Special Offer: Receive a complimentary ticket to this online program on Zoom by registering for the October 28 The First Battle of Manassas in-person tour by Sunday, October 1. Further information will be shared with qualifying registrants via email in early October.
The first major battle of the Civil War took place on July 21, 1861, along the banks of Bull Run, some 25 miles from Washington, D.C. Expecting a quick and easy victory, both Union and Confederate officers were surprised by their experience at Manassas and learned the painful lesson that waging war in practice is much more difficult than waging it in theory.
Career U.S. Air Force intelligence officer Marc Thompson examines the battle and its role in the Civil War, along with its impact on six of the Union and Confederate officers who fought there. Ambrose Burnside, William Tecumseh Sherman, George Armstrong Custer, P.G.T. Beauregard, Thomas Johnathan Jackson, and J.E.B. Stuart were hardly household names in July of 1861, but by 1865 their exploits were well-known.
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