Battle of Bull Run
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50 free Battle of Bull Run trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Twice in thirteen months, armies met on the same rolling farmland near Manassas, Virginia, and twice the result stunned the North. The first battle, in July 1861, ended the idea that the Civil War would be short. The second, in August 1862, was larger, bloodier and just as decisive. This quiz collects the most interesting facts about the Battle of Bull Run, first and second: the sightseers who rode out from Washington, the commanders who made or lost their reputations, the nicknames and legends born on the field, the strange accidents of uniform and flag, and the landmarks that visitors can still see today. It suits students of the Civil War, teachers who need a ready classroom round, and anyone planning a trip to the battlefield. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Washington civilians rode out in carriages with opera glasses to watch First Bull Run, earning it which nickname?
The picnic battle
The picnic battle got its name from the baskets of food the sightseers packed for an easy Union win. Their fleeing carriages then jammed the roads back to the capital.
Q 02Which nickname did Confederate general Thomas J. Jackson earn for standing firm under fire at First Bull Run?
Stonewall
Stonewall stuck after a fellow general pointed to Jackson's Virginians holding their line while others fell back. Whether the remark was praise or a complaint is still argued.
Q 03Judith Henry, an 85-year-old widow killed at First Bull Run, was where when Union shells hit her house?
In her own bed
In her own bed is where she lay, too frail to be carried to safety. Union gunners turned on the farmhouse because they believed rifle fire was coming from it.
Q 04Out of ammunition at Second Bull Run, Confederate defenders of an unfinished railroad cut threw what at Union attackers?
Rocks
Rocks were all some of Thomas J. Jackson's men had left after firing off their cartridges. A few surprised New Yorkers picked them up and threw them back.
Q 05Union gunners at First Bull Run held their fire on the 33rd Virginia because the Confederates wore which color?
Blue
Blue coats on the 33rd Virginia convinced a Union artillery officer that they were his own supports. The Virginians walked up, fired a volley and captured the guns.
Q 06Which Union brigade commander at First Bull Run wore whiskers so famous that a facial hair style took his name?
Ambrose Burnside
Ambrose Burnside wore thick whiskers running from his ears into his moustache, with a bare chin. The style was first called burnsides before the two syllables were flipped.
Q 07Which entertainment giant scrapped plans in 1994 for a history theme park five miles from the Bull Run battlefield?
Disney
Disney dropped the park, to be called Disney's America, after historians and activists protested that it would bring sprawl to the edge of the battlefield.
Q 08New York congressman Alfred Ely rode out to watch First Bull Run and ended the day as what?
A prisoner of war
A prisoner of war, he spent about five months in a Richmond prison before he was freed on Christmas Day. He was the only member of Congress captured among the spectators.
Q 09Senator Henry Wilson fled First Bull Run on which animal after a Confederate shell wrecked his buggy?
A stray mule
A stray mule carried him back toward the capital. Another senator in the crowd barely avoided capture and vowed never to go near a battlefield again.
Q 10First Bull Run came three months after Confederate guns opened the Civil War by shelling which federal stronghold?
Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter was shelled on April 12, 1861, but the fighting only began in earnest at Bull Run, some 25 to 30 miles from Washington.
Q 11The Northern public before First Bull Run clamored for the Union army to march at once on which Confederate capital?
Richmond
Richmond lay only about 100 miles south of Washington, and many in the North believed that taking it would end the war quickly.
Q 12Which future Union hero of the March to the Sea led a brigade as a colonel at First Bull Run?
William T. Sherman
William T. Sherman led a brigade of three-month volunteers in what was his first command of the war, and was then transferred to the western theater.
Q 13Which Confederate general coined a famous nickname for Thomas J. Jackson at First Bull Run and died the next day?
Barnard Bee
Q 21Which Confederate flag looked so like the Union's at First Bull Run that a new battle flag was adopted?
Stars and Bars
Stars and Bars was the Confederacy's first national flag, and soldiers on the field confused it with the Union's. The famous battle flag with its diagonal cross was adopted as a result.
Q 22How did Professor Thaddeus Lowe scout Confederate positions around Manassas Junction in the days after First Bull Run?
From a balloon
From a balloon named Enterprise, he saw no enemy massing to attack Washington. He then came down in Confederate territory and had to be rescued overnight.
Q 23Which Rhode Island major, mortally wounded at First Bull Run, wrote a farewell letter to his wife featured by Ken Burns?
Barnard Bee was mortally wounded soon after rallying his men behind the Virginians. He was one of the first generals of the war to be killed.
Q 14A Union shell fell down Wilmer McLean's chimney before First Bull Run and ruined which Confederate general's dinner?
P. G. T. Beauregard
P. G. T. Beauregard was using the McLean farmhouse as his headquarters when the shell landed in the kitchen fireplace. He later called the loss of his meal a comical effect of the fight.
Q 15Which Union commander at First Bull Run was told by Abraham Lincoln that both armies were equally green?
Irvin McDowell
Irvin McDowell had argued that his raw volunteers were not ready and marched against his better judgment. Four days after the defeat he was relieved of command.
Q 16Which general did Abraham Lincoln summon to Washington days after First Bull Run to rebuild the beaten army?
George McClellan
George McClellan was called from western Virginia, where his small wins were the only good news the North had. He soon rose to general-in-chief of all the Union armies.
Q 17Which Confederate leader reached the First Bull Run battlefield in time to see Union soldiers in retreat?
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Davis urged his generals to chase the beaten army, but their own troops were too disorganized by victory to follow it up.
Q 18Which Washington socialite ran a spy ring that passed Union marching plans to the Confederates before First Bull Run?
Rose Greenhow
Rose Greenhow wrote her notes in a 26-symbol cipher and was thanked afterward by the Confederate command. Detective Allan Pinkerton soon had her house searched.
Q 19Joseph E. Johnston's Confederates reached First Bull Run by train after slipping away from which Virginia valley?
Shenandoah
Shenandoah Valley brigades gave a Union force the slip and rode the Manassas Gap Railroad east, most of them arriving on the eve and the day of the battle.
Q 20Which 75-year-old Union general-in-chief, too infirm to take the field at First Bull Run, devised the Anaconda Plan?
Winfield Scott
Winfield Scott wanted to squeeze the South by blockade and by taking the Mississippi, a plan the press ridiculed. The public wanted a quick march south instead.
Sullivan Ballou
Sullivan Ballou wrote to his wife Sarah a week before a cannonball tore off part of his leg. The letter is said to have been found in his trunk after he died, and she never remarried.
Q 24What mocking name did the Southern press give the Union army's panicked flight from First Bull Run?
The Great Skedaddle
The Great Skedaddle saw soldiers pour toward Centreville, throwing away their arms and equipment, and no rear guard could rally them.
Q 25Northerners named the 1861 battle Bull Run after which feature of the Virginia battlefield?
A stream
A stream called Bull Run winds through the battlefield. Southerners called the same fight Manassas, after the closest town.
Q 26Which Confederate cavalry colonel, later a celebrated general, charged New York infantry at First Bull Run?
J. E. B. Stuart
J. E. B. Stuart led his Virginia horsemen into the flank of the 11th New York, then joined the pursuit. Northern papers soon ran wild stories of a dreaded black horse cavalry.
Q 27The 11th New York, scattered by Confederate cavalry at First Bull Run, was recruited from which New York City workers?
Firefighters
Firefighters from the city's volunteer companies filled the regiment. Weeks before the battle, in Washington, they had helped put out a blaze at the Willard Hotel.
Q 28Before the Civil War and First Bull Run, Thomas J. Jackson spent ten years teaching at which college?
Virginia Military Institute
Virginia Military Institute employed him from 1851 until war broke out in 1861. He was still a relatively unknown brigadier when the battle began.
Q 29Which future cavalry general, fresh from finishing last in his West Point class, carried messages at First Bull Run?
George Custer
George Custer had graduated only weeks earlier and was detailed to carry messages to the army's commander in the field. He ended the war a general at 25.
Q 30Which Confederate general won Second Bull Run by splitting his outnumbered army and striking the Union flank?
Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee sent half his army on a long march around the Union flank, then reunited it on the battlefield. Four days after the victory he began his next campaign.