Skirmish at Blackburn's Ford  "Prelude to the 1st Bull Run"  July 18, 1861

"You are green, it is true, but they are green also; you are all green alike," said President Abraham Lincoln to Union Gen. Irvin McDowell. He was insisting that McDowell set out with his inexperienced and undisciplined army and at long last confront the insurgent Southern army camped near Manassas, Va. At 2:00pm on July 16, 1861, the 30,000 Union soldiers set out in three columns from their works on the south bank of the Potomac River on the first of the Union's many attempts to capture the Confederate capitol of Richmond. The lighthearted soldiers made slow progress on this first march, stopping to rest or pick blackberries alongside the road.

On July 18, Union Gen. Daniel Tyler's advance brigade, commanded by Col. Israel B. Richardson, arrived near Blackburn's Ford on Bull Run Creek. Spotting a Confederate battery across the valley, Tyler had two of his cannon fire upon the Rebel position and send two regiments, two cannon, and a squadron of cavalry down toward the ford to reconnoiter. The federal soldiers had swept down the hillside and closed on the ford when they were suddenly hit with a murderous volley of musketry that erupted from the trees on the other bank. They had encountered Confederate Col. James Longstreet's brigade of three Virginia regiments. The fierce little firefight that ensued lasted for more than an hour. Longstreet received reinforcements from Gen. Jubal A. Early's brigade and launched two regiments across Bull Run in a counterattack that routed the federal troops at the ford.

Because Tyler had been ordered not to bring on a general engagement, he withdrew Richardson's brigade, ending the skirmish. The Union soldiers had suffered 19 killed, 38 wounded, and 26 missing. The Confederates had 15 killed and 53 wounded and felt that they had won a great victory in preventing the Union troops from crossing the creek. Three days later, the Union troops managed to cross in force and brought on the 1st Battle of Bull Run.

Fascinating Fact: Confusingly, the Confederates called this skirmish at Blackburn's Ford the "Battle of Bull Run." The battle they fought three days later they named the "1st Battle of Manassas".


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