Blackburn's Ford

On July 18, 1861, Union army commander Gen. Irvin McDowell learned that the Confederate army had withdrawn from its Centreville earthworks to a strong defensive position behind Bull Run and ordered Gen. Daniel Tyler to reconnoiter the stream without bringing on an engagement. Tyler accompanied Col. Israel Richardson's brigade to Blackburn's Ford, where about noon they found a cleared field sloping down from woods to the creek's banks, which were thick with underbrush and trees. After seeing Confederate artillery in the distance, Tyler decided to test the position. Two Federal cannon opened fire, a brief artillery duel followed, and then the novice soldiers of the 1st Massachusetts Infantry swept down the hillside toward the ford in a Union infantry attack. Confederate musketry suddenly erupted from the woods across the creek, and repeated attempts to take the ford failed as volley after volley forced the New Englanders back. The fighting ended about 4:00 when the Federals withdrew. About 3,000 men on each side were engaged, and thick vegetation helped reduce casualties to 68 Confederates and 83 Federals. The clash proved a moral victory for the Southerners, who celebrated the Union repulse as a major battle, while it demoralized the Federals in their first combat and taught them that the Bull Run fords would be fiercely contested. Two Union soldiers received the Medal of Honor for their bravery. Three days later, on July 21, action returned to Blackburn's Ford when Confederates approached it to flank the Federals. The 5th South Carolina and the 17th and 18th Mississippi under Gen. D.R. Jones attacked Col. Thomas Davies' New York regiments at Grisby's Hill and were repulsed. During the Federal retreat, Confederate forces under Gen. Milledge Bonham and Col. James Longstreet moved across the fords to break the Union line of retreat, but Federal forces had established a new line of defense on the outskirts of Centreville.

Bull Run, Virginia · United States