Mitchell's Ford

On July 17, 1861, as Union Gen. Irvin McDowell’s army approached Centreville, Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard’s forces withdrew south to defensive positions along Bull Run, including Mitchell’s Ford, a strategically important crossing where Confederate forces had constructed log-and-earth trenches on the south bank. Gen. Milledge L. Bonham’s brigade guarded the approaches to Mitchell’s Ford and manned the trenches there. The next morning, Union Gen. Daniel Tyler’s artillery fired at Mitchell’s and Blackburn’s Fords from the Old Centreville Road. Because open fields lay between Tyler’s and Bonham’s forces, Tyler probed the more wooded approaches to Blackburn’s Ford defended by Longstreet’s Brigade. Mitchell’s Ford then received a steady barrage for the next five hours but suffered little damage and loss of life. When Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s forces began to arrive on July 20, Beauregard told him that he believed the main Federal attack would come at Mitchell’s Ford, and Confederate reinforcements were concentrated in that area. Beauregard also planned an offensive movement in which the brigades of Gens. Richard E. Ewell, David R. Jones, and James Longstreet would make a swinging-door attack on the Federal left flank at Centreville and cut off the Federal army from Washington. When the Federals attacked at Sudley Springs on July 21, Beauregard altered his plans and sent the Confederate reserves at Mitchell’s Ford toward Henry Hill. At 5 P.M., Bonham’s and Longstreet’s forces finally crossed Bull Run and advanced toward Centreville, but as nightfall approached they did not engage the retreating Federals.

Yorkshire, Virginia · United States