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On the Plains of Manassas
The Battle of Manassas (or Bull Run) was fought on July 21,
1861.
General John Bankhead Magruder commanded Confederate troops
at the Battle of Big Bethel, near Hampton, Virginia, on June 10,
1861. Major General Ben F. Butler was the Union commander of
the expedition against Bethel, though fighting command was held
by Brigadier General E. W. Pierce. The First North Carolina
Regiment participated, and Henry Lawson Wyatt, a private, was
killed. He is said to have been the first Confederate soldier killed
in battle. There is a portrait of Wyatt in the North Carolina State
Library, and a sculptured figure of him surmounts the Confederate
Monument in Raleigh.
'On the Plains of Manassas.' Contributed by Julian P. Boyd, then of
Alliance, Pamlico county, who obtained it from a pupil in his school,
c. 1927-28.
1 On the plains of Manassas the Yankees we met ;
We gave them a lickin' they'll never forget.
2 We commenced in the morning and fought until two.
When glory waved over the red, white, and blue.
Chorus:
Hurrah, hurrah, we're a nation that's true,
And we're all defending the red, white, and blue.
3 We had a nice little fight on the fourth of last June,
When MacGruder of Bethel wiped out Picayune.
530 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE
4 Later in June they mustered their crew
To shove the Confederates the wilderness through.
5 But they had not got far before back they all flew,
With the Union banners all busted in two.