Today in the Civil War. (victories, Indiana, Lexington, Baltimore)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
In the early morning 150 years ago today, General Jeb Stuart set out with 1500 horsemen and two guns, his target the railway bridge near Catlett's Station in the rear of General Pope's army. They rode all day making a wide circle around Pope's right flank. At sunset a strong thunderstorm soaked the troopers.
Continuing to move after dark, Stuart's advance scouts captured a black man wearing a Union orderly's uniform. Whether to save himself, or indicative of genuine feeling, the orderly claimed to have been taken into service against his will and he welcomed the return of the rebel army since they would send him home.
That alone probably would not have gotten him off the hook, but he had a bargaining chip. He offered to guide Stuart's force to General Pope's private quarters which was guarded only by a small detachment of soldiers.
The orderly delivered on his pledge and in one of the war's more dramatic moments, against a backdrop of lightning flashes and booming thunder, a bugle sounded and 1500 rebel horsemen suddenly burst out of the darkness, screaming and shooting and instantly scattering the Union guardsmen, 200 of whom were taken prisoner.
It was General Pope's good fortune to be away from his quarters at the time on an inspection tour. While the general eluded capture, his property did not. Stuart's men took all of Pope's personal belongings, a payroll chest with 35 K in greenbacks, and a dispatch book with copies of every order Pope had sent during the campaign.
This bonanza had to serve as compensation for the failure of the raid's main objective. Leaving Pope's looted quarters, they pushed on to the Cedar Run bridge, but it was impossible to get a fire started in the rainstorm. They attempted to chop it down, but found the wood too petrified. An hour before dawn they gave up the task and began the journey back to Lee's lines.
It had happened that during a pause at Warrington on the journey to Catlett's Station, Stuart had encountered a young southern woman who said that a Yankee quartermaster who had been occupying the town before Pope's pullback, had boasted that he would be in Richmond in less than 30 days. Loyal to her cause, the woman had bet the quartemaster a bottle of wine that he was in error. Stuart was amused and had his orderly get the quartermaster's name from the woman.
As it happened, that very man was among the 200 captured when Stuart overran Pope's quarters. On the return trip, Stuart stopped at the young woman's house, and had the quartermaster escorted inside to collect his bottle of wine. He could drink it, Stuart said, in Richmond's Libby prison where he would be in far less than 30 days.
After a week of probing attacks, General Stuart's failure to destroy the Cedar Run Creek Bridge, and futile artillery duels, General Robert E. Lee was frustrated. He saw no opening, no exposed flank, no weak point in General Pope's defensive line across the Rappahannock River. Each day saw more units from the Army of the Potomac arriving, strengthening the Union position while Lee's numbers were static.
Lee was not the sort of person to remain frustrated. He reasoned that if no general attack stood a chance of success, and Pope's army had to be driven back before it became too large to defeat, then the logical choice was the illogical choice...take a long chance. He would greatly expand on the tactic he had used twice with mixed results, a swing around Pope's right flank to threaten his supply base.
But this time Lee was thinking really big. He was not going to send just a cavalry raid, but Stonewall Jackson's entire wing. He would divide his force in the face of a united foe with larger numbers, generally regarded as suicidal in warfare. He would do so because none of the other options struck him as promising.
Lee allocated his personnel according to ability. General Longstreet, with his steady resolution, would keep Pope occupied in the front and prevent him from knowing that half of Lee's army had left. Jackson, with his maniacal hard marching and penchant for extreme secrecy, was the well suited choice for the lightning movement and surprise blow to Pope's rear which Lee had in mind.
150 years ago today Lee rode to Jackson's headquarters and outlined the plan. No precise objective was identified, wherever Jackson saw the best opportunity to do damage to railroad or supply base, he was to go to work. Jackson was to avoid a general engagement, the purpose of the movement was to force Pope back, not to fight him. Once Pope did move north to deal with Jackson, Stonewall was to find a place easy to defend and wait for Lee to bring up the rest of the army.
Could Jackson begin such a movement as early as tomorrow or the next day? Stonewall promised to have his troops on the road before the sun rose the next morning. With that he turned to preparations.
The lower right quadrant map below shows the positions of the armies and the planned route (broken red line) of Jackson's march to Pope's rear.
True to his word to General Lee, 150 years ago at dawn, Stonewall Jackson had his 23,000 man wing up and marching in a NW direction. It was the usual Jackson march featuring the general riding up and down the trudging lines and urging the men to "Close up! Close up!", and the typical clamp on information. The lead units were given a direction in which to march until they were ordered to halt. A picket was to be left behind at each crossroads to tell the trailing unit which way to go, they would leave behind a picket of their own and so forth.
They were following the roads on a swing around to the western side of Carter's Mountain which shielded them from General Pope's army. This was the same route that they had taken previously when headed for the Valley, so most of the men concluded that they were returning to their old mischief making grounds.
Jackson demanded and got 25 hard miles from his army this day, reaching Salem Court House at dark. To the NW was the entrance to the Valley, due east was Thoroughfare Gap through which ran the Manassas Gap Railroad which ended at Manasas Junction, just south of the Bull Run battlefield. This was Pope's main supply base. Six miles SW of the junction was another rail stop on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, Bristoe Station. At this point no one other than Stonewall knew that this was the selected target objective.
That evening, General Stuart was dispatched as planned. He was to catch up and rendevous with Jackson on the road tomorrow, around mid day if all went well.
On this same day, as General Pope's discombobulation was being carried out 75 miles to the south, in Washington DC the Lincoln administration took another one of those incremental steps toward altering the nature of the war. Secretary of War Stanton issued orders calling for the recruitment and enlistment of 5000 black soldiers. The order specified that they were to be used in guard duty only, but this was still the first government sanctioned authorization for colored soldiers. Another 190,000 would follow this first group and they would do far more than just guard duty.
After a high velocity 25 mile march the day before, 150 years ago today General Jackson had his men up and on the road at sunrise. Today they would go further, 31 miles to Bristoe Station in General Pope's rear. That they were headed east rather then NW was the first his men learned that they were not headed back to the Valley.
General Stuart and his cavalry caught up with the march in mid afternoon. Jackson ordered the horsemen to impose themselves between the march and the rear of Pope's army, making sure that Jackson would not be surprised if detected.
Jackson set a blistering pace and around sunset the lead brigade arrived outside of Bristoe Station where a railway bridge spanned Broad Run Creek. Its destruction was Stonewall's first object. With the setting sun at their backs, the rebels suddenly burst upon the bridge guards and captured them without a shot. As the prisoners were being herded away, the sound of a train whistle from the south was heard. The Confederates tried to construct a hasty barricade of railroad ties, but the train's engineer saw the trap, laid on speed and burst through.
Ten minutes later another whistle was heard and this time the rebels managed to sabotage the tracks and conceal themselves. The unaware locomotive derailed and thundered down the embankment taking half of its cars with it. The rebels were just emerging to inspect this fantastic spectacle when another whistle was heard, and a third train materialized. It was unable to brake in time and ran into the rear of the derailed train's cars, causing another eruption of sparks, explosions, tumbling cars and screaming passengers. A fourth train came upon the scene, but seeing the fires and wreckage, hit its brakes and backed up the way it had come.
Jackson's men next set to work destroying the railway bridge and while that was taking place, Stonewall was interviewing survivors from the train wrecks. From one he learned that Pope's main supply base was six miles to the north at Manassas Junction, and guarded by just a few companies. Jackson reasoned that the two trains which got away, north and south, would be spreading the word about Jackson's presence, so immediate action was required. Though all had done a hard 56 miles of marching the last two days, Stonewall wanted one of his Brigades to volunteer to instantly march the six miles and do whatever damage they could to the base, Jackson would bring the rest of the army to meet them tomorrow morning.
Much to the irritation of his men, General Issac Trimble insisted that his troops were the men for the job. Off they marched grumbling about their bad luck, little knowing that they were actually the luckiest soldiers in the rebel army.
Six miles up the tracks was an incredible sight. The Yankee supply depot was beyond anything that they had imagined, an entire square mile of full boxcars and sutler wagons. While the former held guns, uniforms, ammunition and camp equipment, the latter contained luxuries. Soon every man in Trimble's command was loaded down with fine cigars, canned lobster or fruits, packs of coffee, wheels of cheese, writing paper, pencils, boots, cloaks...and seemingly endless casks of wine and whiskey.
Trimble had to ride around in a fury, having the alcohol destroyed as quickly as it was found, but not before most of his men had imbibed quite a lot. Eventually order was restored and and Trimble, in anticipation of the rest of Jackson's men arriving tomorrow and behaving in the same manner, posted his brigade as guards around the Federal depot.
Artist's Conception: Manassas Junction is Pillaged
150 years ago this morning, Stonewall Jackson left behind one division to watch his rear, and took the rest of his army to Manassas to meet with General Trimble's brigade. Just as had been Trimble's men, the new arrivals were astonished at the bounty which sat before them. The sight of the guards surrounding the loot, the members of Trimble's brigade with their pockets and haversacks already bulging with goodies, was a spur rather than a barrier to another grab fest. Breaking right through the guards, it was now the turn of the men from Generals Hill and Taiaferro's units to indulge their fancy.
As with the night before, whiskey and wine seemed to be the most popular item. The officers ordered the casks to be crushed and this led to the sight of hundreds of men on the ground trying to sip or soak up whatever they could as the booze flowed across the ground and formed puddles.
The train which had run the cross tie barricade and escaped to the north, had given the word that Bristoe Station and Manassas were being raided. Thinking that this was a simple cavalry raid, Brigadier George Taylor, commanding four New Jersey regiments, marched out of Centreville to chastise the rebel horsemen and save the supply depot. His men were untested in battle.
Jackson had been alerted to their approach and sent A.P. Hill's men to the north to form a defensive line. The New Jerseymen, still thinking that they were dealing with cavalry only, received a bloody education to the contrary when Hill's infantry opened up on their advance. Surprisingly the raw troops took their casualties and kept on coming. Jackson was so struck by their bravery that he did a very unusual thing for him, he decided to show mercy.
Securing a white flag, he ordered a cease fire and rode out in front of the lines shouting for the Federals to surrender so that they may be spared. By way of response, a bullet whistled by near his head. This caused Jackson to revert to his normal aggression and he ordered his men to resume fire. The rebel veterans blasted huge holes in the Yankee ranks and before long they were running for the rear in a disorganized manner. Overly burdened with their looted items, Hill's men were not in position to pursue. 135 Federals had been killed or wounded, another 200 taken prisoner. Among the dead was General Taylor whose courage, Jackson said, was "worthy of a better cause." Jackson then had the railway bridge that the New Jersey regiments had crossed on approach, burned to prevent any other such interuptions from the north.
Jackson permitted his starved and undersupplied men to load up with all that they could carry, and then set what remained afire. When word came from Bristoe Station that the Yankees were beginning to attack there, Jackson decided that enough had been done and now was the time to find a spot to roost and wait for General Lee to bring up General Longstreet's wing.
With high walls of flames and ongoing explosions marking their exit, Jackson led his men to....?
That was the question which was to plague General Pope, who by this time had been told of the destruction taking place in his rear. He took this as excellent news for it confirmed that Lee had split his army, 23,000 to the north, 32,000 to the south. Between them with 75,000 was Pope, free to strike at one or the other with vastly superior numbers. Pope decided to target Jackson and personally led six more divisions north to Bristoe Station to join with the one already there which had been skirmishing with Jackson's rear guard. Tomorrow they would strike Manassas and destroy Stonewall, or so the plan went.
Brigadier General George Taylor, killed 150 years ago today. Jackson admired his courage.
150 years ago this morning, General Pope and six divisions from the Army of Virginia arrived to link up with General Heintzelman's Corps from the Army of the Potmac, and between them crush General Jackson's wing at Manassas Junction.
Stonewall was a no show for the party. All that the Union troops found at Manassas was the smoking remains of what had been an immense supply depot. Scattered all around were boxes, barrels and cans which had been opened and looted by the rebels. Pope's converging movement had closed in on a vacuum and there was not a soul present who was able to say in what direction Jackson had headed when he left.
Pope decided that Jackson must have gone north to Centerville. Orders flew out across the telegraphs for another convergence and once more the men in blue arrived to discover that their prey had vanished. All this hard marching for no gain was taking a toll on the Federal troops' morale. In moving from Manassas Junction to Centerville, they had marched across the Bull Run battlefield from 1861. This seemed to spook a number of the Union soldiers, a visit to their ground of shame.
Where was Stonewall?
That evening, while Pope's men were reaching Centerville, Jackson's command was actually back near where it had started, two miles SW of the Bull Run battlefield at Groverton. Jackson had recalled Ewell's division from Bristoe Station where it had been guarding his rear, and sent his army on a looping march, first north to Centerville, and then a wide swing to the SW, looping back to the Manassas Junction area. The march had gone poorly, infuriating Jackson, but actually working wonderfully to his advantage.
The men were drunk, hung over, stuffed with food and weighed down with loot. Marching at night, many units got lost and took the wrong roads, many simply fell out of the march to sleep it off in the woods, making their way to their ordered destination on their own or in small groups later. They were all supposed to have arrived at Groverton by sunrise, but in fact failed to reassemble until mid afternoon.
But....because of the scattered march, because units of grey clad soldiers were seen at all points headed in all directions at various times, the reports coming in to Pope were all conflciting. Union intelligence had Jackson everywhere except where he actually was and a full day would be lost before the Federals would finally get wise to his true position.
The first hints of where Jackson might be had come in that evening . General John Gibbon's brigade, from Heintzelman's Corps, had already passed by close to Jackson's concealed men at Groverton in the late afternoon. Jackson had sent Ewell and Taliaferro's men to intercept them, but they had turned off down another road and no contact was made. Around sunset however, General King's division from McDowell's Corps was crossing near the Bull Run battlefield and were surprised when Ewell and Taliaferro were there to ambush them.
Despite the surprise, King's troops fought well and one of those incredible Civil War fights ensued where the opposing sides formed firing lines about 50 yards apart, and both stood around for 2 hours blazing away at one another in the open. The fighting was ended by darkness after both sides had suffered around 1000 casualties each, the rebel losses including General Ewell whose knee was shattered by a rifle ball causing the need for amputation. Taliaferro was wounded three times, but none were as serious as Ewell's injury.
The battle could not be said to have been a victory for either side, but it had been fought with unusual courage.
Meanwhile....As soon as General Lee learned that Pope had pulled back six divisions and headed north, rather than attacking the reduced, but still well entrenched force in front of him across the Rappahannock River, he ordered General Longstreet's wing to pull back and and begin marching north, following the same flanking route that Jackson had taken. Longstreet's men were close enough to the scene on the 28th to hear the late day fight between King and Ewell, but not close enough to participate. Pope remained completely ignorant of Longstreet's movements and his mind was still set on locating and destroying Jackson before such a move could take place.
Lee was still rolling the dice and taking long chances. He left but a skeleton force to keep Pope's troops on the Rappahannock occupied, and Longstreet's march was made without any sort of cavalry screen to protect its flanks, Stuart's men all being with Jackson at this time.
The Upper Left Quadrant Shows Jackson's Loop Back To The SW, Taking Up A Defensive Posture To Wait For The Arrival Of Lee And Longstreet.
The evening battle the day before between Federals from General McDowell's Corps and Stonewall Jackson's troops had alerted General Pope as to where Jackson might be found.
Where he could be found this morning 150 years ago today, was in a very strong defensive position just west of Groverton. An unfinished railroad cut ran for nearly the entire length of Jackson's line, and made for a natural trench.
McDowell's Corps was on the scene, and they concentrated for an assault. Pope gave the go ahead to begin, promising that reinforcements would be rapidly appearing on McDowell's flanks, General Heintzelman on the right and General Porter's Corps, both from the Army of the Potomac on the left.
McDowell got his attack underway, joined shortly thereafter by Heintzelman and Siegal's troops. The attacks were uncoordinated, unstrung right away by the discovery that the units from McDowells' Corps which had been in the fight the previous evening and had fallen back to Manassas Junction, were still at Manassas Junction, having never received new orders. One by one the various units surged forward, and one by one they were mowed down by Jackson's ditch protected men. Pope kept up the fight, relying on the surprise arrival of Porter's Corps on the left to supply the battle winning blow.
But where was Porter?
There was going to be a surprise on the Union left. It had been hard marching since the night before, at a Jacksonian pace so that it began arriving on Jackson's right around 3 in the afternoon. These were General Longstreet's men, exhausted, covered in road dust, but here...without Pope having the slightest awareness of their appearance.
When the afternoon had worn on, and Porter's Corps had not come up as expected, Pope was furious and demanding an explanation. Had he grasped the implications of the answer he received, the battle might have had a different outcome.
Porter sent word that it had proved impossible to comply with his orders from Pope. Told to attach his Corps to that of General Reynolds on his right before advancing to attack, Porter had arrived on the battlfield, battered his way through a screen put up by Stuart's cavalry, and found his way blocked by a large body of Confederate infantry imposed between him and Reynolds' troops. Because he could not make the ordered contact, he did not advance.
Pope chose a political interpretation. Porter was a McClellan loyalist, therefore he wanted to see Pope fail, therefore he had deliberately taken the first excuse he could find to disobey orders and decline to attack. The blocking defenders were imaginary. Pope expressed his disappointment with Porter and told him that he was to make the attack tomorrow, no excuses this time.
Of course the rebel troops were not at all imaginary. Porter had been blocked by the arrival of Longstreet's men, who according to Pope were still south of the Rappahannock.
As was his style, Lee had not ordered, but suggested to Longstreet that he launch his attack on Pope's left flank as soon as he could get his men into position. Longstreet, taking the suggestion for a suggestion, declined. His men were tired and hungry, not in shape for an attack after their 56 mile sprint to the battlefield. Further, Longstreet preferred taking the time to conduct some reconaissance on the position he was supposed to be attacking rather than rushing in blindly. Finally, there wasn't enough daylight remaining to be able to exploit a successful assault. Assured by Jackson that his men could hold, Lee consented to postponing the flank attack until the next day.
The fighting ended when darkness came to the battlefield. Pope was certain he had been near victory, frustrated only by Porter's attempt to sabotage his triumph on Little Mac's behalf. Tomorrow, with Porter's Corps definitely taking part, he would crush Jackson.
It was a morning of planning and an afternoon of bloodshed, 150 years ago today.
During the night, General Jackson had allowed his men who had fought from sunrise to sunset the day before, to pull back out of the natural trench to get some rest, leaving a skeleton force in place to raise the alarm if the Yankees returned. Early morning scouts from General Pope's force had observed and reported this. Pope concluded that Jackson was retreating, that he had been licked in yesterday's fight and was looking to escape before having his destruction completed today.
Pope had spent the evening planning the next morning's attack, which included having General Porter's Corps march around that phantom rebel force he claimed had blocked him, and take his place next to General Reynold's men, forming the left flank of Pope's planned attack. Porter had all of his men facing west, toward Jackson's position, save two brigades which he refused to the south to guard his flank. These two brigades, about 3000 men, were all of the Union forces properly positioned to receive an attack from the south, where Longstreet and 32,000 rebels lurked.
After deciding that Jackson was falling back in preparation for a retreat, Pope called off his morning attack plan and began reordering his troops for a pursuit.
On the Confederate side, plans were being changed as well. General Lee had wanted General Longstreet to make his flank attack in the early morning hours, but Longstreet had pointed out that if they waited until Pope had resumed his attacks, expected that morning, then Longstreet's five divisions could come crashing in on their rear as they assailed Jackson, trapping them between the two forces. Jackson argued that his men had inflicted such a severe drubbing to the Federals yesterday, that they probably would not be attacking at all today. Lee sided with Longstreet and agreed to wait.
Both of Lee's subordinates would be proved wrong. Longstreet because no attack materialized in the morning, Jackson because one did in the afternoon.
Pope had devoted the morning to rearranging his army and putting it in a chase posture. Around 2 pm they set out to catch Jackson's retreating army on the march. Because they were marching rather than atatcking, Porter's troops in the lead, did surprise Stonewall's men when they suddenly appeared before the ditch sans any sort of artillery preparation. Jackson's men came racing back from their rest places, jumped into their trench and opened fire.
Recognizing that Jackson was still there in force, Porter shifted his 10,000 men into assault lines and went forward. He sent word back to the other unit commanders that the prey was still in place, not running, and they formed for assaults as well. By 3 pm Jackson was involved in an extremely severe fight with 20,000 Federal troops, this time making more coordinated, simultaneous attacks, coming close several times to breaking through the lines. All of Jackson's subordinates were sending back messages describing desperate circumstances and requesting help.
There were no reserves, all of Jackson's men were on the line fighting. To each messenger Jackson said to return to his commander and tell him to live up to his unit's reputation.
Around 4 pm the pressure had increased greatly and Jackson's men were reaching the ends of their ropes. One regiment which had run out of ammunition, had beaten back an attack using rocks.
At last Jackson did something he loathed doing, he sent to Lee requesting help from Longstreet's men.
Lee had left the decision for the proper hour to launch his flank attack to Longstreet, who bided his time, waiting for what he perceived as the moment of maximun effectiveness. When word arrived from Lee that Jackson was requesting help, Longstreet replied that there was no need to send aid, he would break up the attack with artillery.
There was a rise in the land at the hinge point where Jackson and Longstreet's forces were connected. Upon this rise which commanded a wide view of the entire battlefield, Longsteet had placed 18 heavy artillery pieces. He ordered them into action and the attacking Union troops were thrown into instant panic and confusion by the enfilading fire rolling up their lines. The assaults on Jackson's lines came to a standstill and Lee sent word to Longstreet that now was the time for his attack.
Before the order had even arrived, Longstreet's divisions were already emerging from the woods and on their way, Old Pete having sensed the moment was ripe at the same time as Lee. His troops went forward, their assigned objective, Henry House Hill, the same place where Jackson had gained his nickname 13 months earlier. If they could seize the hill they would be in a position to block Pope's retreat.
Needless to say, the sudden appearance of 32,000 men on their flank was a serious shock to the Union commanders. Porter's Corps on the far Federal left was the first to be hit and rolled up, then the attack struck McDowell's men who were next in line.
To their credit, though the ground was the same as in July of '61, this time the Union men did not run away. They fell back, but they fell back in good order, keeping up the fight, slowing Longstreet's (and now also Jackson's) advance long enough for Pope to pull back other units from the right and occupy Henry House Hill before the rebels reached it. Two Federal brigades from General Rickett's divison arrived and occupied Chinn Ridge, 200 yards in front of Henry House Hill. They were assailed from three sides by General Hood's hard driving Texans, but absorbed two assaults before being driven off with heavy casualties by a third. However they had bought a half hour for Pope to solidify a defense on the hill, anchored by Hooker and Reynolds. These units held off the attacking rebels long enough for darkness to arrive and permit the retreat of the Union army back to Washington. And a retreat it was, not the stampede of 1861.
The two bloody days had cost the North 10,000 casualties, and Lee had suffered around 8100. It was as sweeping a victory as anyone in the South, save Lee and Jackson who always wanted to destroy the enemy completely, could ask for. A month ago a Union army larger than Lee's had threatened Richmond from the SE, and another of equal size to Lee's force was descending upon the city from the north. Thirty days later Lee had cleared Virginia entirely of Federals save for the garrison troops at Fortress Monroe. It was a remarkable, legend making achievement for Lee.
For General Pope, it was the reverse. After all his bluster about coming from the west where they only ever saw the backs of their foes and didn't know the meaning of the word retreat, Pope had been maneuvered out of his position behind the Rapidan, maneuvered back from his position behind the Rappahannock, and then driven from the field at Manassas all the way back to Washington.
The men in blue had fought quite well, showing bold tenacity on the attack, and disciplined courage when retreating. The blame for the defeat was entirely Pope's and it would cost him his Civil War career. A transfer to the west where he would face only Indians was his future.
Longstreet Attacks
The Final Stand at Henry House Hill
Last edited by Grandstander; 08-29-2012 at 08:03 PM..
General Lee's dispatch to Richmond announcing the victory at 2nd Manassas attributed the triumph to "Almighty God" and "..the valor of our troops." General Pope's dispatch to Washington described the retrograde movement as the product of his army being two days without food and water, and being greatly outnumbered by the enemy, "..I thought it best to draw back to this place at dark." He claimed that the troops were in high spirits and that there was no reason for Washington to be concerned for its safety. Pope also stated that his forces had killed General Ewell and wounded General Jackson.
Not much of that latter message was true. Pope had been driven from the field after a series of disasters he was unable to counter in any manner. The morale of the army was low. The men knew that they had fought well, that they had held up their end of the production, but had been very badly mishandled and wasted by their commanding general. Pope was openly mocked by the soldiers of both the Army of Virginia and the Army of the Potomac. Ewell lost a leg but was very much alive and would return to the war, Jackson was unharmed. Pope had 60,000 troops in the battle to Lee's 55,000.
And if Stonewall Jackson had anything to say about it, Washington was definitely in some danger.
With Lee's permission, 150 years ago today Jackson took his men across the Bull Run Creek, and marched them north to Fairfax Courthouse, eight miles in the Union rear. Lee had been planning on another lightning flank blow, while General Longstreet's wing held Pope in the front, but the weather did not cooperate. A violent rain and thunder storm erupted in the afternoon, slowing the march to a crawl and allowing Pope time to send a 6000 man intercepting force under General Phil Kearney, the one armed Mexican War hero and possibly the most aggressive officer in the Army of the Potomac.
They would collide tomorrow near a mansion called Chantilly.
150 years ago this morning General Pope was contracting his lines tighter around Washington DC after having dispatched a makeshift force under General Phillip Kearny to cope with the Confederates making a flanking march to the north.
By now General Jackson had turned SE and was probing for Pope's right flank, not knowing they were on a collision course with Kearney's advance. The heavy rains were continuing and progress was slow for both sides. Around 3 pm Stonewall's march reached Ox Hill, just SE of a mansion estate called Chantilly, and he halted his men for a rest. It was at this same moment that Brigadier Issac Stevens' brigade, the lead unit in Kearney's force, arrived at the same location.
Reacting more quickly, Stevens got his men into a battle line and sent them forward in attack, striking and driving back Brig. Gen. Alexander Lawton's division in the Confederate center. The Federals managed to hold their gain for a time, but with no support coming up, they were finally driven back by a counterattack led by General Jubal Early. During this action, Stevens was killed.
The rain grew even more intense as Kearney arrived on the scene with the rest of his force and sent two brigades forward in attack. It disolved into a wild hand to hand fight with General A.P. Hill's men as the majority of the muskets and ceased to function in the rain. Bayonets, knives and clubbed rifles did the damage.
In the confusion and poor visibility, Kearney became lost and mistakenly rode behind the rebel line. Surrounded by Confederate troops who called for him to surrender, Kearney instead spurred his horse and made a run for it. He was shot in the spine and instantly killed by one of the few muskets which actually discharged that afternoon. Hill was nearby when it happened and he went over to the body, held a lantern to its face and saw that it was Kearney, a pre war friend and one of the most respected officers in either army. Hill noted that Kearney deserved a better fate than to have "died in the mud." Lee later had Kearney's body returned under a flag of truce.
General David Birney took command of the Union forces and used two late arriving Union brigades as the rear guard to cover his retreat. That night he began pulling the Federals back toward the Washington defenses. Rebel cavalry followed, but a series of rear guard actions kept them at a safe distance.
Jackson suffered 800 casualties while inflicting more than 1300 on the enemy including two dead generals. The Confederates held the battlefield, so it was a tactical victory for them. In that Lee's plan for a flanking attack was frustrated, it was not a strategic victory. What it did do for the Confederates was bottle up the Union army in Washington so as to open up the road to Maryland, should that destination strike Lee as worthwhile.
He began to think about it.
Map of the Battle
General Phillip Kearney..killed 150 years ago today.
General Issac Stevens...killed 150 years ago today
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
