HAROLD HOLZER: In July, 1861, only a few months
after Fort Sumter, the Union forces under McDowell
marched South into Northern Virginia
for the first encounter of the war, very close to Washington.
It happens around the town of Manassas.
The battle is alternatively called Bull Run because that
was a creek on the battlefield.
DOUG DOUDS: Lincoln's expectation
going into the first Battle of Bull Run
is that the war will be settled in this one battle.
The South will win its independence,
or the North will put down the rebellion.
Both armies are green, not a lot of experience.
When Abraham Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers
to put down the rebellion, they are limited
to a three-month enlistment.
The Militia Act of 1795 by which he calls them
forward says, it's only three months.
That's the way we've always done it.
You know, the crosses comes along,
and we call in all the farmers to get
your musket over the fireplace.
And when the war's over, we send them home to be farmers again.
DOUG DOUDS: Lincoln recognizes that his men
are not well trained.
But politically, it would have been an abject sin
to send all those soldiers back home if they hadn't
been used in the first place.
The reality is the overwhelming sentiment
on both sides was let's get an army out there and get it done.
And so Lincoln and other leaders were pressuring
the Union Army under Irvin McDowell
to get up there, and let's fight.
CAROLINE E. JANNEY: Even though it seems so foreign to us,
there was a great deal of excitement.
There was a great deal of war enthusiasm.
Keep in mind the technology of the time,
with no way to see a battlefield.
People had seen paintings and sketches.
And the notion was that these men are
in formations and firing at each other,
but it must be relatively safe.
There are people who were literally showing up there
with picnic baskets on their wagons
to look at the armies fight down on the hill.
TIMOTHY B. SMITH: Congressmen, and senators,
and the social elite of Washington
had come out to view the battle.
This was a major spectacle.
This is major entertainment.
CAROLINE E. JANNEY: And people really thought
this would be their only chance to see one battle,
the Union Army Cross Creek.
They wage and attack against this very formidable force
of Confederates.
Even during these difficult times, these
trying times of war, we must remain strong
and keep our faith in Him.
Sir, news from the field.
DOUG DOUDS: Lincoln is waiting to hear how it's going.
And it starts as a Union advantage early in the morning.
After Church, Lincoln spends the rest of the day
in the telegraph office.
This will be his source of information.
TOM WHEELER: The arrival of the telegraph, what Lincoln
used to call lightning messages, changed
the nature of information.
Suddenly, what was known in one place
could be known in other places almost instantaneously.
STAN MCCHRYSTAL: Before, you'd get
a dispatch that would come in every few weeks or something.
And so you really had to give almost complete autonomy to
military leaders in the field.
Now, he's connected by a wire.
HAROLD HOLZER: The day began very well for the Union.
They routed Confederate forces and pushed them back.
And not until the late afternoon did the Confederate forces
counterattack.
TOM WHEELER: General McDowell has a pretty good plan.
The problem was he had a very green army.
And so on the battlefield, they had
a difficult time maneuvering.
The South had many of the same problems.
But then the South was fortunate because, during the battle,
the railroad allowed the South to move reinforcements up
which reached the battlefield at a critical moment.
GREG JACKSON: Federal troops hear the terrifying rebel yell,
this high pitched yelping.
Union troops described it as otherworldly.
It had enormous results, let's put it that way.
CAROLINE E. JANNEY: The Confederates start
pushing back.
And the Federalists cross back across the creek
and a mad dash.
They have been completely routed.
HAROLD HOLZER: Citizens of Washington, who had gone down
in their carriages and set up picnic baskets on the bluffs
overlooking the battlefield, they were having
a high old time for lunch.
And then when the battle turned, their picnic baskets
were upended.
They fled in disarray.
And the Union troops had to march back in this searing July
heat, humiliated.
TOM WHEELER: For Lincoln now, the defeat
is not something that happens hundreds of miles
away that you read about.
You see wounded soldiers, defeated soldiers, soldiers
who've thrown away their arms, come streaming
right back into the capital.
So the idea of a disaster became tangible.
You could see it.
You could smell it.
What does McDowell say?
That the day is lost.
[music playing]
It's probably his first military error.
And on that day, Lincoln realized that this was
not going to be a brief war.
It was going to be a long war.