Second battle at the Bull Run
Deployment of the Union on the second day, sketch dated September 20, 1862
| date | 28-30 August 1862 |
|---|---|
| place | Prince William County , Virginia, USA |
| output | Confederation victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
|
63,000
|
54,000
|
| losses | |
|
13,830
|
8,350
|
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Rappahannock Station - Cedar Mountain - Thoroughfare Gap - Manassas Station Operations - Manassas II - Chantilly / Ox Hill
The Second Battle of the Bull Run , also known as the Second Battle of Manassas , took place between the evening of August 28th and August 30th, 1862, during the Civil War near Manassas , northern Virginia . The battle ended in a victory for the Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee .
The difference between the two names results from the difference between the naming conventions of the northern states ( Union ) and the southern states ( confederation ). The Confederation named battles after the nearest town or a prominent terrain feature; the Union named battles after the nearest river or watercourse.
prehistory
The Peninsula campaign of the Potomac Army under Major General George B. McClellan had failed. The Union troops had evaded to the James with heavy losses for both sides . The goal of taking the Confederate capital of Richmond , Virginia, and thus ending the war, had not been achieved. The newly formed Union Virginia Army under Major General John Pope was now to advance together with the Potomac Army from the north on Richmond. In mid-August, General Robert E. Lees and John Popes faced each other after the Battle of Cedar Mountain at Rappahannock .
Lee decided to use the time to attack the Virginia Army before the Potomac Army could reinforce Pope to about 150,000 men. He ordered Major General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson with his II Corps with 24,000 men on August 25 to bypass the Union troops, while Major General James Longstreet with the I. Corps with 30,000 men should continue to tie up Pope. Jackson's troops, famous as "foot cavalry," marched 50 miles (80 km) unnoticed , looted the Virginia Army's supply bases at Manassas and Briscoe stations on August 27, destroyed the railroad connection and evaded to the northwest. Pope was unable to provide Jackson's corps when he arrived at Manassas Station on August 27th. From Centerville, Virginia, he tried to find the supposedly retreating Jackson.
McClellan supported Pope with the III. ( Maj. Gen. Samuel P. Heintzelman ) and the V Corps (Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter ) of the Potomac Army, he refused further support because he erroneously assumed that he would be facing strong enemy forces himself. On the evening of August 28, one of Pope's divisions discovered Jackson's corps. The skirmish at Groveton broke out and both sides suffered great losses. The fighting lasted until after 9:00 p.m., and according to some sources even until midnight. Pope, who believed Jackson trapped, had his corps brought in during the night to attack the next morning.
The first day of the battle
Major General Pope assumed Jackson would move to Rappahannock to join Longstreets I. Corps. This assumption was wrong, because Longstreet was on the contrary on the way to Jackson to reinforce his troops. Jackson and his three divisions had holed up behind a railway embankment. On the morning of August 29th, the Union troops attacked with parts from three corps. The III. Virginia Army Corps under Major General Irvin McDowell and the V Corps of the Potomac Army under Major General Fitz John Porter intervened with only one division each. A vague order from Pope to attack Jackson's right wing on the left was hesitantly carried out by Porter on the grounds that he was facing enemy forces while McDowell spent the day with Lavieren. Throughout the day, the US divisions deployed on the "unfinished Railroad" broke into the Confederate positions time and time again, but were repeatedly thrown back with heavy losses. On the Confederate side, Longstreets Corps had arrived at around 11 a.m. and had reinforced the Confederate front in the afternoon. The Union troops had noticed the approach of Long Street on Jackson's right flank, but misjudged it. Lee, for his part, intended to use Longstreets fresh bandages to grab Pope in his left flank to relieve Jackson. But Longstreet repeatedly objected to an attack, which Lee reluctantly accepted. In the afternoon the fighting ceased, only a few brigades from McDowell's corps had enemy contact in the evening. There had been heavy casualties on both sides and the Confederates had to straighten their front.
This straightening of the front led to another misjudgment by Pope. Again he thought the Confederates were evading him and planned to attack again the next morning.
The second day of the battle
On the morning of August 30th, Pope realized Jackson was not evading. It stayed with the planned attack by Porter. The Union’s first attack was halted with the use of Jackson’s last reserves. Then Porter's attack began at 3:00 p.m. with 10,000 men. Jackson's troops had hardly anything to counter this attack, but they held their position. Exhausted and sometimes without ammunition, they occasionally defended themselves with stones and boulders against the attacks of the advancing divisions of the Union. Jackson asked Longstreet for assistance. Since his infantry was not ready, Longstreet first had his artillery positioned and took the uncovered flank of the Union under fire. After this devastating fire attack, which caused confusion among Union forces, Longstreet's five divisions attacked the Union's left flank at around 4:30 p.m. Pope then threw brigade after brigade into the battle, and finally managed to organize his army back on the east bank of the Bull Run in the direction of Washington, DC . Defeated but not destroyed, the Virginia Army withdrew towards Washington.
Follow-up and result
On September 1, just twenty miles from Washington, the Union rearguard fought with Jackson's pursuing troops.
With his aggressive strategy, Robert E. Lee had managed within a month that the fighting was no longer in front of Richmond, but in front of Washington. Lee, recently ridiculed as "King of Spades", has become the hero of the south. On the other hand, morale in the north plummeted. The generals of the Union, quarreling among themselves, blamed each other for the defeat. Irwin McDowell, who had lost the first battle at Bull Run a year earlier , was relieved of his command, John Pope was sent to Minnesota to "pacify" the Indians, and the Virginia Army, under the command of George B. McClellan, with of the Potomac Army united. Fitz-John Porter was later tried because of his alleged disobedience to a military tribunal and dishonorable discharged from the army, but rehabilitated after the war.
See also
literature
- John J. Hennessy: Return to Bull Run. The Campaign and Battle of Second Manassas. Simon & Schuster, New York NY et al. 1993, ISBN 0-671-79368-3 .
- James M. McPherson : Battle Cry of Freedom. The Civil War Era (= The Oxford History of the United States. Vol. 6). Oxford University Press, New York NY et al. 1988, ISBN 0-19-503863-0 .
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 38 ° 49 ′ 5 ″ N , 77 ° 32 ′ 19 ″ W.