THE NEW YORK TIMES, July 17, 1861  The front page has great coverage on the days just before the historic Battle of Bull Run, with first column heads: "THE GREAT REBELLION" Advance of the Grand Army under Gen. McDowell" "The Rebels at Fairfax & Manassas to be Overwhelmed" "Full Details of the Battle of Cartrick's Ford" "Measures for the Suppression of Southern Piracy" and more. War coverage continues inside as well.
Eight pages, nice condition.

Background: This July 17, 1861 issue of The New York Times serves as a profound historical time capsule, capturing the peak of Northern optimism and psychological innocence just four days before the illusion of a swift, bloodless conflict was shattered at the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21. The front-page headlines detailing the advance of General McDowell’s "Grand Army" and the supreme confidence that the Confederates would be "overwhelmed" at Fairfax and Manassas perfectly document the pre-battle hubris that led Union politicians and civilians to pack picnic baskets to watch the conflict unfold—only to witness a chaotic, panicked retreat instead. Furthermore, its coverage of the Battle of "Cartrick's" (Corrick's) Ford marks a pivotal moment in western Virginia that propelled George B. McClellan to fame and recorded the death of Robert S. Garnett, the first general killed in the war. Because this eight-page newspaper catches American society at the exact threshold between romanticized notions of glory and the grim, industrialized reality of a four-year war, original copies in nice condition are exceptionally rare and highly prized by collectors as artifactual proof of how drastically the press and the public misjudged the scale of the impending rebellion.