Second Manassas

A year has passed, the winter of course spent in "winter quarters" with little or no fighting by either side.  General George McClellan is now heading up the Union forces. In April, 1862, McClellan heads south of Washington, D.C. and east of Richmond, Virginia to launch an attack on the Confederate capital.  He's pretty successful, getting to within spittin' distance, until Confederate General Joe Johnston is wounded, and Robert E. Lee takes his place at the head of the Army of Northern Virginia.

I think Lee must have invented the ol' football cheer of "Push 'em back, push 'em back, way back," because that's what he did to poor ol' McClellan's Army of the Potomac.  Those Rebels crossed the Chickahominy River and pushed them all the way back to the James River!

Now, in the meantime, Union General John Pope is gathering up his forces around the Manassas area in northern Virginia.  He's calling his guys the Army of Virginia.  (Can they manage to confuse posterity any more?  Army of Virginia, Army of Northern Virginia, First Battle of Manassas, First Battle of Bull Run, Second Battle of Manassas...) 

As Pope is getting organized, Lee realizes McClellan is probably of little immediate threat to Richmond and sends ol' Stonewall Jackson hightailin' it back up toward the Manassas area to counter Pope.  Then Lee discovers McClellan's army is tryin' to do a sneak-back-up-the-river move to link up with Pope, so Lee gathers up General James Longstreet and they head up north to support Stonewall.

Once up there, Lee sends Stonewall on a mad dash end run around Pope's right flank, and they capture Pope's supply base at Manassas Junction.  (I told you those railroads were important.) Those Rebels have a super good time scarfin' down all that rich Yankee food and re-supplying themselves with anything and everything they need, then they burn everything else.  ('T-would do no good for it to fall back into Yankee hands, ya' know.)  There was a lot of burning of things back then, huh?

It's now August 28th, 1862.  The Yankee's are marching up the Warrenton Turnpike.  To get you reoriented, at First Manassas the combatants had to cross the Warrenton Turnpike to go from Bull Run to Henry Hill.  They were catty-wampus from each other about a mile or so.

The Warrenton Turnpike was completed in 1828 and was one of the best hard-surfaced roads in Virginia.  (Hmm.  I wonder what was meant by "hard-surfaced" back in 1828??)  If you were to stick to the road instead of taking off across the fields as the crow flies, you would have crossed the stone bridge over Bull Run, gone up to the Stone House where the Warrenton intersected the Sudley-Manassas and turned left to get up to Henry's Hill as the home was known.

It's still standing today thanks to the fact that "...the man who kept it was one of those two-faced farmers.  Secessionist at heart, but always loyal to the winning side," as a British traveler put it in 1865. 

If you look just a little above my head to the right of the door you will see a cannonball embedded in the mortar between the stones.  I studied it a bit and wondered aloud why there was no fracturing of the rocks around the impact point.  The volunteer watching over the house sheepishly said that that was manually added after the war by a later proprietor trying to capitalize on the battles that took place around here.  (The internet is not the only thing one shouldn't trust...)

Looking out the front windows you have a terrific view of the Henry's hill across the Turnpike.

Why didn't the armies do battle around the Stone House?  Geography.  It's not on high ground - and whoever holds the high ground usually wins the war.  That's not to say it was completely exempt.  During the battles a red flag flew from here indicating the Stone House was a refuge for the wounded. Some even left their initials on the upstairs floorboards - and they are still there today!

But back to the Second Battle of Manassas...

On August 28th serious, fierce fighting took place farther down the Turnpike from the Stone House at the Brawner's farm.  In just two hours, more than 7,000 casualties occurred.   Over the next two days fighting raged up and down the Warrenton Turnpike. Over those three days, 3,300 men were killed.  The Rebels won the day and were at the peak of their power to succeed.  Lee's maneuvering has been called "bold and brilliant."  His leadership here opened the door for a Rebel invasion of the north (Gettysburg in July of 1863) and an opportunity for the South to make overtures to European nations to recognize them as a new nation.