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    Staff Ride Guide - The Battle Of First Bull Run [Illustrated Edition]
    Staff Ride Guide - The Battle Of First Bull Run [Illustrated Edition]
    Staff Ride Guide - The Battle Of First Bull Run [Illustrated Edition]
    Ebook154 pages1 hour

    Staff Ride Guide - The Battle Of First Bull Run [Illustrated Edition]

    By Ted Ballard

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    Illustrated with 12 maps and 15 Illustrations.
    On 16 July 1861, the largest army ever assembled on the North American continent up to that time marched from the vicinity of Washington, D.C., toward Manassas Junction, thirty miles to the southwest. Commanded by newly promoted Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell, the Union force consisted of partly trained militia with ninety-day enlistments (almost untrained volunteers) and three newly organized battalions of Regulars. Many soldiers, unaccustomed to military discipline or road marches, left the ranks to obtain water, gather blackberries, or simply to rest as the march progressed.
    Near Manassas, along a meandering stream known as Bull Run, waited the similarly untrained Confederate army commanded by Brig. Gen. Pierre G. T. Beauregard. This army would soon be joined by another Confederate force, commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston.
    After a minor clash of arms on 18 July, McDowell launched the first major land battle of the Civil War by attempting to turn the Confederate left flank on 21 July. A series of uncoordinated and sometimes confusing attacks and counterattacks by both sides finally ended in a defeat for the Union Army and its withdrawal to Washington.
    The Battle of First Bull Run highlighted many of the problems and deficiencies that were typical of the first year of the war. Units were committed piecemeal, attacks were frontal, infantry failed to protect exposed artillery, tactical intelligence was nil, and neither commander was able to employ his whole force effectively. McDowell, with 35,000 men, was only able to commit about 18,000, and the combined Confederate forces, with about 32,000 men, committed only 18,000.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGolden Springs Publishing
    Release dateAug 15, 2014
    ISBN9781782894599
    Staff Ride Guide - The Battle Of First Bull Run [Illustrated Edition]

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      Book preview

      Staff Ride Guide - The Battle Of First Bull Run [Illustrated Edition] - Ted Ballard

       This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.picklepartnerspublishing.com

      To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – picklepublishing@gmail.com

      Or on Facebook

      Text originally published in 2003 under the same title.

      © Pickle Partners Publishing 2013, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      Staff Ride Guide

      BATTLE OF FIRST BULL RUN

      by

      Ted Ballard

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Contents

      TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

      FOREWORD 5

      THE AUTHOR 6

      PREFACE 7

      FIRST BULL RUN: AN OVERVIEW 8

      Prelude to Battle 8

      The Battle 15

      Summary 37

      FURTHER READINGS 39

      CHRONOLOGY 40

      27 May 1861 40

      9 July 1861 40

      16 July 1861 40

      17 July 1861 40

      18 July 1861 40

      19 July 1861 41

      20 July 1861 41

      21 July 1861 41

      ORDER OF BATTLE, 21 JULY 1861 45

      Army of Northeastern Virginia (United States Army) — Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell 45

      Army of the Shenandoah (Confederate States Army) — General Joseph E. Johnston 47

      Army of the Potomac (Confederate States Army) — Brig. Gen. Pierre G. T. Beauregard 48

      CASUALTIES 51

      ORGANIZATION 52

      TACTICS 53

      Infantry 53

      Artillery 53

      Cavalry 54

      SMALL ARMS 55

      ARTILLERY 57

      TYPICAL CIVIL WAR FIELD ARTILLERY 58

      Artillery Projectiles 58

      Solid Projectiles 58

      Shell 59

      Case Shot 59

      Canister 60

      LOGISTICS 61

      U.S. Army Bureau System 62

      Supply Operations 63

      The Soldier’s Load 63

      Annual Clothing Issue 63

      Rations 63

      Wagons 64

      Forage 64

      Tents 64

      Baggage 65

      SELECTED BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 66

      Union Officers 66

      Irvin McDowell 1818–1885, Ohio USMA 1838 66

      Ambrose E. Burnside 1824–1881, Indiana USMA 1847 67

      Erasmus D. Keyes 1810–1895, Massachusetts USMA 1832 68

      Daniel Tyler 1799–1882, Connecticut USMA 1819 69

      Confederate Officers 70

      Pierre G. T. Beauregard 1818–1893, Louisiana USMA 1838 70

      Joseph E. Johnston 1807–1891, Virginia USMA 1829 71

      Thomas J. Jackson 1824–1863, Virginia USMA 1846 72

      Nathan G. Evans 1824–1868, South Carolina USMA 1848 73

      SUGGESTED STOPS 75

      Stop 1: Stone Bridge. 75

      Summary 75

      Stop 2: Matthews’ Hill. 75

      Summary 75

      Stop 3: Stone house. 76

      Summary 76

      Stop 4: Ricketts’ and Griffin’s batteries. 76

      Summary 76

      Stop 5: Robinson house. 77

      Summary 77

      Stop 6: Jackson’s position. 77

      Summary 77

      Stop 7: Griffin’s section. 77

      Summary 77

      Stop 8: Chinn Ridge. 78

      Summary 78

      REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 79

      FOREWORD

      The U. S. Army has long used the staff ride as a tool for professional development, conveying the lessons of the past to contemporary soldiers. In 1906 Maj. Eben Swift took twelve officer-students from Fort Leavenworth's General Service and Staff School to the Chickamauga battlefield on the Army's first official staff ride. Since that time Army educators have employed staff rides to provide officers a better understanding of past military operations, of the vagaries of war, and of military planning. A staff ride to an appropriate battlefield can also enliven a unit's esprit de corps-a constant objective in peacetime or war.

      To support such Army initiatives, the Center of Military History publishes staff ride guides, such as this one on the Battle of First Bull Run. This account is drawn principally from contemporary after action reports and from the sworn testimony of participants before the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, a congressional entity created to investigate the Union defeats at First Bull Run and Ball's Bluff.

      A First Bull Run staff ride can offer significant military lessons. Revisiting this battle through the eyes of the men who were there, both leaders and rank-and-file soldiers, allows one insights into decision making under pressure and the human condition during battle. The campaign contains many lessons in command and control, communications, intelligence, logistics, the accommodation of advances in weapon technology, and mobilization in the absence of universal military training.

      First Bull Run was a first battle-a major engagement after a prolonged period of peace. For some it constitutes a metaphor of the price paid for military unpreparedness. Hopefully, this volume will prove a useful tool for those conducting a staff ride to First Bull Run.

      JOHN S. BROWN

      Brigadier General, USA

      Chief of Military History

      Washington, D. C.

      30 October 2003

      THE AUTHOR

      Ted Ballard has been a historian with the U. S. Army Center of Military History since 1980 and a part of the Center's staff ride program since 1986. Battle of First Bull Run joins his other battlefield guides to Ball's Bluff, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Wilderness/Spotsylvania. In addition to being the author of numerous articles on military history, he was a contributor to the Center's publication, The Story of the Non-commissioned Officer Corps; the author of Rhineland, a brochure in the Center's series commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of World War II; and a contribution to the U. S. Army Training and Doctrine Command publication, American Military Heritage, and to the Virginia Army National Guard publication, The Tradition Continues: A History of the Virginia National Guard, 1607-1895.

      PREFACE

      On 16 July 1861, the largest army ever assembled on the North American continent up to that time marched from the vicinity of Washington, D.C., toward Manassas Junction, thirty miles to the southwest. Commanded by newly promoted Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell, the Union force consisted of partly trained militia with ninety-day enlistments (almost untrained volunteers) and three newly organized battalions of Regulars. Many soldiers, unaccustomed to military discipline or road marches, left the ranks to obtain water, gather blackberries, or simply to rest as the march progressed.

      Near Manassas, along a meandering stream known as Bull Run, waited the similarly untrained Confederate army commanded by Brig. Gen. Pierre G. T. Beauregard. This army would soon be joined by another Confederate force, commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston.

      After a minor clash of arms on 18 July, McDowell launched the first major land battle of the Civil War by attempting to turn the Confederate left flank on 21 July. A series of uncoordinated and sometimes

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