Manassas (Bull Run) National Battlefield Park [1953] — John Shaqi
Manassas (Bull Run) National Battlefield Park [1953]United States. National Park Service
History
Manassas (Bull Run) National Battlefield Park [1953]
United States. National Park Service
Bull Run, 1st Battle of, Va., 1861; Bull Run, 2nd Battle of, Va., 1862; Manassas National Battlefield Park (Va.)
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.
[Illustration: _The Ruins of the Stone Bridge. From a wartime
photograph._]
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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