Originally aired on July 18, 1997 - In part 151 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson profiles the general who lost at both First and Second Manassas, Brigadier General Irvin McDowell.
#151 – General Irvin McDowell
July, 1861, Manassas Junction, Virginia: site of the opening major land battle of the Civil War. The Southern forces won, with Confederate generals Beauregard, Johnston, and “Stonewall” Jackson emerging as the men of the hour. Who was the losing commander at Manassas? He is so obscure that even today his first name is often misspelled.
Irvin McDowell was a Columbus, Ohio, native who studied in France prior to entering West Point. After graduation he taught at the Academy for four years. McDowell was a staff officer during the Mexican War. Then came 14 years at a desk in the office of the Adjutant General. Civil war literally jerked McDowell into action.
A well-intentioned, hard-working major who neither sought nor gained popularity, McDowell was a favorite of both Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase and General-in-Chief Winfield Scott. Suddenly, in May, 1861, McDowell was jumped three positions to the rank of brigadier general and given command of Federal units gathering in Washington to bring a quick end to this “national disturbance by Southerners”.
The odds were against him. McDowell had to take a hodgepodge collection of volunteers and militia (all of whom were eager but inexperienced) and somehow mold them into a cohesive army. He got no help from the War Department, whose lackadaisical ways reflected years of stagnation. Staff work was minimal; supplies were always on back-order; the 90-day terms of many Union regiments were rapidly drawing to an end.
Meanwhile, the press and the politicians were screaming for McDowell to move at once, seize Richmond, and win the war. To make all of these hindrances even worse, McDowell was a field general who had never commanded troops in action. He was a veteran of bureaucracy, not of battle.
Closely allied to these shortcomings were personal quirks. McDowell was an engaging man, but he could never remember names – especially the newspapermen who followed him constantly. While the general did not drink, he had a gargantuan appetite. One officer watched in shock as McDowell topped off an enormous lunch by consuming an entire watermelon. McDowell never sought advice and resented any that was offered. Nevertheless, at six feet in height, with deep chest and clear eyes, he was a fine and impressive soldier.
Against his better nature, McDowell in mid-July, 1861, got his armed mob into motion. He advanced toward a waiting and equally untested Southern force at Manassas. Seven hours of disjointed fighting on a hot Sunday brought McDowell one of the most ignominious defeats in American military history. General George McClellan succeeded to command of the Union army. McDowell returned to duty the following spring as a corps commander and led his men to another disaster at the second battle of Manassas.
By then, Union soldiers dislike McDowell intensely. To protect his face against sunburn, McDowell had adopted a weird-looking hat made of bamboo and white cloth. It resembled an inverted coal scuttle. Federal soldiers thought otherwise. The general’s record of defeat convinced them that he was in reality a Confederate spy, and that he wore the garish hat so Southerners across the way would not shoot him and take away one of their best weapons.
McDowell spent the last part of the Civil War in the Department of the Pacific – which was as far away as authorities could send him. There he remained until his 1882 retirement from the Army. At his death three years later, McDowell was buried in San Francisco at the Presidio, a military post he had developed into a first-class installation.
This hapless general was a professional whose best was never quite good enough. While commanders like Grant had a penchant for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, few generals have ever been as genuinely unlucky as Irvin McDowell.