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== WITH AFP STORY BY CARLOS HAMANN: US-HISTORY-CIVILWAR-ANNIVERSARY == (FILES): This photograph dated c.1860-1865, obtained July 20, 2011 courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration, shows Union commander Irvin McDowell, who led US troops against the Confederates in the US Civil War's First Battle of Bull Run. Americans this weekend mark the 150th anniversary of the first major battle in their bitter 1861-1865 civil war, an engagement that both sides thought would result in a quick victory but instead shocked the public with its high casualty rate. Historians have described the July 21, 1861 Confederate victory as the end of American innocence, when the young nation faced a war that threatened its very existence. The southerners were certain they could quickly capture Washington, while northerners believed they could easily take the Confederate capital of Richmond, a mere 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the south. Nobody believed the war would last long. "It was America's baptism by fire, where naive, romantic ideals of warfare came to an abrupt end," said Henry Elliott, a historian with the National Park Service, on a recent tour of the Manassas battlefield. "The battle ended any notion that the war would be quickly decided." AFP PHOTO / US library of Congress == RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE / MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / NATIONAL ARCHIVES" / NO MARKETING / NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS / DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS ==