Published Jul 16, 2026, 3:00 AM EDT
165 Years Later, First Bull Run Still Explains Why Americans Misjudged the Civil War
As spectators arrived with picnic baskets and opera glasses, few imagined the brutal reality that would unfold at the First Battle of Bull Run.
On July 21, 1861, the road from Washington to Centreville, Va., was filled with civilians eager to see what many believed would be the war’s first and perhaps final major showdown. Confidence in a quick Union victory ran so high that spectators treated the march toward Bull Run less like the opening of a brutal campaign and more like a public outing. Men, women and children joined members of Congress on the hills overlooking the fighting. Some arrived with picnic baskets, carriages and opera glasses, expecting the Union Army to break the rebellion and clear a path to Richmond. William Howard Russell, covering the battle for The Times of London, described the strange excitement around him. “On the hill beside me there was a crowd of civilians on horseback, and in all sorts of vehicles, with a few of the fairer, if not gentler sex,” Russell wrote. One woman watching through an opera glass celebrated a heavy burst of gunfire: “That is splendid, Oh my! Is not that first rate? I guess we will be in Richmond tomorrow.”
