Commemortaing the First Battle of Bull Run

 

The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as the First Battle of Manassas (the name used by Confederate forces and still often used in the Southern United States), was fought on July 21, 1861, near Manassass, Virginia. It was the first major land battle of the American Civil War.

A brigade of Virginias under a relatively unknown colonel from the Virginia Military Institutes, Thomas J. Jackson, stood its ground and Jackson received his famous nickname, Stonewall Jackson.

Here is a poem that remembers Bull Run(Manassass) and that unknown Confederate general.

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Stonewall Jackson at Manassas: July 21, 1861

That beard hangs

Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson

from his chin
like an anvil.

Ain’t no lie.
Yankee bullets
veer `round his head

so not to smack
against his face.
We should just point

him toward Washington
and shackle up behind
like a chain of geese.

I swear we’d rename
this country Virginia
before it’s cold enough

to tighten your skin
and freeze your breath.

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