Information Panel: Defeat and Disarray - Final Struggle

Information Panel: Defeat and Disarray - Final Struggle

NPS / Claire Hassler

Defeat and Disarray

By day's end the Confederates held Henry Hill, capturing eight of the eleven Union cannon brought atop this plateau. Rebel reinforcements extended the battle lines across Sudley Road to neighboring Chinn Ridge (one-half mile ahead of you). Federal troops were driven back after a brief fight, the final combat of the day (a separate exhibit on Chinn Ridge discusses this action). 

The federal army fled back across Bull Run Confederate cavalry in pursuit. The retreat, at first orderly, soon dissolved into a rout. Panic seized the troops as they came under artillery fire, and civilian spectators were caught up underfoot in the stampede back to the capital. 

The battle's carnage shocked the country. More than 5,000 Americans were casualties - nearly 900 of whom were dead. It was the largest battle in the nation's history to that time. Thirteen months later the armies returned and fought again at the Second Battle of Manassas (August 28-30, 1862). The park's self-guided driving tour provides an overview of this larger battle and its significance during the Civil War. 

Final Struggle

Up the slope marched federal troops, determined to retake the cannon lost moments earlier. The bodies of slain artillerists and infantrymen littered the landscape. The Yankees recaptured Griffin's two guns and attempted to drag the pieces to safety, but dead horses encumbered their efforts. In the distance the Confederates were preparing another charge. 

The heaviest combat of the battle, much of it hand-to-hand, raged around the disabled batteries of Captains Ricketts and Griffin. The fighting went back and forth - Confederates would overrun the Federal position and recapture the cannon then e driven off moments later by a headlong counterattack. The widow Henry's farm became the most contested ground of the battle.