"We Shall Meet Again"

The First Battle of Manassas (also known as Bull Run) signified the beginning of the bloodiest war in America's history. From June to July 1861, the South concentrated an army on the southern banks of Bull Run near Manassas Junction, Virginia. A Union army commanded by Brigadier General Irvin McDowell moved toward Manassas in mid-July. At 6:00 a.m., Sunday, July 21, the battle began. The battlefield extended over a space of three to five miles, and within this area nearly 30,000 soldiers (15,000 Union and 14,000 Confederates) clashed. While the fighting was often disorganized and clumsy, the soldiers endured their baptism by fire. They were introduced to the horrors of war and learned to live with that knowledge. When news of the day's fighting appeared in print, however, the civilian population on both sides, rather than being alarmed, became angered and incited; they cried for more blood. No one in 1861 could foresee the devastating casualty lists that would rise as the Northern and Southern armies met on the fields of battle. "We Shall Meet Again": The First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run), July 18-21, 1861, is the first book on this subject to include forty-five maps and over 200 photographs of the individual soldiers.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.