"We Shall Meet Again" The First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run), July 18-21, 1861

by McDonald, JoAnna M.

• ISBN13: 9780195139389
• ISBN10: 0195139380
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-01-18
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The First Battle of Manassas claimed the lives of approximately 878 soldiers and wounded another 2,489. With a battlefield stretching nearly five miles, 15,000 Union and 14,000 Confederate soldiers clashed for four fateful days, many of them young and terrified and receiving their first taste of a long and bitter war. Their courage, military skill, and brute strength were tested, leading some brigades and many individuals to receive reputations that followed them into history. Now, for the first time, this extraordinary work brings the Battle of Bull Run to life by featuring over two hundred photographs of the individual soldiers and forty-five highly detailed maps. Written by a noted military historian, it provides all the necessary background information to understand the minutiae of the military action, yet it also personalizes the horrors of those few destructive days. Through poignant, often disturbing, excerpts from diaries and letters, this book offers readers a rare glimpse at the tragedy of war. Moreover, it portrays with realism and compassion the significance of the first battle of the bloodiest war in American history. Private John Casler, 33rd Virginia, found his best friend dead, shot through the heart. Overcome with grief, he recalled, "I sat down by him and took a hearty cry, and then thinks I, 'It does not look well for a soldier to cry,' but I could not help it." As Private Berrien Zettler, 8th Georgia, walked among the mutilated bodies, he thought to himself, "Surely, surely, there will never be another battle. I felt sure there would never be another."

Author Biography

JoAnna M.McDonald has been a student of military history for sixteen years. She is also the author of several battlefield guides, including The World Will Long Remember: A Guide to the Battle of Gettysburg and The Liberation of Pointe-du-Hoc: The 2d Rangers at Normandy.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledgements	xi
Introduction	xii
Ways and Means	1	(24)
Weapons at First Manassas	1	(1)
Uniforms	2	(3)
Flags	5	(3)
Commanders	8	(2)
Organization of the Armies	10	(7)
Strategies and Initial Battle Plans	17	(4)
Vignette: A Soldier's Last Letter Home	21	(2)
The March to Manassas	23	(2)
The Battle at Blackburn's Ford	25	(9)
Vignette: Mr. Wilmer Mclean	32	(2)
Revised Battle Plans	34	(5)
Stone Bridge	39	(7)
Vignette: The 30-Pounder Parrott Cannon	42	(4)
Hunter's and Heintzelman's Flank March	46	(4)
Matthews Hill	50	(26)
Vignette: Dr. Watkins Vaughan and his Personal Servant	64	(12)
Young's Branch	76	(7)
Vignette: Lieutenant Harry T. Buford	82	(1)
Lull in the Infantry Fight	83	(6)
The Battle for Henry Hill	89	(61)
Vignette: Mrs. Judith Henry	98	(52)
Chinn Farm	150	(9)
The Retreat	159	(8)
Vignette: Brother Against Brother: The Mcallisters	164	(3)
The Pursuitt	167	(7)
Vignette: The Black Horse Troop	170	(2)
Vignette: U.S. Representative Alfred Ely	172	(2)
Killed and Wounded	174	(2)
Summary	176	(3)
Change of Commanders	179	(2)
Epilogue: ``We Shall Meet Again''	181	(3)
Appendix I: Spoils of War	184	(1)
Appendix II: States Represented at First Manassas and their Killed and Wounded	185	(1)
Appendix III: Order of Battles	186	(11)
Appendix IV: Tour of Manassas National Battlefield Park	197	(1)
Endnotes	198	(11)
Photographs---Bibliography	209	(6)
Bibliography	215	(9)
Index	224