approximately twenty-five miles from Washington, some Union forces
under the leadership of General Irvin McDowell met Confederate
forces under the leadership of General Pierre G. T. Beauregard.
Manassas was the site of a key railroad junction, an important line
of supply and communication. Although the Union forces were at
first successful, the firm stand taken by the Confederate forces
on Matthews Hill and on Henry Hill led by General Thomas Jonathan
Jackson and a counter-attack led by Confederate General Joseph E.
Johnston's forces resulted in chaos in the Union army and a panicky
retreat to Washington. This was a most unexpected defeat for the
Union forces. "J. E. B." Stuart served under Joseph Johnston at
this time and led a successful mounted charge against the Federal
infantry. He also helped create disorder and panic in their lines.
This first Battle of Bull Run or Battle of Manassas was the occasion
for T. J. Jackson's famous nickname: "Stonewall." General Bernard
E. Bee, a South Carolinian, headed some troops which had become
panicky, and, as he saw T. J. Jackson's brigade in correct line
formation, he is said to have made the following comment to his
group: "Look! There is Jackson and his brigade standing like a stone
wall. Rally behind the Virginians." From that time on, T. J. Jackson
was called "Stonewall" Jackson. As the Union forces neared Manassas,
Captain Alexander, a Confederate officer, spotted their coming from
his lookout station. He relayed their approach by wigwagging signals
with flags. This action is believed to be the origin of semaphoring.
This battle caused the North to realize that the conquering of the
South was not the easy task that it had predicted or had assumed.
Their military slogan "On to Richmond" became a military challenge
rather than an accepted conclusion.
President Lincoln had declared a blockade of the Southern ports as
soon as the war had started. The Federal Navy Yard at Norfolk was
captured by the Confederates without resistance. The United States
ships were only twelve in number at the beginning of the war, but
others were quickly constructed. The Confederates hoped to keep
the James River open at all times. They needed ships badly, having
had no navy to draw upon for ships. When the Federal employees had
abandoned the Norfolk Navy Yard, they had sunk a wooden frigate
called the "Merrimac." Governor Letcher of Virginia ordered that
this ship be raised and be converted into an effective, usable
frigate. Lieutenant John M. Brooke, John L. Porter, W. P. Williamson
and others planned together for a converted ship. Finally, the
hull of the old ship was covered with pine, oak and iron plates
from the famous Tredegar Iron Works of Richmond. It was equipped
with ten guns and an inexperienced crew under the ex-United States
Naval Commander, Franklin Buchanan. This iron-clad vessel was
renamed the "Virginia," and it traveled to Hampton Roads to attack
the Federal fleet on March 8, 1862. When it first received gunfire
from a Federal ship, the shots surprisingly glanced off its sides.
The vessel moved very slowly. When at close range, it pierced the
"Cumberland" with its iron ram causing it to sink. The next day,
much to its surprise, it was matched by a Union ship, the "Monitor,"
designed by John Ericsson, which was ironclad, smaller, more agile
and newly constructed throughout. The ships fired upon each other,
but they could not inflict serious damage. The Battle of the
"Monitor" and the "Virginia" (formerly "Merrimac") was a draw or
indecisive from a victory point of view. However, it is important
historically as the first battle of ironclad vessels in the United
States. The "Virginia" was later blown up when the Confederates
evacuated Norfolk.
On March 23 of the same year, "Stonewall" Jackson became the
aggressor and attacked a Union force at Kernstown, near Winchester.
However, when one of his brigade became short of ammunition, he had
to retreat southward. This battle was the beginning of Jackson's
"Valley Campaign."
Beginning on April 5 and continuing for approximately one month,
an important siege took place at Yorktown. After a line of
fortifications had been erected across the Peninsula from the
Warwick River to Yorktown by the Confederate Commander John B.
Magruder, General Joseph E. Johnston entrenched his army here.
Union General George B. McClellan coming from Fort Monroe besieged
the area for weeks and finally mounted his large size guns. With
this action, Johnston withdrew since he was not equipped for such
heavy fighting. As General Johnston's forces were retreating from
Yorktown, they met an advance section of McClellan's army about one
mile east of Williamsburg. Johnston was forced to fight at this
time because he did not want them to capture his wagon train. Both
armies fought valiantly, and neither side could get the advantage of
the other. When night came, after a rainy day of fighting, Johnston
retreated westward toward Richmond under cover of darkness. Two days
later, Union General W. B. Franklin attempted to intercept Johnson
on his retreat toward Richmond by landing just south of West Point
on the eastern bank of the York River. However, General G. W. Smith
came to Johnston's rescue and successfully drove Franklin forces
back to the York River in order that Johnston could continue on his
way to Richmond.
On May 8, 1862, "Stonewall" Jackson decided to prevent two Union
generals, John C. Fremont and Nathaniel P. Banks, from combining
their forces. He selected a position on a mountain top near
McDowell, a village in Highland County. When Fremont's troops
arrived under the leadership of General R. H. Milroy, they rushed up
the sides of the mountain, only to be attacked by the Confederate
forces under Jackson and driven back to a retreating position.
On May 23, Jackson successfully captured the town of Front Royal
located in Warren County--an important area which had been held by
Union forces under General Banks. This was a great blow to Banks
as well as to his troops who rapidly retreated to Winchester. A
unique feature of this battle was that among the opposing forces was
the First Maryland Regiment, U. S. A. being attacked by the First
Maryland Regiment, C. S. A. (Confederate States of America).
Two days later, Jackson rushed Banks at Winchester and surprised his
troops to such an extent that they were routed from the town and
driven across the Potomac in panic. Jackson who had been ordered by
Lee to strike at Banks unexpectedly and to create the impression
that it would be utterly impossible for him to converge with Fremont
had carefully and painstakingly carried out such an order. Jackson
is considered by many as second in military stature only to Lee
himself.
On May 31-June 1, 1862 the Battle of Seven Pines or Fair Oaks took
place. The left wing of the Union army under McClellan was attacked
by Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston at Fair Oaks Station and
Seven Pines, located just east of Richmond. The Confederates won
at Seven Pines but were driven back at Fair Oaks. The Battle of
Seven Pines was considered indecisive. General Johnston was wounded
seriously in this battle, and, at this time, General Robert E. Lee
was put in command of the Army of Northern Virginia.
On June 8-9, Jackson was slowly retreating up the Shenandoah Valley
when he decided to prevent two Union generals, John C. Fremont and
James Shields, from combining forces by checking or holding back
Fremont and then attacking Shields. He sent part of his troops
under General Richard S. Ewell to attack the forces under Fremont
at Cross Keys in Rockingham County. General Ewell defeated the
forces of Fremont very badly and kept Fremont's help completely
away from Shields. Jackson then led his remaining forces north
of Port Republic and encountered Shields there. Bitter fighting
followed. Shields was eventually defeated and driven down the
Shenandoah Valley. This was the final engagement of the so-called
Valley campaign. Jackson had proven himself a great military man
who had fought on both sides of the Shenandoah Valley and who had
marched approximately 700 miles in seven weeks in almost continuous
fighting with one or more of the Federal fighting forces. This
campaign included five major engagements: Kernstown, McDowell, Front
Royal, Winchester and Port Republic. Jackson suffered defeat only at
Kernstown by the Union General James Shields. Jackson then proceeded
toward Richmond to prevent General McClellan from entering there.
On June 11, General Lee dispatched General James Ewell Brown ("J.
E. B.") Stuart with 1200 cavalry and infantrymen from Richmond
to obtain information behind the lines of the enemy concerning
the specific position of McClellan. In three days, Stuart and his
contingent had courageously ridden completely around the army of
McClellan, acquiring much valuable information for General Lee. Only
one of Stuart's men was killed during the assignment. Based upon
the information furnished by General "J. E. B." Stuart, General Lee
decided to advance his army on June 26. The Union forces under
General Fitz-John Porter had outposts near Richmond just north of
the Chickahominy River in the town of Mechanicsville. Confederate
General Ambrose P. Hill successfully occupied Mechanicsville and
then continued to attack General Fitz-John Porter's troops along
Beaver Dam Creek where he severely defeated them.
From June 26 to July 2, the Seven Days' Battle occurred. This
included the fighting at Mechanicsville and at Gaines' Mill.
In these two skirmishes, Lee, after severe fighting, drove the
right wing of McClellan's army under General Porter across the
Chickahominy River. At Glendale, Confederate Generals James
Longstreet and Ambrose Hill fought terrific hand-to-hand skirmishes
with gun butts and bayonets against the rearguard of the forces
under McClellan. At nightfall, the Confederates retreated to Malvern
Hill. On the following day, the forces under McClellan set up
infantry fire with cannon fire just preceding it at the top of the
hill. As the separate Confederate detachments charged up the steep
hill, they were literally mowed down by the thousands. McClellan
retreated during the night to Harrison's Landing. In spite of these
military maneuvers, the army under McClellan was finally forced to
retreat at the end of the Seven Days' battle, and Richmond, the
"City of Seven Hills," still remained in Confederate control.
On August 9, as Jackson was on his way to encounter the Union
General, John Pope, who had started southward, he unexpectedly met
Union General Nathaniel P. Banks near Cedar Mountain (later called
"Slaughter Mountain"), located just south of Culpeper. Severe
fighting resulted, and the forces under Jackson had almost been
annihilated when they received reinforcements which pushed the
Union forces back. Since the number of casualties was extremely
high during this battle, Jackson allowed Banks to bury his dead the
following day.
On August 30, the Union troops made a second attempt to capture
Manassas. Jackson defeated Union General Pope in the Second Battle
of Manassas or Second Battle of Bull Run, after destroying large
quantities of his supplies. When the Confederate troops had used all
their available ammunition, they used stones until reenforcements
under General James Longstreet arrived. These soldiers forced the
Union troops under Pope to retreat to Centerville and eventually to
Alexandria.
On September 5, 1862, General Lee, believing the time was suitable
for invading the North, advanced across the Potomac River into
Maryland. As they approached Frederick, they sang and marched to
"Maryland, My Maryland" but this gesture did not result in large
numbers of Marylanders joining the Confederate armed troops as they
had hoped. After Jackson had successfully captured Harper's Ferry,
Lee moved his remaining troops to Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg,
Maryland. Severe fighting with McClellan's troops resulted and the
Confederate forces in this area finally were forced to recross the
Potomac River into Virginia.
On December 13, the Battle of Fredericksburg took place between
Confederate forces under General Lee and Union forces under General
Ambrose Burnside. Burnside had supplanted General McClellan. The
town itself was used as a battlefield and many of the individual
houses were completely destroyed. The city had been evacuated when
it was first bombarded by Burnside on December 11. He proceeded to
use five pontoon bridges to get his troops across the Rappahannock
River. Although this battle resulted in some of the heaviest losses
of the war, Burnside with his remaining forces was finally driven
back across the Rappahannock River with the Union casualties twice
as many as the Confederates.
On March 8, 1863, an unusual incident occurred. At midnight, a group
of Confederate raiders, led by Colonel John S. Mosby, made a raid on
the Fairfax Court House which had become federally occupied. Noted
for its ruthless guerilla actions, this group of raiders then made a
daring invasion of the Union lines and continued to the headquarters
of Union Brigadier-General Edwin H. Stoughton. After cleverly
getting past Stoughton's guards in the middle of the night, Mosby
himself quickly captured Stoughton as a choice Confederate prisoner.
On April 30, 1863, the Union army under General Joseph E. Hooker,
Burnside's successor, crossed the Rappahannock River again,
this time at Chancellorsville, approximately ten miles north of
Fredericksburg. "Stonewall" Jackson was in charge of the attack on
Hooker at Chancellorsville and his troops were forcing back the
troops under Hooker when fate seemed to take a hand. On May 2,
"Stonewall" Jackson had ridden beyond his own line of battle and was
returning at dusk when he was mistaken for one of the enemy and was
fired upon by a group of his own soldiers. He was wounded in the
left shoulder, forearm and right hand and had to have his left arm
amputated the next day. He was mortally wounded and died on May 10.
His death was a great shock to the Confederate forces. General A.
P. Hill had also been wounded at Chancellorsville. "J.E.B." Stuart
voluntarily took command of the corps originally under Jackson and
by his own audacious actions successfully led them in pursuit of
the Union forces under Hooker, as Jackson had originally planned.
Attacked by troops from the west under Stuart and by forces from the
east under Lee, Hooker and his army were finally driven back across
the Rappahannock River.
On June 9, the famous Confederate cavalry leader, "J.E.B."
Stuart, met in combat the great Union cavalry leader, General
Alfred Pleasanton at Brandy Station, near Culpeper. Stuart had
been on a scouting trip between the Union forces and Washington,
seeking information for the proposed advance of Lee to Gettysburg;
Pleasanton had been seeking Confederate information for General
George G. Meade, who had succeeded Hooker in command of the Union
Army. Both cavalry groups consisted of approximately 10,000 troops
each. Excellent horsemanship was displayed in this action with
sabers as the chief weapons. Pleasanton and his men inflicted much
damage and then left in orderly fashion. Stuart withstood the
surprise attack very well and did not retreat in a panic, as might
have been expected. Since the Unionists lost more men than did
the Confederates in this practically evenly-matched fighting, the
Battle of Brandy Station is considered as a notable victory for
"J.E.B." Stuart and his men because Pleasanton had a highly skilled
group of infantrymen. This battle was the first real cavalry battle
of the War between the States. It is considered by many military
strategists as the greatest cavalry battle of the nineteenth
century. As soon as his battle ended, Stuart made another famous
ride directly behind the Federal fighting lines. He was later
criticized for this trip, however, because he had not been ordered
to make such a trip and was badly needed by Lee at this time to
screen planned operations and to keep Lee informed of the activities
of Meade and his troops.
From June 13 to June 15, 1863, a second Battle of Winchester
occurred. Union General R. H. Milroy was forced to evacuate
Winchester and retreat across the Potomac due to the hard fighting
of Confederate General Richard S. Ewell whose troops had captured
not only valuable cannon and wagons but also approximately 4,000
Union soldiers.
At the beginning of the War between the States, forty western
counties of Virginia preferred not to secede from the Union.
Consequently, when Virginia joined the Confederacy, a majority
of the residents of the western counties voted to secede from
Confederate Virginia at a special Wheeling convention. They formed
a separate Unionist Virginia government and selected Francis H.
Pierpont as their Governor. They had already chosen two United
States Representatives from their Virginia government and they
proceeded to elect two United States Senators. State officers of
the Unionist Virginia government were required to take an oath of
allegiance to the federal government. This Pierpont government
was accepted by the President of the United States and Congress
as the official government of Virginia. Three months later, at a
second Wheeling convention, the strong desire on the part of many
residents of this area to become a separate state in the Union
resulted in Pierpont's calling together his legislature which gave
the necessary consent for the creation of an independent state from
within the original state of Virginia government boundaries. The
new area was first called "Kanawha" but later the name was changed
to West Virginia. On June 20, 1863, West Virginia was admitted
as the thirty-fifth state to the Union. Although this procedure
was apparently illegal and unconstitutional because the United
States Constitution provides that no new state can be formed within
the jurisdiction of any other state without the consent of the
state legislature so involved, President Lincoln and the United
States Congress overlooked this technicality because of a need for
military and political expediency in wartime. Governor Pierpont
and his Unionist government in August 1863 changed the location
of his "restored" or "reorganized" government from Wheeling to
Alexandria, which he termed the West Virginia capital city at that
time. Alexandria maintained this West Virginia capital city status
until the end of the war and the residents of Alexandria were
forced to live under the provisions of a Pierpont-drafted "state"
constitution. Later, Berkeley County and Jefferson County were
annexed to West Virginia by November 1863 and became an official
part of the state of West Virginia. Eventually, Virginia lost fifty
counties altogether to West Virginia, approximately one-third of its
total land area, with their human and natural resources as well as
their financial support.
After the victories of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, Lee
decided to cross the Potomac again and invade the north once more.
When Lee found out that a large Union force under the command of
General George G. Meade, who had replaced General Joseph Hooker,
was at Frederick, Maryland, Lee decided to center his forces at
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. On July 1, 1863, the Confederate forces
attacked Meade's forces and made temporary gains. Two days later,
three Confederate brigades commanded by General George E. Pickett
advanced to the Federal cannon center, now called Cemetery Ridge,
where mass slaughter of the Confederates took place. On July 4,
the remaining Confederates returned sadly across the Potomac
River into Virginia. Approximately two weeks after the Gettysburg
defeat, a surprise attack on Wytheville, Virginia, was thwarted by
the courageous efforts of Molly Tyres who rode rapidly over forty
miles of mountain road between Tazewell and Wytheville to warn the
inhabitants of the coming attack. Thus, did Virginians--military
and civilian--strive to help the Confederate cause in which they so
strongly believed.
On May 5 and 6, 1864 the so-called Battle of the Wilderness was
fought in the heavily forested terrain of Spotsylvania County. As
General R. S. Ewell was returning his forces from Fredericksburg
to Orange, he encountered General Ulysses S. Grant who had become
commander of the Union army. At the same time forces under General
Ambrose P. Hill encountered the left wing force under Grant which
resulted in terrific fighting within the dense woods of the
wilderness. As the left wing force under Grant was breaking through
the forces under Hill, General James Longstreet approached and
forced the Union troops back to Spotsylvania Courthouse, southwest
of Fredericksburg. Grant retreated in this direction in an attempt
to keep Lee away from Richmond. However, Lee was ahead of Grant.
Although Grant tried repeatedly from May 8 to May 18 to break
through the Confederate lines at Spotsylvania with exceptionally
heavy musketry fire causing thousands of casualties, he was unable
to penetrate Lee's lines. Therefore, he moved southward to the North
Anna River.
In the meantime, on May 10, when General Philip Sheridan tried to
make an unexpected rush on Richmond, "J.E.B." Stuart, with only
part of his cavalry, blocked Sheridan's way at Yellow Tavern and
saved the Confederate capital. Stuart was mortally wounded by a
close pistol shot in this fighting and he died on May 11, 1864 in
Richmond. He is considered by many military strategists as the
greatest cavalryman in United States history.
On May 15, General Franz Sigel, a Union leader, decided to capture
Staunton in order to ruin the communication system there which Lee
had used to be kept informed about activities in the Shenandoah
Valley. He arrived as far as New Market, in Shenandoah County,
when he met Confederate General John C. Breckinridge who had a
comparatively small army consisting mostly of young Virginia
Military Institute cadets. They showed the benefits of their
military training and successfully captured a Union battery. After
this had been done, General Breckinridge advanced, defeated Sigel
and drove him down the Shenandoah Valley.
On May 23-27, 1864, the North Anna River in Hanover County became
the next area of military concentration. General Lee and General
Grant were on opposite sides of the river. Although the forces
led by Grant were able to cross the river at various intervals,
they were unable to penetrate the forces led by Lee. Consequently,
Grant turned southwest and proceeded to march to Cold Harbor,
approximately ten miles north of Richmond. When Grant arrived at
Cold Harbor, he decided to have an all-out offensive against the
forces of Lee at this location. His attempt was in vain, however,
and he received very heavy losses on June 3. This caused him to
retreat to the James River south of Richmond.
On June 11, 1864 there was an important cavalry battle at
Trevillians Station, in Louisa County, between Union General Philip
Sheridan and Confederate cavalrymen led by Wade Hampton and Fitzhugh
Lee. Sheridan had been trying to reach Union General Hunter who
was on his way to Lynchburg. After heavy fighting on both sides,
Sheridan was defeated and retreated eastward.