In just thirteen months, two major
armies in the Eastern Theater of the Civil War would revisit the site of the
first major battle of that war – Manassas. The Army of Northern Virginia, under
the leadership of General Robert E. Lee and the newly formed Union Army of
Virginia commanded by recently appointed General John Pope would collide for
another bloody battle not far from the outskirts of Washington, D.C.
Following General George B.
McClellan’s failed Peninsula Campaign in the spring of 1862, Confederate
General Lee decided to turn his attention to the new Army of Virginia under
General Pope. Lee divided his Army in two, sending “Stonewall” Jackson’s Corps
to the west of Pope’s Army, the right flank, and sending General James Longstreet’s
Corps to the east of Pope. Jackson’s orders were to cut off Pope’s supply line
at Manassas Junction. Jackson did just that. After capturing the depot and
warehouses at the junction, he burned what he could not take. Pope ignored the
information coming to him regarding Jackson’s movements and decided that
Jackson’s Corps were moving to the Shenandoah Valley.
In the meantime, McClellan remained
at Harrison’s Landing following his victory and retreat at Malvern Hill (see
previous blog) to lick his wounds. He
and his troops had been ordered back to Washington, D.C. by President Lincoln
with the intention of uniting the Army of the Potomac with the Army of
Virginia, under Pope not McClellan, to strike Lee’s Army. This would give the
Union a tremendous numerical advantage.
But due to political issues (McClellan being a Democrat and Lincoln a
Republican) and personal issues (he was miffed that his troops were being
ordered to simply protect the Capitol with support to Pope) he dragged his
feet.
Following Jackson’s success at the
Manassas Junction depot, He elected to go into hiding as he awaited the arrival
of Longstreet and his corps. The last thing Jackson needed was to encounter
Pope’s Army with a numerical disadvantage. Jackson took his troops to a wooded
area near the Brawner Farm called Stony Ridge to wait. During the evening of
August 28, 1862 a column of hard-nosed Union soldiers known as the “Black Hat”
Brigade were marching east on the Warrenton Turnpike toward Centerville.
Although Jackson did not want to tip his hand as to where he was concealing his
troops, he could not pass up the opportunity to strike this column. His
artillery opened fire. The Midwestern troops returned fire and over the next
two hours the “Black Hat” Brigade and the “Stonewall” Brigade battled each
other, sometimes exchanging musket fire within 80 yards of each other. As this
opening battle of Second Manassas raged, more troops were fed into the
conflict. The darkness ended this bloody standoff with nearly a third of the
7,000 troops becoming casualties. 
During the evening General Pope,
again ignoring intelligence information, deciding that Jackson would retreat to
join Longstreet’s troops, planned a morning attack. Pope did not realize that
Longstreet was, instead, advancing to join Jackson with the intent of
destroying his Army. On the morning of the 29th, Pope sent piecemeal
troops to attack Jackson’s Confederates who had fortified themselves for miles at
an unfinished railroad cut. This was a natural breastwork for the Rebels and
they repulsed every attempt by the Yankees. Meanwhile, General McClellan
refused to move any of his troops to support Pope arguing that his men were
needed to protect Washington, D.C. By noon, Longstreet’s Corps had arrived on
the field to Jackson’s right but did not attack. He felt it best to take a
defensive position ignoring Lee’s orders to attack, rationalizing the he did not
knowing the size of the Union Army. 
August 30th brought a
renewed attack ordered by General Pope, apparently unaware of Longstreet’s
arrival the previous day. During the previous night, several Confederate
Brigades adjusted their positions and Pope mistook the movement as retreat. The
Union assault by Major General Fitz John Porter’s V Corps on the Confederate
right was devastated by the Confederate Artillery. Longstreet, seeing the Union
troops in total disarray, counterattacked with his 25,000 Rebel Soldiers in
what is regarded as the largest, simultaneous mass assault of the war. Pope had
stepped into a situation where he faced the entire Army of Northern Virginia,
with virtually no support from McClellan’s troops, and was pushed back to Henry
House Hill and then retreated across Bull Run Creek toward Washington, D. C.
Once again, General Robert E. Lee
outmaneuvered and outfought the Union Army and left the field with a decisive
victory. All the while McClellan sparingly fed a small number of his troops
into the battle to support Pope’s efforts. He had won his battle with Lincoln
over control of the Army of the Potomac.
Casualties for both sides continue to
mount. This three day battle contributed approximately 10,000 Union Soldiers
and approximately 8,300 Confederates.
The aftermath of the Second Battle of
Manassas, or the Second Battle of Bull Run as the North referred to it, saw Lee
confident and ready to move across the Potomac into Maryland. It also saw Pope
relieved of his command and sent west, while his Army of Virginia was merged
with the Army of the Potomac and McClellan remaining in command.
From here these two armies engaging
in battle in the Eastern Theater move into Maryland to next face each other in
the bloodiest day in American History at the battle that is called the Battle
of Antietam, or the Battle of Sharpsburg.
