Battle of Blackburn's Ford
Tension is felt both North and South. Soldiers and civilians alike realize a major battle is at hand in Virginia. Yet the tension is only partially expressed in fear. Many are in a celebratory mood, as North and South are both convinced that God is on their side and victory nigh.
Tens of thousands of soldiers anticipate action. Some 22,000 men under the command of Confederate Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard guard the fords of Bull Run in Virginia, awaiting advancing Union forces. U.S. Brigadier General Irvin McDowell, commanding 35,000 soldiers, sends Brig. Gen. Daniel Tyler to Centreville in an effort to locate the Confederate’s left flank. Finding Centreville unoccupied, Tyler continues, pushing southeast to Blackburn’s Ford of the Bull Run River.
Pausing short of the north bank of the river, Tyler sees Confederate forces in the woods to the south of the river. Not realizing the extent of the forces he is facing, he orders artillery fire and then moves his calvary and guns closer to the river. A large Confederate force under Brig. Gen. James Longstreet opens an intense fire upon Tyler’s forces, sending Union troops in retreat. Confederate reinforcements under command of Col. Jubal A. Early soon arrive, and Tyler is forced to withdraw altogether. The Confederacy thus wins the skirmish known as the Battle of Blackburn’s Ford, a prelude to the Battle of Bull Run / Manassas soon to take place.
While the two armies feel one another out, Julia Stanford in Georgia, a member of First Baptist Forsyth, writes of war rumors in Old Dominion:
Sad! Sad! news – 1st Georgia Regiment in the hands of the enemy! Quite a gloom has overspread our village in consequence … We fortunately did not give much credit to the dispatch ….
War news strongly contradictory – Still I hope for the very best I cannot believe the reverse. I am a firm believer in our overruling all wise and omnipotent God.
In the coming days, the rumors will fly all the more as the two armies, each appropriating God as their guardian, close in upon one another.
Sources: Battle of Blackburn’s Ford, including map (link); “The Diary of Miss Julia A. Stanford,” July 17 and 18, 1861 (A copy is available in the Mercer University Georgia Baptist History Depository, Macon, Georgia)
