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Final Struggle
First Battle of Manassas
July 21, 1861 3 - 4 p.m.
Up the slope marched Federal troops, determined to retake the cannons lost moments earlier. The bodies of slain artillerists and infantrymen littered the landscape. The Yankees recaptured Griffin's two guns and attempted to drag the two pieces to safety, but dead horses encumbered their efforts. In the distance the Confederates were preparing another charge.
The heaviest combat of the battle, much of it hand-to-hand, raged around the disabled batteries of Captains Ricketts and Griffin. The fighting went back and forth -- Confederates would overrun the Federal position and recapture the cannon then be driven off moments later by a headlong counterattack. The widow Henry's farm became the most contested ground of the battle. |