Results: The "Picnic Battle" (Part 1 of 3)
When the American Civil War began, many people expected the war to be brief and relatively bloodless. The armies of the North and South met on the battlefield for the first time when President Abraham Lincoln ordered 28,000 Union troops in Washington to march 30 miles to a strategic railroad junction at Manassas, Virginia where Confederate troops were camped.
1.
1.
July 21, 1861, in the first step toward taking Richmond, VA, the Union Army clashed with 32,000 Confederate troops in a battle named for the Bull Run Creek that ran through the countryside. Have you heard of this battle?
Yes, by the Union Army's name, "First Battle of Bull Run"
39%
•
864 votes
Yes, by the Confederate Army's name, "Battle of First Manassas"
14%
•
300 votes
No, and I'm American.
17%
•
374 votes
No, but I'm not American.
19%
•
424 votes
N/A
20%
•
430 votes
2.
2.
Hoping for a Union victory and a quick end to the war that had begun 3 months earlier, Washingtonians traveled to nearby Centreville, VA (several miles from the conflict) to watch the encounter. Since the site was a 7-hour carriage ride from Washington, they brought along food and picnic baskets. Would you travel 7 hours watch a battle?
Yes
6%
•
121 votes
Maybe
7%
•
164 votes
No, I wouldn't travel for hours.
13%
•
283 votes
N/A
20%
•
431 votes
No, I wouldn't travel to watch a battle, period!
55%
•
1201 votes
3.
3.
Union Capt John Tidball reported seeing a "throng of sightseers", mostly men, but accompanied by a few women selling "pies and other edibles" to people watching the full-scale battle. If you were a soldier in battle, would you be surprised to see picnicking spectators?
Yes
61%
•
1338 votes
No
13%
•
284 votes
N/A
26%
•
578 votes
4.
4.
Some members of the press were unkind to the men, women, and few children in attendance who were perceived to be frivolous and callous. Poet H R Tracy's poem published in the Boston Herald described behavior "lacking in glory" as picnickers heedlessly went to watch the battle, and then drove their carriages over dead and wounded soldiers as they fled. Do you think Tracy was too harsh?
No
36%
•
793 votes
Perhaps. It's hard to believe the spectators would have driven their carriages over wounded soldiers while fleeing.
29%
•
642 votes
Yes
5%
•
112 votes
N/A
30%
•
653 votes
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