Photo of woman dressed as mrs. henry at the manassas battlefield in virginia on 7/17/10. This is to celebrate the 149th anniversary of the civil war battle that began here on 7/21/1861. The battle of manassas or bull run was the first battle of the american civil war. Mrs. henry was the first civilian death of the war. She refused to leave her house owing to her age even though her family tried to get her out. A confederate sniper took up a position in the house and started to fire upon union troops. Union cannons returned fire killing both the sniper and mrs. henry.