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This Day In History, July 21st, 2021 – “The Big Battle”



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It was just 160 years ago today, July 21, 1861, when both Yankee and Reb clashed for the first time in a major battle. The location, Virginia, near Bull Run Creek and the town of Manassas. Now, when both sides get together, they usually don’t agree on the name of the battlefield before they “be a fixin on doing some shootin”. In the history books, this is called the First Battle of Bull Run, because there will be a second one, but the First Battle of Manassas works just as fine.

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Since Fort Sumter, both sides had been engaged in skirmishes, whilst the main armies built up their forces. Finally, the time was ready to fight. There was great fanfare with the battle, with local people, many from Washington D.C., venturing out to the place of battle to have a picnic, as many people thought this little conflict would be decided with one major fight, how wrong they were. The Union made the first advances, and for some time, it looked like they might just win. Though both sides were for the most part evenly matched, the Union managed to press the Confederate left flank around Bull Run Creek. At one point, the Rebs seemed to be on the run. However, through the smoke of the battle, Confederate General Barnard Elliott Bee Jr. shouted out to his men, “There is Jackson standing like a stone wall”, and Colonel Jackson and his brigade, whilst suffering many casualties, managed to hold off the Yankee advance. When Confederate reinforcements led by General Joseph E. Johnston arrived by train, the Union Army, which had been on the verge of victory, soon began to retreat, and chaos swept the ranks as Yankee soldiers ran back to D.C., even trampling over some of the civilians that had come to watch the fight. Lincoln, rightfully upset over this disaster, asked for more men to join the ranks of the Union Army. This one fight that was to end the war, was just one bloody beginning to the worst conflict in U.S. history and on U.S. soil. 160 years ago today, the American Civil War was just getting started.

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