DARK DAY AT BULL RUN (cont.)

Exploding Union shrapnel ripped through the Henry house striking  udith Henry in the neck and flank and nearly amputating her foot.  Her daughter, Ellen, had taken refuge within the fireplace and was unhurt.  John Henry, her son, was caught outside and spend the rest of the battle prone in the yard, all the while weeping over the sound of his mother’s painful cries.  Judith Henry died later that day, before sunset, the first civilian casualty of the Civil War.

Through the afternoon of July 21^st Union and Confederate hammered each other across Henry Hill.  Reynolds’ Marines took up position behind the rise upon which Griffin’s battery stood, but here they found themselves subject to heavy fire from their right flank as well as from Confederate “overs” falling from in front.  Three times the inexperienced regiment broke under this fire, but three times Reynolds and his officers rallied the men.  Near mid-afternoon Griffin detached his two naval howitzers to an exposed knoll on his extreme right, from whence they could enfilade the whole Confederate artillery line.  Infantry protection for these howitzers was requested, but the gunners had positioned themselves before that support could materialize.  And as the cannoneers loaded their first rounds, a solid line of Virginians stepped unexpectedly from the trees only 50 yards away.  They loosed a murderous volley that struck down every man of the howitzer crews.  The rebels bounded to the guns and turned them toward the Union lines.  It proved the pivotal point of the battle.

The Union situation turned dreadful.  Confusion reigned.  Through the smoke of battle men had trouble distinguishing the varied blue and gray friendly uniforms from those of the enemy.  Hanging limp in the slack breeze, the red, white, and blue “Stars and Stripes” was difficult for panicked soldiers to differentiate from the similarly patterned Confederate “Stars and Bars.”  McDowell’s numerically superior recruits ran.  Most didn’t stop until they reached Washington.  Reynolds’ men were among them.

Back at the Marine Barracks, Reynolds berated the performance of his regiment.  He had lost nine killed and 35 wounded or missing, but those numbers didn’t account the 70 he had been forced to reclaim from the custody of the provost marshal.  CDR John A. Dahlgren of the Navy Ordnance Depot deplored the loss of two naval howitzers.  In a letter to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, USMC Commandant COL John Harris admitted this to be the first time the Corps had, “turned their backs to the enemy.”  In retrospect however, that Reynolds was able rally and hold his raw recruits at all on this bloody day is now considered remarkable.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  29 JUL 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

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.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Civil War Naval Chronology 1861-1865.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1961, p. I-20.

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, 3^rd ed.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1992, pp. 79-80.

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:  The Confederacy’s official flag, the “Stars and Bars” bore three horizontal bars of red, white, and blue and a blue canton containing a star for each Confederate State.  It resembled the Union’s “Stars and Stripes” closely, especially when draped calmly on the staff.  To avoid further confusion, after this battle the Confederacy designated a “battle ensign” that was identifiable even hanging limp–the ensign we call today the “rebel flag” with its familiar blue “X” across a field of solid red.

The National Park Service preserves the Manassas National Battlefield in much the same state as it was in 1861.  Indeed, period guns have been deployed on the field today as they were arranged at the critical moment Griffin’s far right battery fell.

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                                        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 16^th, 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 1^st Brigade of the Army’s 1^st 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 21^st, 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 11^th 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, 3^rd 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 17^th 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.

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