*Introduce the major theatres of the War, Eastern, Western, and Trans-Mississippi.  Mention the names and naming conventions of certain Federal and Confederate armies and the different styles of battle naming.  Note that although these are typical, both sides sometimes deviate from the norm, especially early in the War.

*When the War began, neither side was truly prepared.  The US Army’s main force consisted of about 35,000 troops in Washington, D.C., most of whom were new recruits and poorly trained.  Although Winfield Scott was in overall command of the army, his Anaconda Plan was unpopular with overly optimistic politicians and newspaper editors who mistakenly believed the War could be won in ninety days, and the recently-promoted Brigadier General Irvin McDowell, a Mexican War veteran and a friend of Treasury Secretary Chase, was placed in command of the troops in Washington and ordered towards Richmond, first testing their strength by attacking the junction of the Orange and Alexandria RR and the Manassas Gap RR at a town called Manassas Junction along the Bull Run Creek.

*Manassas was defended by about 24,000 troops under PGT Beauregard, hero of Ft Sumter.  McDowell was new to command at this level and his troops were undisciplined, so they took their time getting to Manassas.  It was also no secret that there was going to be a battle, or even where the battle was to take place.  Congressmen, Senators, judges, and other Washington dignitaries took their wives, their children, their servants, and a picnic lunch down to Virginia to see the show.

*Aware of the impending attack, Beauregard was able to prepare to an extent (although his troops were mostly inexperienced militiamen), and, more important, another Confederate force of about 11,000 under the command of Joseph Johnston was able to move by rail from the Shenandoah Valley directly to the scene of the battle, reinforcing Beauregard as the fighting went on.

*The two forces met on 21 July, 1861.

*The battle was a mess in many ways.  Neither side was, for the most part, well trained.  Uniforms were not yet standardised, so some Confederates wore blue and some Yankees wore grey, and some men on both sides wore other colours completely.  There were examples of soldiers approaching and overrunning their enemies because they were not recognised, and of men being shot by their own side for the same reason.  The confusion of the Stars and Strips with the Stars and Bars led to the creation of the Confederate Battle Flag.

*Initially outnumbered, the Confederates initially seemed to be losing.  However, they sent reinforcements into battle directly off the trains as they arrived.  At one point, as the Confederates were withdrawing, General Barnard Elliot Bee of Texas (a Mexican War veteran and son of the Republic of Texas’ Secretary of State) saw one brigade of Virginia troops, led by the recently-arrived General Thomas Jonathan Jackson, standing against the tide.  He said ‘There stands Jackson like a stone wall.  Rally behind the Virginians!’  The Confederates stopped retreating and began to fight back.  The name, of course, stuck.
*Facing stiff resistance and a new load of troops off the trains, the Federal troops turned and ran back to Washington, D.C.  Had the Confederacy been better organised, they might have pursued them and ended the war right there.
*The North had about 2,900 casualties (i.e. killed, wounded, and captured) and the South about 2,000.  The Federal Army was also so demoralised that no major battles would be fought for the rest of the year.  They would not invade the South, and the South did not need to invade the North.
*This battle demonstrated to the North that they were in for a long and bloody war, but gave the South a false sense of security.

*The battle was in large part so bloody because most Americans were now using rifles firing Minie Balls, which have a useful range easily up to 500 yards, and which can travel much farther.  However, the generals all learnt to fight like Napoleon, and used line tactics much like those used in the Revolutionary War.  This led to many useless deaths (about 90% of the casualties).  Cannons in the Civil War, just as before, could fire not only solid shot, but also canister and shells.  Some of these were breechloaders, so they were faster to load (but did explode more) (5-9% of casualties).  Soldiers also used swords and bayonets, but they rarely got close enough to use them (1-4% of casualties).  Rifles were also more reliable, because they used percussion caps rather than flint and steel.

*Immediately after the battle, people began combing the fields for bullets, buttons, and other souvenirs, as an entire industry sprang up around interest in the war.  Soon photographers would visit all the major battlefields, and, through newspaper reports, the horror of war would invade every home in the nation.

*One man at Manassas had had enough, however.  Wilmer McLean’s farm had been at the centre of the battle, and Beauregard had even commandeered his house to use as a headquarters.  To get away from the front, McLean moved a village in the interior of Virginia called Appomattox Courthouse, where Lee would surrender to Grant four years later.

*McDowell was removed from command and replaced by George McClellan.  McClellan was a graduate of West Point (second in the Class of 1846), had served with Winfield Scott in Mexico, had developed a new style of saddle which was adopted by the Army in 1859 and remained standard issue for the US Cavalry until the horse cavalry were disbanded at the start of WWII and which is still used by many police departments to-day.  He left the army in 1857 and served as chief of engineering for the Illinois Central Railroad, where he met the company’s attorney, Abraham Lincoln.   McClellan had won a couple small victories in what would become West Virginia at a time when the Union was short on success, and he would prove to be an able administrator but a poor commander.  He was also an able politician, and used his influenced to pressure Winfield Scott into retirement in November, and soon afterwards became overall commander of all Union forces.

*McClellan saw himself as a young Napoleon and thought himself the only man who could save the nation from the baboon who served as commander in chief and his incompetent cabinet.

*McClellan named the main army in the eastern theatre the Army of the Potomac, and proceeded to train, supply, and equip it into a magnificent fighting force.  However, Little Mac faced an enemy even greater than his army:  his imagination.  Despite all the evidence to the contrary, McClellan would always be convinced that the Confederate Army was possessed of a vast numerical superiority to his own.

*As 1861 passed into 1862 with no significant Federal action in the East, Lincoln grew impatient with McClellan, and told him that if McClellan did not plan to use the Army of the Potomac any time soon, he would like to borrow it.

*Lincoln orders McClellan to attack, but he’s afraid to go at it directly.  He tries to get around the main Confederate Army in Northern Virginia by sailing down to Yorktown, where Cornwallis was defeated 100½ years ago.  He actually does get around the main army, but he does not believe it.  He plans to move up the peninsula between the York and James Rivers and seize the Confederate capital at Richmond, and so this is called the Peninsular Campaign, but his army of 100,000 is outnumbered by 15,000 Confederates and McClellan’s own imagination.

*McClellan’s plans include reinforcements coming overland from Washington, but three entire armies (under Nathaniel Banks, Irvin McDowell, and John C. Fremont) totalling about 60,000 men are pinned down by successive feints by Stonewall Jackson with a command of about 18,000 in what is known as the [Shenandoah] Valley Campaign.

*McClellan is faced by a small Confederate Army of about 15,000, commanded by John Magruder, who builds fake cannon out of logs called Quaker guns.  He holds McClellan off long enough for Joseph Johnston to move his army to the peninsula.

*During the battles on the peninsula, McClellan wins many of his battles or at least fights them to a draw.  However, the battles are numerous and very bloody.  Furthermore, relatively early in the campaign, at the battle of Fair Oaks, General Joseph Johnston is wounded and relieved of command.  Johnston later said this was the best thing that ever happened to the Confederacy, because he was replaced by Robert E. Lee.

*Lee renames his army the Army of Northern Virginia, and, joined by Stonewall Jackson who has marched his entire brigade from the Shenandoah Valley at such a rate that they were called foot cavalry, begins to fight back hard.

*Lee pushes McClellan hard, and attacks him many times and in many places, primarily in a series of very bloody battles, lasting from 26 June to 2 July, called the Seven Days.  During this campaign, Confederate cavalry under the command of JEB Stuart made the first of several famous scouting expeditions in which they rode entirely around the confused Union Army.

*Although McClellan wins most of the fights in the Seven Days (making it one of the few Eastern campaigns with significantly higher Confederate casualties than Union—20,141 vs 15,849), the constant pressure on him, combined with his incorrect certainty that the Confederates outnumber him, forces McClellan to retreat and abandon the peninsula and return to Washington.

*This spectacular loss for the Union convinces Lincoln that this must be total war, and may even require emancipating the slaves, at least in rebellious territories, and he begins to draft a proclamation on the subject.

*Lincoln is understandably vexed with McClellan, and many of his advisors want McClellan removed, but Lincoln still thinks he may be useful, and McClellan still has many political allies.  Lincoln compromises by taking a portion of McClellan’s army, along with some of the forces that Stonewall Jackson had defeated in the Valley Campaign, and placing this force of about 50,000 under the command of John Pope.

*Pope had been in the Mexican War and had done some more recent fighting in the West when the Union took Memphis.  He was an active general, so often in the field that he claimed his headquarters was in his saddle.  Unfortunately, he was not as effective in the east as he was in the west, and Lincoln said that his problem was that he kept his headquarters where his hindquarters ought to be.

*Pope was ordered to move against Richmond, but Lee knew what he was doing.  The Confederate cavalry commander, J.E.B. Stuart rode entirely around Pope’s army, and even raided his headquarters, stealing his best coat, $350,000 in cash, and his dispatch book.  Stuart offered to trade the coat for his own hat, captured by Union cavalry not long before, but Pope did not reply.

*Aware of the Federal forces’ movements, Lee sent Stonewall Jackson against Pope, and they met near Manassas on 28 August 1862.  Lee joined him the next day, and on the 30th, Pope’s force of 75,000 was defeated in Second Manassas or Second Bull Run by a divided force totaling about 55,000.

*Pope was sent back out west where he fought the Indians until 1886, and Lincoln gave command of Pope’s men back to McClellan.

*McClellan would soon lead these men into Maryland in order to counter an attempt by Lee to prove that the South could win a battle outside the borders of the Confederacy.

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