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First Bull Run/First Manassas
I wish to pose a question to the group. This is one of those ‘what if�?questions that seemed to get everybody not only thinking but actually participating when I was doing my post-graduate studies. Just to study recorded history has sometimes been referred to as boring; as the student can’t really add to that which has already been written (not having experienced the event first-hand). ‘What if�?questions remove all assuming tethers, giving you the freedom to manipulate facts, figures and views to possibly come out with another outcome.
I’ll start this question with a short history of the event as it is now generally learned and accepted. As with all recorded history, it is based on a collection of conflicting data that has been amassed, sorted, slightly colored (by personal traits of the historian0 and recorded to what is commonly taken as the truth.
On July 21, 1861, two armies were facing each other in preparation of the first major battle in a war that had taken 141 days to muster. Both sides expected the hostilities to be short lived and that an overwhelming victory today could bring that end. General Irvin McDowell had been appointed by Abraham Lincoln to head the Army of Northeast Virginia. Luck smiled on the Union forces in the form of a Confederate document with the placement of Lee’s entire army. This document, an order from Lee to Jackson, confirmed that the opposing army was concentrated but widely separated. Lee had advanced into Maryland to a town called Manassas. The relative inexperience of this country to war within its borders was obvious as the newspapers not only published the numbers on the Union side but also the expected troop movements. This, in effect, made the playing field level again.
At first the Union forces mustered 28,452 effective troops, slightly outnumbering the Confederate forces. Doubt and indecision of both McDowell and General George B. McClellan gave the South time to rush troops from Harper’s Ferry, raising their effective strength to 32,232 giving the Rebels a slight numerical advantage. Union forces held the better positions balancing its disadvantage in numbers.
Union divisions first struck the Confederates�?left under Generals David Hunter and H.P. Heintzelman. The 6,000 Union troops were opposed by a reduced brigade of 900 men commanded by Colonel Nathan Evans. The confederates were soon re-enforced by Brigadier Generals Barnard Bee and Francis S. Bartow (Bartow being promoted to that rank the previous day). Although the reinforcements help to hold the line by the Matthews Hill position, the weight of the Union advance soon saw it crumbling. The retreating Confederate brigades fell back to the advancing line of the Virginia Brigade under command of General Thomas J. Jackson. When Bee reported to Jackson, “The Enemy are beating us back,�?Jackson answered, “Then Sir, we will give them the bayonet!�?These eight words inspired Bee to return to his troops and say, “There stands Jackson like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians!�?Jackson was then forever known as ‘Stonewall.�?BR>As the Union Blue crested the hill, a volley from Jackson’s stonewall sent the Northern troops in a full retreat, promptly called the “Great Skedaddle.�?More reinforcements turned the tides completely and McDowell’s Army of Northeast Virginia took full flight back to Washington. The Battle of Manassas was won by the South. Generals Beauregard and Johnston, although the bulk of their army was still intact, decided not to press their advantage.
If the Confederate forces would have pressed on after the retreating Union forces, what would have happened? How would have history been changed? How could that change have effected today?
The first question could be answered by the capture of Washington, but would this have made or broken the Union and its resolve to wage war? The British had captured and burned it 47 years earlier, finding it to have little strategic value. The symbolic value was much greater but had no long range effect on the wars outcome. President James Madison’s administration moved to the hills of Virginia (which in this case would be toward the enemy), but the Lincoln administration could have been moved to Philadelphia or even New York, giving the Union time to recover.
History may have changed for the 619,153 (conservative figure) casualties the war counted on both sides after that fateful day. If the Union would have recognized the C.S.A., Lincoln would have continued to lead the country as its president, possibly paving the way for a future reunification. People on both sides of the Mason / Dixon Line agree that slavery would be eventually be phased out of the South as it had been in the rest of the world. I don’t think that the two countries would have stayed separated for long as they were much stronger as a single entity.
What would or could have happened, after that fateful day, if the Confederate Army had pushed on?
Yorrick
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My people did not want live or occupy Washington or New York (talk to T-dog to understand why). The were no free states in the United States after 1857. All States were slave States. sunny |
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| | From:  -TinCan | Sent: 8/8/2006 1:35 PM |
I don't believe the yankees would have rolled over and give up after just one battle, but, if the South had become a country I believe the present US would not exist because I dont think the CSA would have been able to defend it's borders against an outside threat. You might have had something like the map of Europe, say the US, CSA, Northwest Territories, etc. But, most of all I believe the South never really had a chance of pulling it off. They gave it their best shot, but industry outweighs agraculture every time. |
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Let the north eat their machines. sunny |
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Well let the people of the South make their own choises. As for slavery, I do believe that it would have died out soon only because the machine age was here. Nothing else. Work the obigation of the slave owner(this is a position that no-one seems to be allowed to have) form a position of the amount of money it takes to keep these slaves alive (dead slaves pick no cotton). If you have a wife and children you (as a male) should know how much money it requires to keep them now multiply that amount times 50. sunny |
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