The Day Was Ours: First Bull Run (July 21, 1861)

About this board game

The Day Was Ours: First Bull Run (July 21, 1861) is a regimental-level American Civil War battle game for 1–2 players, with a listed play time of 640 minutes. Released in 2021, it is the sixth game in Revolution Games’ Blind Swords series.

The game focuses on the first significant campaign of the American Civil War in Virginia. At First Bull Run, the Union army’s unexpected turning movement created a moment of apparent victory, while the Confederate army had been outmaneuvered and outfought in the morning engagement. By nightfall, however, disorder was streaming toward Washington and the battle had taken an entirely different turn.

Both armies bring equal measures of inexperience and exuberance to a uniquely chaotic battlefield. Familiar commanders appear in the places where they began learning their trade, including Sherman, Jackson, Burnside, and Johnston.

• Blind Swords system: Units may or may not respond to orders.
• Uncertain identification: Troops may hold their fire because they think the enemy is friendly.
• Historical setting: Experience the confusion and shifting fortunes of the July 21, 1861 battle.

Its central tension reflects Irvin McDowell’s report on the campaign: the Confederates seemed unaware that they had been beaten, and their unwillingness to accept defeat helped turn a victorious moment into a Confederate victory. In The Day Was Ours, battlefield chaos is not a side effect—it is the defining character of the engagement.