The Most Surprising Battle of the Civil War

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https://www.visitthecapitol.gov/exhib...
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/ar...
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-...
https://vinepair.com/articles/civil-w...
https://www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/places...
https://www.nps.gov/places/000/henry-...
https://encyclopediavirginia.org/883h...

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#civilwar #ushistory #apush

Here’s the story of a picnic that got interrupted by a major American Civil War battle.

I recently went to the site of it. It’s quite a lovely area, honestly. About 30 miles southwest of Washington, D.C. in northern Virginia. Today, it’s so peaceful, but on July 21, 1861, it was the site of horrifying death and destruction. But let’s back up a bit. Three months prior was the Battle of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina. A new country had seceded from the United States called the Confederate States of America. On April 13, 1861, some rebel Confederate soldiers had successfully taken over an American fort, marking the beginning of the American Civil War . It was after the bombardment of Fort Sumter that all of a sudden there was widespread support from both the North and South to fight.

President Abraham Lincoln declared that the Southern states that seceded had broken the law, essentially calling it an insurrection. In response, 750,000 men volunteered to fight the rebels. Many of them had no military experience whatsoever.

Americans seemed pumped up, man. Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune proclaimed “Forward to Richmond! The Rebel Congress must not be allowed to meet there on the 20th of July!” By the way, Richmond, Virginia, was now the capital of the newly formed Confederate States of America. Many Americans believed that capturing Richmond would quickly end the insurrection. By July, thousands of volunteers had camped in Washington, D.C., excited to fight as part of what became known as the Union Army, or Northern Army.

Lincoln, realizing he had to take bold action, picked an inexperienced major named Irvin McDowell to lead around 35,000 men down to Richmond. It would be the largest field army ever gathered on the North American continent up to that point.