July 21
BULL RUN DAY
![Bull Run, VA: Dedication of the battle monument [1865]](0721.gif "Bull Run, VA: Dedication of the battle monument [1865]")
It isn’t often that people are invited to a picnic to watch a war; but that’s what happened on this day in 1861. For those of you who weren’t invited or just don’t remember, it was the first major battle of the Civil War between the North and the South. U.S. Federal troops under the leadership of Major General Irwin McDowell attacked Confederate troops led by General Beauregard. It was the Battle of Bull Run Creek at Manassas Junction, Virginia. The Confederates, with the help of General E. Kirby Smith and General Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson, held back the Union troops like a stone wall.
Many folks, dressed in their Sunday best, came to watch and picnic as 60,000 men fought for over ten hours. When a shell destroyed a wagon blocking the main road of retreat, panic sent Union troops and picnickers scurrying from Bull Run back to Washington D.C.
Those Were the Days, the Today in History service from 440 International
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