The First Battle of Bull Run

This is Don Holland, ex-CBS News Headquarters at Cub Run on the Warrenson Turnpike, 30 miles southwest of Washington. On the 21st of July 1861, federal artillery has just stopped shelling the Confederate positions across Bull Run, the small river two miles in front of us, and the long-awaited federal infantry attack is expected to begin at any moment.

This will be the first major engagement between the untested armies of north and south. The Federal Urban McDowell Federal Army of North Eastern Virginia, Out-members General Pierre Beauregard Confederate Army of the Potomac, almost two to one.

The Federal Commander expects a quick decisive victory, and he's certain he'll be in Richmond, the new Confederate capital 100 miles away by tomorrow night at the later. Here in Union headquarters, officers are making bets with one another, over whose regiment will be the first to march in the Richmond.

July 21st, 1861, Cabron in Virginia. You are there. The Army of the North, powerful, supremely confident, prepares to march on Richmond and end overnight the six months old uprising of the South. CBS takes you back 87 years to the first battle of Bull Run near Manassas Junction.

All things are as they were then, except for one thing. When CBS is there, you are there. You are there, produced and directed by Robert Louis Cheon, is based on authentic historical facts and quotations.

And now, CBS news headquarters, two miles behind the bull run battle line, and down on the radio. The details seem to be set, and now with a sudden ceasefire of the artillery, the federal infantry action is about to begin.

General McDowell and his staff officers have waited eagerly for this moment. It's almost three months since the South walked out of the Union and fired on Fort Sumter. There have been the two minor skirmishes at Rich Mountain and Big Bethel, but nothing more while both South and North mobilized their forces.