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The Battle Of Bull Run. The American Civil War Was Fought

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The Battle of Bull Run

The American Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865 to determine whether the Union or Confederacy would survive. The fight would take place between the North, called Union states and the South, called Confederate states. The Confederate states wanted to leave the North and South union and stand on their own.
The war started on April 12, 1861 when Confederate forces attacked a Union military base at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. The reason the war started at this time was that Abraham Lincoln had just been elected President in 1860. Abraham Lincoln wanted to end slavery but keep the union together. The North had an increase of industry and the South still depended on farming the land. However, the South …show more content…

The battle was also known as the Battle of First Manassas. This was the first major battle of the Civil War. Even though the Union Army outnumbered the Confederate Army, the experience of the Confederate Army made the difference and they won that battle.
The Confederate reinforcements had time to arrive by railroad because the Union 's forces were slow positioning themselves. Even though the Union and Confederate sides had about 18,000 troops in their first battle, they were not trained and they were led poorly. The outcome of this battle was a Confederate victory. The Union forces suffered a disorganized retreat of their troops. Union troops marched from the Federal capital in Washington, D.C. to strike a Confederate force along a small river known as Bull Run. After fighting on the defensive for most of the day, the rebels rallied and were able to break the Union right flank, sending them into a chaotic retreat towards Washington. The Confederate victory gave the South a false confidence and shocked many in the North, who realized the war would not be won as easily as they had hoped.
By July 1861, the northern press and the public were eager for the Union Army to make an advance on Richmond, ahead of the planned meeting of the Confederate Congress there on July 20, 1861. Encouraged by early victories of Union troops in western Virginia, and by the war fever spreading through

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