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The opening land battle of the Civil War, known as First Manassas, or Bull Run,
was fought just 25 miles outside of Washington, D.C., in northern Virginia.
When war finally broke out, the people of the North expected their army to be able to
march into the South and decisively put down the rebellion.
Instead, the inexperienced armies of the Union and Confederacy discovered exactly how destructive
and drawn out the war was going to be.
During the battle, while other leaders scrambled to find what to do,
a little-known professor from the Virginia Military Institute,
Thomas Jonathan Jackson, held his ground, prompting Confederate general Barnard Bee
to exclaim, "There stands Jackson, like a stone wall. Rally behind the Virginians!"
Stonewall Jackson's leadership turned the battle in favor of the Confederates,
and the Union troops retreated toward Washington.
Like most of the war, the battle was fought on people's farms and meadows,
which wound up destroying families' crops and homes.
Wilmer McLean's home was taken over and used as Confederate headquarters during the battle.
Like all civilians in Virginia, the McLean's lives were completely upended by the war,
and in 1863, they moved to central Virginia, hoping to avoid further conflict.
Notably absent from this first major battle were Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee.
These men would later become the most successful generals of the war
and rise to lead their respective armies.
Robert Edward Lee, the son of Revolutionary War hero "Light Horse Harry" Lee,
made his career as a military officer.
He served with distinction in the United States Army during the Mexican War,
and led the Marines who captured John Brown at Harper's Ferry.
Lee, however, refused President Lincoln's offer to command the Union army
because he would not fight against his home state.
Instead, he joined with the Confederacy and became commander of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Born and raised in Ohio, Ulysses S. Grant, like Lee, graduated from West Point,
but retired from the army and was a farmer in the years before the Civil War.
Because of his great victories, Grant was promoted to Lieutenant General
and given command of the entire U.S. Army in 1864.
It was General Grant's strategy that finally led to the capture of the Confederate capital, Richmond.
Four years of violence and misery came to an end at Appomattox Courthouse,
in the Virginia Piedmont.
General Lee surrendered to General Grant in the parlor of Wilmer McLean, the same man
whose former home had served as the Confederate's headquarters at First Manassas.
After the war, Grant oversaw Reconstruction in the South,
and used his position to advocate for the rights of freed slaves
to vote and hold political office.
Grant's popularity grew and he was elected the 18th president of the United States in 1868.
Robert E. Lee went on to serve as president of what is now Washington and Lee University
in Lexington, Virginia, and encourage southerners to once again be Americans.