The Second Bull Run Essay, Research Paper

It was July 1862 and the Civil War had been raging on for over a year. Eleven months longer than anyone ever expected. Both sides predicted a quick and swift victory. Neither expected the bloodshed would last four long years, with both sides suffering terrible loses. Neither sides predicated that the war would be the cause of over 620,000 casualties. Men signed up to join the army expecting adventure and time away from the usual day at home. Little did they know they didn+t have a good chance of making it home alive, or at least in one piece. They didn+t know the kind of warfare they would see. They didn+t realize they would see so many men die.

The Civil War introduced a whole new kind of war. The fighting tactics and weapons changed. The Civil War had repeating guns like the Gatling gun, a primitive type of machine gun. The first iron naval ships were used. As far as fighting tactics, no war had ever seen so much hand to hand combat. Both sides did have one strategy in common, and that was to attack each others capital and deliver a knockout blow to end the war. In spring of 1862 the Confederates moved their capital from Montgomery, Alabama to Richmond, Virginia, just over 90 miles south of Washington D.C. For this reason Virginia became the location of many major battles. One of which was, Second Bull Run or otherwise known to Confederates as the Battle of Manassas.

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Book Summary

On July 21,1861 the two armies met at Manassas junction. Lincoln sent out a call after Fort Sumter for 75,000 men. He ended up with 35,000 men, the largest army yet to be gathered in the Western hemisphere. In charge of those Union troops was General Irvin McDowell. The confederates were gathered around Manassas Junction. There were 20,000 men. They were led by P.T. Beauregard.

Because they thought the war would be swift Lincoln signed the volunteers for only ninety days. General McDowell was under pressure to attack as soon as possible because of the troops short contracts. After a series of small battles in and around Virginia, which would later become the place for most of the decisive battles of the Civil War, General McDowell would finnaly get a chance to prove his strength as a leader at the First battle of Bull Run. On July 16, 1861 General McDowell+s men marched out of the town of Alexandria and headed out to Manassas and Centerville. Three days later he reached Centerville only to find that the Confederates had taken position behind nearby Bull Run. McDowell+s men were not used to marching long distances in hot weather. McDowell set out to attack on the morning of July 21st. People from the town had never seen anything like this before so many of them carried blankets and picnic baskets out to watch the battle. Just when it looked like the Union forces would win, Confederate General Joseph Johnston arrived with reinforcements by the end of the day the Union army was running back to Washington D.C. The Confederates were too exhausted to follow up their victory.

President Lincoln, as well as everyone else in the north knew that the war would not be over quickly. After McDowell+s failure, President Lincoln hired Major General George B. McClellan to lead the main part of the Union army.

On the 17th of March, McClellan led his men on to Pennsylvania. His army consisted of 125,00 men, but Lincoln ordered McDowell+s 40,000 men to stay behind in Washington D.C. That loss of 40,000 men hurt McClellan+s campaign plans.

Lincoln put part of his remaining army together and formed The Army of Virginia. His only challenge was to find a commander who could lead them. His choices were General Ambrose Burnside, General U.S. Grant , and General John

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Pope. He chose General John Pope. Many people didn+t agree with his choice.

Many thought he chose Pope because he married Mary Todd, Lincoln+s oldest sister.

General Pope and the Army of Virginia wouldn+t be truly tested until the second Battle of Bull Run. Meanwhile General McClellan was marching his army of the Potomac into the heart of the South in Richmond Virginia. This forced Lee to split his army in order to defend Richmond from the greatly larger Union force. He ordered Stonewall Jackson to take 14,000 men and hold Pope and the Army of Virginia from joining General McClellan. General A.P. Hill joined Stonewall Jackson with 12,000 more men. This almost doubled the size of Jackson+s command. Now he was ready to challenge General Pope.

After losing two minor battles at Cedar Mountain and Groveton, General Pope was eager to attack. Pope+s choice of position left the back door open for General Jackson to attack.

Seeing this Pope quickly attacked Jackson+s left and right wings. McDowell was to attack Jackson+s center. Little did Pope know that Confederate General Longstreet was not far away with reinforcements, and General Hood who had less men then Longstreet, was a few hours away also.

On August 29th 1861, General Pope ordered an attack on Warrenton Turnpike at the left of the Confederate line, where General Hill had arrived not long before. The Union army succeeded in moving back the Confederates.

Pope assumed that his battle plan was going the way he wanted it to. His plan was to attack Jackson+s front while McDowell attacked the right. All he wanted was to hold Jackson so he couldn+t escape again.

That assumption would prove deadly, for Pope did not notify Corps commanders as to the exact location of the Confederates. So, the Union army was

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blind as to the position of the Confederate army. This with the arrival of Longstreet

would prove fatal for the Union Army.

On August 30, 1862, Lee+s plan for the day would be to have Longstreet attack Pope+s left side. General Reynolds warned Pope about the possible attack, but Pope didn+t listen. Pope was caught unexpected when Longstreet attacked mid-day on the 30th. Pope was forced to defend Longstreet+s attack. Pope was also hurt when Jackson+s men ruined railroad tracks that were to carry McClellan+s Army to the Potomac. By the time the troops arrived it was too late. The Confederates had successfully driven back every attack the Union army attempted. At the end of the battle, the Union had lost 15,000 out of 70,000 men and the Confederates had lost 9,500 out of 55,000 men. Pope+s retreat wasn+t as drastic as the First Battle of Bull Run, but the Union Army was hurt just as badly. It was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War so far.

Noone ever expected that the Civil War would last four long bloody years. It was the bloodiest war ever to be fought on American soil. And one of the bloodiest wars to this day. It changed the course of our natoin and possibly changed the course of the entire planet. More Americans lost their lives in the Civil War than in both World War I and World War II combined. It was fought for a good cause. The first war fought solely for human rights. One race fighting to save another race.

The Civil War was a horrible loss and a great victory for mankind. Many men lost their lives either trying to preserve their rights or trying to preserve the Union. The battle of 2nd Bull Run was a very decisive battle in the war with total casualties around twenty-four thousand five hundered. The battle also had the highest amount of men killed in one regiment by one single battle when the Fifth New York lost one hundered seventeen out of four hudered and nintey men.

After the Second Batlle of Bull Run it wasn+t clear who would win the war. The Union obviously had more men and more factories and money. But the Confederates had the home ground and they seemed to have more determination to win the war.