Manassas (Bull Run) National Battlefield Park [1953] — A Closer Reading

July 18th, when a part of McDowell’s forces was repulsed at Blackburn’s Ford by Longstreet’s brigade. Finding the Confederates intrenched along Bull Run in about an 8-mile line, McDowell determined to turn their left flank at the Stone Bridge. On July 21, he made a feint attack on Evans’ men near the bridge and sent his main column around by Sudley Ford to strike the Confederate rear. Evans accidentally learned of the march and moved his small force to meet it. Reinforced by Bee and Bartow, he made a gallant stand on the hills north of the Warrenton Turnpike. The pressure of the Federal attack, however, was overwhelming. Burnside, Porter, and Heintzelman, later joined by Sherman, struck the small Confederate force and drove it back across the pike in disorder.

Gen. Thomas J. Jackson, marching from Mitchell’s Ford to support Bee, Bartow, and Evans, reached Henry House Hill before noon. Deploying his valley regiments behind the eastern crest of the hill, Jackson awaited attack from the victorious Federal forces. Behind the Robinson House, 400 yards north, Bee was striving to rally his disorganized troops. Pointing to Jackson’s line, he shouted: “Look! There stands Jackson like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians!” Bee’s men echoed the shout and formed on their colors. “Stonewall” Jackson had won his immortal name.

McDowell threw portions of four brigades against Jackson’s position in a daring offensive. At the height of the attack Ricketts’ and Griffin’s Federal batteries were advanced to Henry House Hill directly facing Jackson’s line. The guns were captured and recaptured in confused fighting, but the arrival of additional Confederate troops from Winchester turned the tide of battle. The desperate Confederate defense was changed to an attack, which routed the Union Army and forced it back upon Washington. The Federal strength of the battle was 35,732, losses 2,708; Confederate strength 31,810, losses 1,982.

The Confederates failed to follow up their victory. Instead, Johnston’s army settled itself at Centreville and Manassas. There they constructed fortified camps which were occupied until the spring of 1862, when the position was abandoned in an effort to counter the Union advance on Richmond from the Peninsula.

Second Battle of Manassas _August 28-30, 1862_

After McClellan’s failure to take Richmond in the Peninsula Campaign, the Union forces covering Washington were consolidated under Pope and ordered to advance along the Orange and Alexandria Railway toward Gordonsville. At Cedar Mountain, on August 9, Pope’s advance met Jackson in the first battle of the campaign. Weeks of skirmish and maneuver followed, as Lee moved to defeat Pope before McClellan’s troops from the Peninsula could join him. Pope withdrew from the Rapidan to the Rappahannock, to which he held tenaciously. In one of the most daring exploits of the war Lee divided his forces and sent Jackson by a flank march to Manassas in the rear of the Federals. Here the Confederates seized the Union supply base on August 26. After a day of plenty for the poorly fed troops, the stores were destroyed, and Jackson withdrew northward across the Warrenton Turnpike to a concealed position in the woods near Groveton. Securely intrenched behind the embankment of an unfinished railroad, he looked southeast over the old battlefield of Bull Run. Lee, following Jackson from the Rappahannock with Longstreet’s wing of five divisions, reached Thoroughfare Gap at nightfall, August 28. A small Federal force had taken possession of the gap, but it was thrust out, and the way was clear for a reunion of the Confederate Armies.

Bewildered by news of the Confederate raid on his communications, Pope withdrew from the Rappahannock and began concentrating in the vicinity of Manassas Junction. On the 29th, he threw his whole force against Jackson. While the battle raged north of Groveton, Longstreet turned into the Warrenton Turnpike at Gainesville and, marching unopposed toward Groveton, joined Johnston and extended the Confederate line southward across the pike.

Early on the 30th, Pope, ignorant of Longstreet’s arrival, renewed the battle with a drive against Jackson’s line, which he thought was withdrawing. As the attacking column staggered under the raking fire of Confederate batteries, Jackson delivered a furious counterstroke. At this juncture Longstreet wheeled his line northeast, swept over Bald Hill, and drove on toward the pike. Only a resolute stand of Federal troops on Henry House Hill prevented Pope’s lines of retreat from being cut and enabled him to fall back eastward over Bull Run to Centreville. On September 1, Pope foiled a second Confederate attempt to cut across his line of retreat in a desperately contested action at Ox Hill (Chantilly) and then retired to the defenses of Washington. Lee prepared to invade Maryland.

The Federal strength at the battle was approximately 73,000, losses 14,462. Confederate strength at the battle was approximately 55,000, losses 9,474.