Saturday, October 11
Our next stop was Manasses National Battlefield Park in Virginia. As you can guess, the visitor center was closed. :( So disappointing. The grounds however were still open so we did a complete tour.
1. Daniel Tyler's Division: Tasked with diversionary attacks against the Confederate position at the Stone Bridge.
2. David Hunter's Division: Leading division in the flanking column - to cross at Sudley Springs Ford
3. Samuel Heinztleman's Division:
The march is plagued by problems from the beginning, as the leading division slowly makes its way toward the Stone Bridge.
Union artillerist Peter Conover Hains ordered his 30 lb. Parrott Rifle to fire on the Confederates near the Stone Bridge. The shell flew over the Confederate infantry and into the Van Pelt House on the bluff above the creek. The Battle had begun.
As Ricketts' guns moved into position on the hill, he quickly came under fire from Jackson's infantry and the massed Confederate artillery opposite him. In this early action on Henry Hill, Ricketts' cannoneers also opened fire toward the Henry House, with the artillery captain noting that his men "completely riddled it." Unbenknowst to Ricketts at the time, these salvos mortally wounded Judith Carter Henry, who soon succumbed to her wounds. Following the battle, soldiers buried her in her garden.
At nearly the same time, Captain Charles Griffin moved two of his five artillery pieces from their position north of the Henry House to the southern edge of the hill in an effort to enfilade the Confederate line. Confusion soon reigned as Griffin noticed an unknown body of troops moving around his guns. Believing them to be Confederates, the artillery opened fire. Soon, the federal army's artillery arrived and countermanded this order, believing these troops to be Griffin's supports.
The unidentified body of men soon revealed themselves to be Confederates and promptly charged the guns and captured them. While these guns would change hands a couple of times, this marked a turning point in the fight on Henry Hill and in the battle more broadly.
During the fighting on Henry Hill, Gen. McDowell ordered 13 individual regiments to attack the hill. A soldier in a Wisconsin regiment noted of the position in the Sudley Road, "The poor fellows had crowded in and crawled one upon another, filling the ditch in some places three or four deep…I will not sicken you with a description of the road."
Soon the fighting shifted to the west, as additional federal and confederate brigades engaged on Chinn Ridge. Colonel Oliver Howard's New Englanders were forced to retreat soon after arriving on this exposed position. The retreat soon grew as the whole Federal army began to withdraw from the field.
After the Union defeat at Manassas in July 1861, Gen. George B. McClellan took command of the Federal forces in and around Washington and organized them into a formidable fighting machine- the Army of the Potomac. In March 1862, leaving a strong force to cover the capital, McClellan shifted his army by water to Fort Monroe on the tip of the York-James peninsula, only 100 miles southeast of Richmond. Early in April he advanced toward the Confederate capital.
Anticipating such a move, the Southerners abandoned the Manassas area and marched to meet the Federals. By the end of May, McClellan's troops were within sight of Richmond. Here Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's Confederate army assailed the Federals in the bloody but inconclusive Battle of Seven Pines. Johnston was wounded, and President Davis placed Gen. Robert E. Lee in command. Seizing the offensive, Lee sent his force (now called the Army of Northern Virginia) across the Chickahominy River and, in a series of savage battles, known as the Seven Days' battles, pushed McClellan back from the edge of Richmond to a position on the James River.
At the same time, the scattered Federal forces in northern Virginia were organized into the Army of Virginia under the command of Gen. John Pope, who arrived with a reputation freshly won in the war's western theater. Gambling that McClellan would cause no further trouble around Richmond, Lee sent General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's corps northward to "suppress" Pope. Jackson clashed indecisively with part of Pope's troops at Cedar Mountain on August 9. Meanwhile, learning that the Army of the Potomac was withdrawing by water to join Pope, Lee marched with Gen. James Longstreet's corps to bolster Jackson. On the Rapidan, Pope successfully blocked Lee's attempts to gain the tactical advantage, and then withdrew his men north of the Rappahannock River. Lee knew that if he was to defeat Pope he would have to strike before McClellan's army arrived in northern Virginia. On August 25 Lee boldly started Jackson's corps on a march of over 50 miles, around the Union right flank to strike at Pope's rear.
Two days later, Jackson's veterans seized Pope's supply depot at Manassas Junction. After a day of wild feasting, Jackson burned the Federal supplies and moved to a position in the woods at Groveton near the old Manassas battlefield.
Pope, stung by the attack on his supply base, abandoned the line of the Rappahannock and headed towards Manassas to "bag" Jackson. At the same time, Lee was moving northward with Longstreet's corps to reunite his army. On the afternoon of August 28, to prevent the Federal commander's efforts to concentrate at Centreville and bring Pope to battle, Jackson ordered his troops to attack a Union column as it marched past on the Warrenton Turnpike. This savage fight at Brawner Farm lasted until dark.
Convinced that Jackson was isolated, Pope ordered his columns to converge on Groveton. He was sure that he could destroy Jackson before Lee and Longstreet could intervene. On the 29th Pope's army found Jackson's men posted along an unfinished railroad grade, north of the turnpike. All afternoon, in a series of uncoordinated attacks, Pope hurled his men against the Confederate position. In several places the northerners momentarily breached Jackson's line, but each time were forced back. During the afternoon, Longstreet's troops arrived on the battlefield and, unknown to Pope, deployed on Jackson's right, overlapping the exposed Union left. Lee urged Longstreet to attack, but "Old Pete" demurred. The time was just not right, he said.
The morning of August 30 passed quietly. Just before noon, erroneously concluding the Confederates were retreating, Pope ordered his army forward in "pursuit". The pursuit, however, was short-lived. Pope found that Lee had gone nowhere. Amazingly, Pope ordered yet another attack against Jackson's line. General Fitz-John Porter's corps, along with part of General Irvin McDowell's corps, struck Confederates under General Starke division at the "Deep Cut" along the Unfinished Railroad. Confederates holding the position held firm and hurled back Porter's Federals in a bloody repulse.
Seeing the Union lines in disarray, Longstreet pushed his massive columns forward and staggered the Union left. Pope's army was faced with annihilation. Only a heroic stand by northern troops south of the turnpike bought time for Pope's hard-pressed Union forces. The heaviest fighting took place by New York regiments near the Groveton crossroads, along Chinn Ridge, and along the cuts and fills of the Sudley Road and Henry Hill. Under cover of darkness the defeated Union army withdrew across Bull Run towards the defenses of Washington. Lee's bold and brilliant Second Manassas campaign opened the way for the south's first invasion of the north, and a bid for foreign intervention.
Jackson left Gen. Richard Ewell's division to cover their rear at Bristoe and moved with the rest of his command to Manassas Junction. There then followed a scene of feasting and plunder the like of which has seldom been witnessed. Knapsacks, haversacks, and canteens were filled with articles of every description. Added to vast quantities of quartermaster and commissary supplies were innumerable luxuries from sutler stores, including expensive liquors and imported wines. An eyewitness wrote, "To see a starving man eating lobster salad & drinking rhine wine, barefooted & in tatters was curious; the whole thing is indescribable." What could not be eaten or carried away was finally put to the torch. With the destruction of these supplies one of the chief objectives of the campaign had been accomplished.
"Jackson's first order was to knock out the heads of hundreds of barrels of whiskey, wine, and brandy. I shall never forget the scene. Streams of spirits ran like water through the sands of Manassas" Major W. Roy Mason
Pope did not realized it, but his actions were exactly what Robert E. Lee had hoped for.
Jackson had been sent behind Pope's lines in a deliberate attempt to draw the Union army away from the Rappahannock and give the Confederates a better opportunity to strike Pope under more favorable conditions. Following the same path Jackson had taken, Lee put Longstreet's wing in motion. His object was to reunite with Jackson before Pope could bring the full weight of his army against him. On the afternoon of August 27th, Hooker attacked at Bristoe. After stubbornly resisting Hooker's advance, Ewell retired in textbook fashion to Manassas where he rejoined Jackson. Pope, now convinced that Jackson's entire command was at Manassas, issued new orders for his army to converge there. He then boasted, "If you will march promptly and rapidly at the earliest dawn of day upon Manassas Junction we shall bag the whole crowd."
During the night, however, Jackson abandoned the junction and took a position north of Groveton, near the old Manassas battlefield, to await the arrival of Lee and the rest of the army. An unfinished railroad grade ran directly in front a ridge and the alternating cuts and fills of the railroad grade offered a ready-made fortified position with excellent cover and concealment for Jackson's men.
When Pope arrived at Manassas Junction at midday on the 28th, he found it deserted and reduced to a smoldering ruin. During the afternoon Confederate stragglers picked up on the road to Centreville suggested that Jackson was trying to escape in that direction. Pope dispatched new orders to his subordinates, then converging on the roads to Manassas, directing them instead to Centreville. These new orders reached Gen. Rufus King's division of McDowell's corps about 5:00 p.m., shortly after it had passed through Gainesville and had turned southward from the Warrenton Turnpike for Manassas. King counter-marched his column back to the turnpike and turned it eastward toward Centreville. The head of this Federal column reached the little crossroads community of Groveton totally oblivious of the fact that they were being watched.
The Confederate army was deployed in a large obtuse angle, the apex being just north of the turnpike. The left, or north, side was held by Jackson, still firmly posted behind the railroad grade. Though weakened, he still possessed some 18,000 formidable infantry. Concealed on the right, or south, side of the angle was Longstreet with 28,000 fresh soldiers, ready to fight. Longstreet had positioned a massive concentration of artillery in the angle between the two wings. It was into these two jaws that McDowell's "pursuit" was moving.
South of Groveton, Reynolds' men almost immediately encountered enemy fire. Reynolds, seeing evidence of Longstreet, was sure that he faced a large Rebel force extending beyond his left. McDowell ordered Reynolds to shift his three brigades back to the vicinity of Chinn Ridge to guard against any threat to the Federal rear.
For the Union cause it was a tragic blunder because it created a big gap in the Union lines immediately south of Groveton and left Porter's left flank dangling and naked. Despite Porter's better judgment, he launched the attack around 3:15 p.m. From the cover of the woods east of the Groveton-Sudley Road, about 5,000 men surged across the road, over a fence, and into open fields. Confederate artillery, concentrated on a ridge a half mile to the west, opened a deadly fire down the length of the Union lines. Thirty-six guns rained case shot and shrapnel over the field. Still the Federals swept onward, almost to the crest. Men on both sides reloaded and fired at a frenzied pace. Jackson was forced to call for reinforcements from Longstreet. In a desperate moment, some of his men, out of ammunition were reduced to throwing rocks at Federals less than 20 yards away. Longstreet responded to Jackson's call for support with additional artillery fire from a battery he deployed along the turnpike.
But it was the Northerners who withered. They could neither pierce Jackson's defenses or remain where they were in the open. Retreat was the only sensible choice. Porter's units were beaten and fell back in a rush. As one of Jackson's brigade commanders described it, "the whole field was covered with a confused mass of struggling, running, routed Yankees."
With the Federals facing Jackson in disarray and their left exposed, Lee sprung the trap, and the jaws began to close. Longstreet, anticipating Lee's order, unleashed his nearly 30,000 men. The long gray lines of infantry, eager to join the fight, swept forward in a furious assault.
"A regiment of cavalry, marching by twos, and sandwiched in the midst of which were Pope and McDowell with their staff officers. I never saw a more helpless-looking headquarters" General George B. McClellan
Gen. John Bell Hood's Texans led the advance, their colors gleaming red in the evening sun. Above the thunderous roar of artillery and the noise of battle could be heard the shrill cries of the rebel yell echoing through the Groveton valley. So intense was the excitement that only with the greatest difficulty could the officers restrain their men. Moving up in support came the divisions of Generals Richard Anderson, James Kemper, and D. R. Jones.
While the fighting still raged along the Sudley Road, J.E.B. Stuart sent Beverly Robertson's cavalry brigade eastward along the Balls Ford Road in an attempt to cut off the Federal line of retreat. As the Confederate troopers neared Bull Run they were caught by surprise by a Federal cavalry brigade under Gen. John Buford. The Federals initially repulsed Robertson's leading regiment but in the melee that followed on the grounds of the Lewis farm, Portici, Buford's men soon found themselves outnumbered and hastened across Lewis Ford. Stung by the Federals, Robertson did not press a pursuit and lost an opportunity to hinder Pope's escape. This clash proved to be the largest cavalry engagement of the war up to that point in time.
It soon became evident, however, that a second debacle at Bull Run had occurred. The battle had cost 14,462 Union casualties. Lee had defied the odds and achieved a great victory, but the battle had been expensive for the Confederacy too: 9,474 Southerners had fallen, a loss of 17 percent.
"A regiment of cavalry, marching by twos, and sandwiched in the midst of which were Pope and McDowell with their staff officers. I never saw a more helpless-looking headquarters... Between them they are responsible for the lives of many of my best and bravest men. They have done all they could (unintentionally, I hope) to ruin and destroy the country."
-General George B. McClellan
Although Lee was unable to completely destroy Pope's army in the field, its demise came shortly after its return to Washington. President Lincoln disbanded the Army of Virginia and its troops were integrated into McClellan's Army of the Potomac. This was the Union army that would be challenged with confronting Lee, just days later, when he invaded the North and began the Maryland Campaign.
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