The Illusions of 1861

CHAPTER 3 · APR–DEC 1861 · The American Civil War, 1861–1865

Both sides begin the war certain it will be short. Lincoln’s first call is for 75,000 men for ninety days; Confederate recruits worry the fighting will end before they reach it. In July the Union army — half-trained, trailed by congressmen with picnic hampers — marches the twenty-five miles toward Richmond and meets the rebels at a Virginia creek called Bull Run. The battle see-saws until Confederate reinforcements arrive by railroad — the first strategic rail movement in war — and the Union retreat becomes a panicked stampede back into Washington. The picnic baskets are abandoned on the field

The turn: Bull Run, 21 July 1861.

This chapter is one scene of an interactive atlas: the map repaints as the dates advance, campaigns draw themselves, and every chapter argues its causes and consequences — then a field exam asks you to prove it on the map.