Combat· American Civil War
First Battle of Bull Run
The Corps' first land battle of the Civil War, and a humiliating one.
A battalion of about 350 Marines under Major John Reynolds, most of them raw recruits with only a few weeks' training, was attached to the Army for the advance on the Confederate position at Bull Run, serving as support for Captain Griffin's regular battery. The Marines kept pace with the guns through the day's fighting and held their ground under repeated pressure, Reynolds rallying his men back into line three times as panic threatened. But when J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry burst from the woods and rode down the supporting infantry, the Union line collapsed, and the Marines were swept up in the general rout back to Washington. The disaster confirmed the folly of using untrained Marines as line infantry and helped fix the Corps' wartime role on shipboard and amphibious service instead.
Podcast episodes on American Civil War
Record no. 20