On this day in US history, the first major land battle of the Civil War is carried out between the Union under General Irwin McDowell and the Confederate army under General Pierre G.T. Beauregard on July 21, 1861. The Union army came to northern Virginia underprepared, where an army of 34,000 inexperienced soldiers fought around 29,000 militia troops, resulting in a combined 5,000 casualties. The scale of the bloodshed at Bull Run frightened Washington, as they faced an uncertain military strategy to stop the Southern insurrection.
