5:30 AM. The dull rumble of a large 30-pound Parrot cannon announces the beginning of the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), Virginia. The Southern forces are also involved in the “Louisiana Tigers” battalion, under the command of Garibaldi’s Major Wheat. After hours of fighting, the Northerners are gaining the upper hand. The Southerners retreat en masse when General Thomas Jonathan Jackson, a somewhat John Brown of the South, arrives on Henry House Hill. The taciturn “Stonewall” Jackson is a former professor of physics (natural philosophy) at the Virginia Military Institute, possessing incredible physical and moral courage and an indomitable will. Everyone retreats, except Jackson’s battalion. It is there on the hill that Confederate General Bee sees him and states that “he stood there like a bastion of stone,” hence his nickname. The Confederates take courage and return to the attack. By 4:40 PM, the battle was over in favor of the Confederates, who had 387 killed and 1,582 wounded, compared to 481 killed and 1,011 wounded for the Union, who retreated toward Washington. The battle was described as enormous by the newspapers, but it was nothing compared to the tragedy of the following years.
