As rumors of Confederates at Manassas spread toward Alexandria and alarmed the Lincoln administration, the Federal Army of the Potomac under General George McClellan was encamped along the James River after its failed summer attempt to capture Richmond, leaving only a small Union force between the Confederate Army and Washington. Lincoln ordered McClellan back to Northern Virginia, and thousands of Federal soldiers left the area around Richmond, traveled up the Potomac River, and moved toward Manassas. Among them were four regiments of the 1st New Jersey Brigade. Late in the morning of August 27th, the 1st New Jersey approached Manassas near Bull Run Bridge, unaware that two Confederate divisions were nearby. The Confederates held their fire until the New Jerseyans neared, then unleashed a hurricane of lead, while cannons from Mayfield Fort, positioned above the developing battlefield, tore gaps in the Federal line. Within minutes the New Jerseyans retreated, allowing Jackson and his men to resume pillaging the warehouses at Manassas Junction. The Battle of Bull Run Bridge was a Union fiasco in which 445 soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured.
