An excellent unbiased retelling of the first major battle of the civil war by a professor of history at Connecticut State University. I have a number of civil war histories, and plan to read one new book each year during the 150th anniversary of the civil war events of that year. Donnybrook, a history of the First Battle of Bull Run, which took place on July 21, 1861, is an good place to start.
An interesting theme throughout the book, is how unprepared for war both armies were. Several units in the U.S. Army were made up of volunteers who had signed up for terms of 90 days, and the 90 days were up just about the time of the battle. Would you feel like fighting on that day? Volunteer units usually elected their own officers, and many of them had no previous military experience. Detzer makes clear the mistakes and heroics on both sides on a day when the North was nearly victorious but went down to defeat. The maps in this book are inadequate. I suggest you google the battle to find and print out a map you can use to follow the battle. That's what I did and it helped a great deal. ( )