On this episode of Dave Does History, we go back to a moment when the Civil War still wore a fresh coat of naivety. July 21, 1861.

The first major clash between North and South unfolds near a muddy Virginia stream called Bull Run. People thought this would be over quickly. They brought picnic baskets. They brought their kids.

What they got instead was a violent wake-up call. Union troops, raw and untested, marched straight into a Confederate trap and came undone in full view of the nation. This wasn’t a rebellion about to be squashed. This was a war. Long, bloody, and far from over.

Today, we’ll walk through that chaotic Sunday when innocence died and reality came roaring in like rebel cavalry. This is the story of Bull Run, the moment the Civil War stopped being a theory and started becoming a tragedy.

Stick around. This one gets real.