1862 Currier and Ives View of the Second Battle of Bull Run, American Civil War

This is an 1862 Currier and Ives view of the Second Battle of Bull Run, fought during the American Civil War. Union Major General John Pope's Army of Virginia appears on the left and General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia occupies the right. Orderly battle lines appear in the background, with Confederates in ranks firing at the advancing Union troops. However, in the foreground, the order dissolves into chaos, with hand-to-hand combat and dead or wounded on the ground. Some Confederate soldiers are retreating.

The Second Battle of Bull Run

The Second Battle of Bull Run was fought in Prince William County, Virginia, on August 29 - 30, 1862. Fought on the same ground as the First Battle of Bull Run (July 21, 1861), Confederate Major General Thomas J. 'Stonewall' Jackson (January 21, 1824 - May 10, 1863) attacked a Union column at Brawner's Farm on August 28, 1862. The attack resulted in a stalemate, but did get General Pope's attention. That same day, Confederate General James Longstreet broke through Union lines at the Battle of Thoroughfare Gap and moved to join Jackson's army. After the engagement at Brawner's Farm, Pope believed he had cornered Jackson, which persuaded him to concentrate his entire force against Jackson's army. However, Pope was unaware of Longstreet's breakthrough and approach. On August 29, Pope's army assaulted Jackson's heavily defended position with little success and heavy casualties on both sides. Longstreet arrived around noon and took a position on Jackson's flank. Pope renewed his attack on August 30, apparently unaware of Longstreet's arrival. Pope's force was devastated by Confederate artillery. Then, in the largest simultaneous mass assault of the war, Longstreet's entire army of 25,000 men charged. Longstreet's men crushed the Union left flank and drove Union forces back to Bull Run. If not for the effective rearguard action by the retreating Union Army, this would have been a replay of the Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run.

Currier and Ives Civil War Prints

Currier and Ives' prints of events in the American Civil War (1861 - 1865) are among the most accurate and significant records of the Civil War published. Taken as a whole, the dozes of prints issued by Currier and Ives between 1860 and 1867 represent a comprehensive contemporaneous record of the war. The prints were drawn and engraved based upon eyewitness accounts and sketches shortly after the relevant events and battles. Most are small format (9 x 11 or so) are not of the same high quality as Currier and Ives' more famous larger images, a factor of the haste by which they were compiled, engraved, and printed. Each was produced to address commercial hunger for information about the war - where nearly everyone had a friend or family member on the front. A complete collection of Currier and Ives Civil War issues is essential to any serious collection of as-it-happened Civil War imagery The entire series of Currier and Ives Civil War views were reproduced in 1860 in a series of 8 portfolios. These reproductions are common on the market, but originals have become rare.

Publication History and Census

This view was created and published by Currier and Ives from their premises at 152 Nassau Street in New York City in 1862. Two examples of this view are cataloged in OCLC and are part of the institutional collections at the Library of Congress and George Mason University. A third example is part of the collection at the D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts in Springfield, Massachusetts.