’s battery on the right and CPT J.B. Ricketts’ battery on the left. The 11th New York Zouaves were detailed to protect Griffin’s guns, but when they were slow to arrive, Reynolds’ regiment was sent.
By mid-day the two sides occupied facing positions at musket range across the Henry farm. The Henry family’s modest frame house anchored the left of the Union artillery position, sheltering the 85-year-old widowed and bedridden family matriarch, Judith Henry, w-o had refused to leave. Her late husband, Dr. Isaac Henry, had served with distinction as a Navy surgeon under CAPT Thomas Truxtun aboard the frigate CONSTELLATION, 48, during the Quasi-War with France. But as Confederates began sniping from the cover of the Henry house, CPT Ricketts ordered his left-most two guns to turn and fire point-blank into the structure.
Continued tomorrow…
Davis, William C. Battle at Bull Run: A History of the First Major Campaign of the Civil War. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State Univ Press, 1977.
Metcalf, Clyde H. A History of the United States Marine Corps. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1939, pp. 198-99.
Millett, Allan R. Semper Fidelis: The History of the United States Marine Corps. New York, NY: Macmillan Pub Co., 1980, pp. 93-95.
Moskin, J. Robert. The U.S. Marine Corps Story, 3rd ed. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1992, pp. 79-80.
Palmer, Michael A. Stoddert’s War: Naval Operations during the Quasi-War with France, 1798-1801. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1987, p. 187.
Pierce, Philip N. and Frank O. Hough. The Compact History of the United States Marine Corps. New York, NY: Hawthorn Books, 1964, pp. 120-22.
Site Visit, Manassas National Battlefield, Manassas, VA, September 2001.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: Confederate GEN Bernard Bee, whose troops were falling back from Matthews Hill, rallied his men by pointing out BGEN Thomas Jackson surveying the battle from his mount, “There stands Jackson like a stone wall!” General Bee was mortally wounded several hours later, and died never knowing he had conferred upon Jackson an eternal eponym.
Reynolds was a “brevet” Major, a status akin to a modern “frocked” officer. His meritorious conduct in the Mexican War had earned him privilege of wearing the rank, though he was still paid as a Captain. One of MAJ Reynolds’ subordinate officers this day was also a veteran of the Mexican War, CPT Jacob Zeilin, USMC. In 1864 Zeilin would be promoted to colonel and succeed John Harris as the 17th Commandant of the Marine Corps. Another of Reynolds’ decorated mess mates from Mexican War, George Terret, had transferred from the Marine Corps and on this day was a colonel in the Union Army. He was also at Bull Run.