Manassas 1861 

Battle of the Bull Run earned Stonewall Jackson his moniker and a statue. Huge battlefield! Still amazed how the small house still remains until this day. Sobering visit.

It's beautiful around Manassas. I'm English but have been to most of the Virginia battlefields as well as Gettysburg and Sharpsburg. Manassas is especially interesting as you can see the landscape for both the 1861 and 1862 battles. I was knocked out by Virginia and the landscape around Sharpsburg in Maryland too. Saw the confederate cemetery in Lexington, Stonewall's house and the shack he died in at Chancellorsville. Always been interested in American history since I took it in High School. Did it in one trip but I'd love to go again some day.

Even the beginning 2 mins is better and more informative than most 45 minute full documentaries.

My daughter and I visited Manassas battle field. I stood on Henry Hill (it is high ground). Looking north there is an opening between trees. The Park Ranger guide told us 15,000 Union Soldiers came down that “draw” and were wiped out. They also said that the Inion Generals still insisted on using Napoleonic tactics where many Confederate leaders were more forward thinking in tactics. There was much confusion due to both flags looking very similar and uniforms were not entirely standardized. People rode out from D.C. with picnic lunches to watch the Union put down the rebellion later fleeing for their lives. The North had not taken the battle as serious war. The South was fighting for their homeland regardless of the reasons. Also The South named battles after towns they were near and the North after bodies of water. I encourage anyone interested in the War of Northern Aggression to visit Manassas where it really began.

Terrific production - Ken Burns quality voice overs and solid history telling- really well done!

Thank you Wide Awake Films for the treasure trove of material on the Civil War that you have provided on RU-vid. I have studied the conflict for years, but never have watched such a concise and clear narrative of the 1st Bull Run/Manassas battle. And I have learned new facts and information, The battle scenes and commentary weave so well together. I have watched a couple of others, about Franklin and Wilson's Creek and they are all excellent. Thanks again!

Outstanding Ken Burns series. I remember watching this first time round in the early 90s. It's still the best.

Another great Civil War video! Thanks for posting!

An Outstanding Presentation...

Forgot to mention the US wanted Robert E Lee as commander...oops!

I can’t wait to go on my civil war battlefield trip this spring! I plan to go to Gettysburg first and work my way south ending at Appamatox. Unfortunately none of my friends or family is interested in the subject so I will likely be going alone. If anyone needs a battlefield touring buddy this year feel free to reach out! Disclaimer…I am a fan of the south. I like to enjoy the history and heritage of the south. If you have a trip planned this year and would like a friend to walk the BF with then please reach out. Especially Gettysburg! I’m 38 and in Kentucky. I can go most anytime as long as weather is warm 😎 I’m only a hour from Franklin, Tn and 4 hours from Shiloh. I’ve never been to those either. I may go to Franklin pretty soon if anyone wants to go. Prob go see confederate museum afterward which is about 20 mins away from Franklin.

Brilliant videos.

My Great Grandfather Taylor Wainwright fought in the Cold harbor Campaign under General Sherman and fought in 15 battles. He passed away in 1933. My family is from NJ and we date back to 1668.

Thank you.

My son visited Virginia and lived in Manasses for two months in 2022, when he was their on telephone he told me that baba here the big battle was fought during civil war, now i watched this document.

There alot commanders both Union & Confederate never even heard of.Thank you for information

Excellent!!!!!

My Great Grandfather served with the 13th Mississippi. He fought these and many other battles before being sent home wounded.

Not being American, I don’t know a lot about your civil war. These videos inspire me to find out more.

Every time Bull Run is narrated the narrator emphasized how "green" the Union troops implying that the Confederate soldiers were seasoned veterans. LOL. The fact is the Confederates held on against 10-1 odds for several hours until reinforcements arrived dropping the odds to "just" 5-1 and continued to hold their ground until the odds got to the best of the day...about 3-1.

Am informative, engaging and dramatic documentary. Well done. One point of contention however; Ive read in a book on the Crimean war of 1853-56 that the British used railroads during the siege of Sebastopol? Regardless, an engrossing and respectfully sombre documentary. Thank you all. X

My relatives were there with Virginia's BlackHorse Cavalry

The Civil War actually started a couple yrs before Lincoln was President. Missouri/Kansas Border.

One thing that is never mentioned in most documentaries, is the Rearguard Action fought by the Regular U.S Infantry under George Sykes that saved the army on their retreat back to Washington.

God Bless i saw the Louisiana Tiger's 😊

''Why you fighting us Johnny Reb''?....''Cuz You a' here Yankee.''

What is the line between a film and a documentary? Maybe the mistake was me thinking film meant movie. Still, this is a VERY good documentary.

Great Great Grandfather fought there.

It was beyond a local rebellion. You had a “Nation” to fight. The CSA.

Why are you ignoring Texas?

Love it, well done for sure, but at the 8:03 mark you make a glaring error. You attribute a quote to Gen Scott, saying to McDowell that you are green but they are green also. The statement is longer and obviously much more poignant than my little piece of it above, but my point is that the quote was not Gen Scott's but instead was Lincoln's. Both Scott and McDowell had both urged more preparation before taking military action, explaining to Lincoln that the troops were green. His response of how they would all be "green alike" was beautiful. Seeing as how your history and info in this piece is all spot on, except for the one thing, I am sure this was an editing type error. But one that needed to be pointed out.

All for nothing. A huge waste. Now, Frederick Douglas's great grandsons are killing each other every single day, with no way to stop it, so we must let them continue.

Awesome documentary! I always thought the first Bull Run battle was a lopsided Confederate victory, but this indicates it was a hard fought victory for the South! Sadly though, the history of the Confederacy, and the Civil War, is slowly being erased in the once Capital of the Confederacy, Richmond Virginia! Current trends in socialism, liberalism and erasure of history is reducing this once great historical “City of Monuments” to nothing of note or interest. What is next, building apartment complexes on the battlefields of Gettysburg?

Being from TEXAS I was disappointed that I t was not mentioned as one of the states that left theUNION. Many a TEXAS BOY died in that war

No matter who was right wrong better or worse, it is still a sad waste of life, even more so when its a nation tearing it self apart.

An acre every 10 minutes? Is that true??

I love the voice of the Confederate soldier in this 😂😂😂

such a waste men killing men. for thousands of year. faith love friendship, united people

lmao, narrative is everything

A question from an outsider; why can’t a state vote to secede? If the instrument exists why can’t it be voted for?

Pictorial Element is excellent!

"The country had gone mad." That phrase in the opening says it all. The maddest of them all was Lincoln.

Did anyone else notice the union soldier carrying a white cloth? 😄. He giving up?

isso foi uma guerra ou um automassacre? Antigamente se lutava assim? Formando filinhas na frente, todos em pe, desfilando? Estranho!

I was 16 that day, my 6th year there.. finally able to carry a musket on the field or rather (legally) not get harassed by "soup Nazi style" attendants or Ahole random unit CO's .. was absolutely great, fortunately got to be at the 150th too, missed 160 and sadly fear there won't be a 170.. We had a blast those few days and the second night in camp was my first time getting shot with a musket loaded with a very light charge ofcourse but filled with popcorn kernels... A unit camped next to us A VA outfit can't remember which taught me how I could get revenge with a navy revolver and a lil rock salt.. haha what a blast back then, I miss the fellowship,fun and learning of the good days of reenacting.. EDITS. Had to fix auto spells "add a word u didn't type"

It's interesting to wonder how different the war would have been had the Confederate Capitol stayed in Montgomery

Part of the confusion with the 33rd Virginia, was that they were wearing dark blue frock coats and looked like Federal troops.

I've noticed over the years that American civil war documentaries always feature lots of readings from soldiers Diaries, documentaries about other wars don't do this, ww1, ww2 Vietnam etc. why is this i wonder?

United people against what? Other people?

Olá, em português do Brasil por favor. Obrigado

Very tangled commentary, not the finest..

sergeant Truslo sent me here,...

One hell of a way to fight a war. Up close and personal. Weapons a hundred years ahead of the tactics. Such a waste of life and talent. How much greater could America have grown, if that war and loss never happened?

It wasn t general winfield.scott who told irvin mcdowell. You are green it is true but they are green also. It was abraham lincoln

AKA Bull Run.

So if you know nothing about this battle then apart from a narrative you'll still come away with little knowledge.......why? Quite simply an understanding of any battle needs maps with troop movements, placements and times. I don't understand why a documentary would leave out such key tools.

The Confederates look very well fed

Bill Run

Imagine ehat yhe difference would've been if Lee had agreed to Lincoln's request to command the Union Army..McLennan who!?!

One of my ancestors died in this battle. Just don't know if he was fighting for freedom or forced to fight as a slave.

The war that should not have been.

10:00

Yhe conferates were kust ss green snd on experienced

в тот день Конфедерация могла закончить войну победой достаточно было двинуть армию вслед за отступающими федералами и войти в Вашингтон! история америки могла измениться навсегда! но к сожалению Конфедераты не знали о том что армия Федералов практически разбита и неспособна к сопротивлению! жаль что в тот день Конфедераты упустили возможность закончить войну одним сражением!

I just don't understand for the life of me why the warfare was like the way it was in that time period. Every battle they seem to just Line up and march strait into each other's kill zones. You have to have balls of steel to look down field at your death but continue to steady march into oncoming cannon and musket fire. I mean my god could you imagine. I would have thought it made more since to fight more of a gorilla war. Set up more ambushes. Utilize the cannons and pound them like modern artillery. These men who fought this war most of them were Illiterate but there were some intelligent men amongst them and you think they would have had come to this conclusion. Intresting.

Reparations, yeah it was paid in blood.

Kurjategijad ei saa oma saaki ära jagatud.

Nullification of the Constitution? Come on! Nullification is based on laws that are unconstitutional. Did you think that no one was listening?

We were invaded.

A true 'civil war' was the American Revolution, a rising against ones own government. The common reference Civil War as used in many history books was actually an Invasion of another Sovereign Country, that being the FORMER states which established NEW Government, the Confederate States of America (CSA). The 'Union' was a war against the southern CSA was one of financial gain. This is evident by Lincoln's ability to Free ONLY* the CSA slaves, none of the Northern states slaves were freed until much later by an amendment to the Constitution. When the southern freed slaves entered the New England States looking for work, Race Riots ensued. [*As a sop to southern states Lincoln offered a compromise of allowing slavery to continue until 1900, which the southern states refused.]

Deo Vindice

We should all focus on current events ,and stop doing this to ourselves !

I was born in the UK but consider myself manassas man it was my home. I don't like slavery it was horrible but how do you separate yourself from the south? You become a pariah, Lee considered all of these facts. What am I? A good question, someone who loves the United States, a citizen loyal to the constitution. I planned the bin Laden raid, Virginia made me understand what really ordinary Americans stand for - Ukraine is a good example.- unfortunately freedom really doesn't come free. Ordinary Russians understand what is right, misplaced loyalty is holding them in limbo.... Effectively what Putin is doing, is saying to all, and in particular for me our American children too - do as I say or else..... Time we told Russias people we will not tolerate it anymore. Make no mistake the f threat is to the USA not just Ukraine. You see this right now is escalating and the quicker that is stopped the better. Yes zelenskyy is manipulating, but our current government is accepting of that, are strategic planning made mistakes. The going in to Afghanistan, more particularly the way we left sent improper signals to Putin that we were becoming complacent. The green door immediately opened sesame. 3 years before the War began it was divertable, but again we lost in picking up the correct facts..... Only hope that it was not intentional. Now Zelenskyy and Putin against a mesh, almost sounds right too, they need genius to intercede to help clear it. US money is not in place forever, nor support from the Kremlin.......But add to that neither one will throw in the towel. But zelensky needs to retain his people's country and Putin needs to score enough points to save face. It can be done with the right person at the helm, question is, is Joe Biden or Donald Trump the right person. Are they an Abraham Lincoln wise to barter politics.... To get someone to break away from sporting - supporting a manassas, i.e. Russia. It will take a negotiator of genius who realises the ordinary people of Russia need to see clear cut incentives for all. Then you'll see the pedestal that Putin has built himself crumble.

"Civil War" is a misnomer. It was a war between two countries, the United States of America and the Confederate States of America. Their respective nations was correct. It was not a rebellion.

I doubt that many of the reinactors that are fat, could have ever lasted more than a day in the civil war

Las campanas son por los rebeldes caídos en la batalla?😀😀😀

Start scene illuminati satanic free mason 1 eye symbol

And after 4 years of all this carnage, death and destruction Democrats want us to forget. Trying to rewrite history and claim the parties switch. We must never forget and never let them forget.

Over one million brave soldiers died during the Battle of Bull Run.

Man ass?

The South was never a country. United States was always the only country

Massive historically inaccurate.

TLDR; The Confederacy was sent to hell by the United States in the end.

when he said in the begining that the new republican party was a liberal one ,I had to hit pause for a minute ,

The country, namely the union had not gone mad. The rebels had gone mad.

Your propaganda is showing.

Who ever wrote this Novel had a great imagination. We all know by now that this civil war was one of the biggest lies ever constructed.

I'm from Connecticut now in northern California. We won the war ah ha and I'm black too boot

I'll admit that Manassas sounds better than Bull Run but I refuse to call any battle after its confederate name

HAIL HAIL HAIL TO THE SOUTH !!!!! FOREVER AND EVER AMEN!!!!!!!

The union troops would be better described as yellow . Green was the grass they died on .

Would it really be that bad if the government let the confederacy leave?

I STAND WITH GOVERNOR ABBOTT