The fighting 39Confederate civilians alerted Beauregard
about the Union advance, and on 17 July he
sent a message asking Johnston to join him
and help 'crush the enemy.' Johnston had
become convinced that the timid Patterson,
who imagined himself badly outnumbered
and refused to take decisive action, posed no
serious threat. When orders arrived from
Richmond early on 18 July urging him to
support Beauregard if practicable, Johnston
began shifting his troops towards a loading
point on the Manassas Gap Railroad. The
bulk of Johnston's force made the trip to
Manassas over the next 48 hours, completing
the first large-scale movement of troops by
rail in an active campaign.
After inconclusive skirmishing on 18 July,
Beauregard and McDowell each developed
plans to hit the other's left flank on the 21st.
Beauregard had placed the Confederates
along the western bank of Bull Run, a
sluggish stream to the north and west of
Manassas Junction. Although outranked by
Johnston, Beauregard maintained tactical
control and planned to hold his left with a
light force while massing his strength against
McDowell's left. McDowell planned a
demonstration against the southern right as
a strong flanking force crossed Bull Run in
the vicinity of Sudley Ford and sought to roll
up the enemy's line along the creek.
The Union soldiers, or Federals, struck
first on 21 July. After a fumbling advance
towards Sudley Springs, northern troops
under General David Hunter collided with
Colonel Nathan G. Evans's brigade of South
Carolina and Louisiana troops.
Reinforcements came forward to support
both sides, and a bitter struggle for control of
Matthews Hill, a prominent knob on the
Manassas-Sudley road, raged between about
10 and 11.30 am. The arrival of Union
brigades under Colonels William Tecumseh
Sherman and Erasmus Keyes eventually
compelled the Confederates to abandon
Matthews Hill and take up a position south
of the Warrenton Turnpike on Henry Hill.
Beauregard and Johnston had abandoned
all thoughts of a blow against McDowell's
left. As Federals gathered themselves along
Irvin McDowell impressed many of his contemporaries
more as a gourmand than as a military leader Often
tentative in the field, he acted more decisively at the
table. A staff officer who dined with the General in 1861
described him as 'so absorbed in the dishes before him
that he had but little time for conversation ... he
gobbled the larger portion of every dish within reach,
and wound up with an entire watermelon, which he
said was "monstrous fine!" ' (Author's collection)A West Point classmate of Robert E. Lee, Joseph
E. Johnston compiled a dazzling record during the war
with Mexico and left the United States army in 1861 as
a brigadier-general of staff. Always envious of his fellow
Virginian Lee, Johnston garnered neither the public
adulation nor the professional acclaim he believed his
Confederate service deserved. (Author's collection)