The fighting 43First Bull Run. He selected 34-year-old
Major-General George Brinton McClellan to
command the Union army near Washington.
A West Pointer who finished second in the
class of 1846, McClellan had earned
distinction as an engineer during the war
with Mexico, studied European military
thinking and policies in the 1850s, and
retired from the army to go into business in
- He returned to military service in April
British artist Frank Vizetelly witnessed the Union retreat
at First Manassas, making this sketch for the Illustrated
London News. The terror-stricken soldiers threw away
their arms and accoutrements' wrote Vizetelly
disdainfully, 'herding along like a panic-stricken flock of
sheep, with no order whatever in their flight. Those
who had been fortunate enough to get placed in
the baggage-waggons thrust back others with
their bayonets and musket-stocks.'