What happened after the confederacy won bull run?

Answer 1

The Confederates were not sufficiently well-organised to pursue and destroy the Union army. But they were content with their gains.

The Union army straggled back to Washington, where they hung around the streets in disorder and low morale, before being re-organised by the brisk and popular young General George McClellan.

Answer 2

After the first Battle of Bull Run, Union troops made a panic retreat from Virginia. Confederate forces were too exhausted to pursue the Union troops, so Union army commander McDowell escaped from further punishment.

Despite the Confederate victory, it left Southerners unsure if mounting an offensive attack would lead to the Confederacy to seem as aggressors and thus alienate any European support. The one sure policy of the South was a fight for freedom and independence.

Many believed that as long as any Union assaults could be defeated and turned back, it enhanced the goal of the South to be seen as a victim of the Union's war to crush the South.