On this day in 1861, Union and Confederate troops clashed outside of Manassas, Virginia in the first major engagement of the ...

Irvin McDowell is one of the lesser known Union generals, chiefly remembered – not fondly – for his command in Virginia early in the Civil War, when he presided over the disaster at First Bull Run.

Samuel C. McDowell was born on July 12, 1832, in Down Ireland. He immigrated to American in 1848 with his family and settled in Genesee Co., New York. In 1854 McDowell moved to Fox Lake. When the ...