_Here was fought the opening field battle of the Civil War and here a
year later a Confederate victory led to Lee’s first invasion of the
North._
Manassas National Battlefield Park commemorates two great battles of the
War Between the States fought in the vicinity of Bull Run, a small
stream in northern Virginia about 26 miles southwest of Washington, D.
C. The military significance of the Manassas area lay in the junction of
two railroads. The Orange and Alexandria Railway, which offered the only
direct rail connection between Washington and Richmond, was joined there
by the Manassas Gap Railroad, a direct route to the strategically
important Shenandoah Valley.
The opening battle of the war found ill-trained citizen armies of the
North and South engaged in a struggle for this strategic railroad
junction. On an eminence, known as Henry House Hill, 6 miles north of
Manassas, Confederate arms finally put to rout the Federal force. This
victory, the English historian Fuller points out, was very important
because it led “Southern politicians... to underestimate the fighting
capacity of the enemy” and because it “so terrified Lincoln and his
Government, that from now onwards until 1864, east of the Alleghanies,
the defense of Washington became the pivot of Northern strategy.”
Approximately a year later, both armies, now composed of seasoned
veterans, were locked in a bitter struggle on the same field. After
heavy fighting, the Federal Army was forced back upon the defenses of
Washington. Second Manassas stands with Chancellorsville as one of the
two most significant Confederate victories of the war—in both cases the
military result was invasion of the North. After Second Manassas came
Antietam; after Chancellorsville came Gettysburg.
First Battle of Manassas
_July 21, 1861_
The Manassas campaign began shortly after the outbreak of hostilities in
1861. Twenty-four days after the firing on Fort Sumter, Lee ordered the
fortification of Manassas Junction, and 7 days later Beauregard took
command of these defenses. Meanwhile, the North clamored for a quick
move to capture Richmond and end the war. Forced on by this popular
pressure, McDowell launched his drive on July 16 with an army composed
chiefly of 3-months volunteers. He planned to attack the Confederate
forces at Manassas while Patterson prevented a Confederate Army, under
Gen. J. E. Johnston, from leaving Winchester and reinforcing Beauregard.
Patterson’s failure to do his part contributed heavily to McDowell’s
defeat.
Action began on July 18th, when a part of McDowell’s forces was repulsed
at Blackburn’s Ford by Longstreet’s brigade. Finding the Confederates
intrenched along Bull Run in about an 8-mile line, McDowell determined
to turn their left flank at the Stone Bridge. On July 21, he made a
feint attack on Evans’ men near the bridge and sent his main column
around by Sudley Ford to strike the Confederate rear. Evans accidentally
learned of the march and moved his small force to meet it. Reinforced by
Bee and Bartow, he made a gallant stand on the hills north of the
Warrenton Turnpike. The pressure of the Federal attack, however, was
overwhelming. Burnside, Porter, and Heintzelman, later joined by
Sherman, struck the small Confederate force and drove it back across the
pike in disorder.
[Illustration: _General Beauregard_]
[Illustration: _General McDowell_]
[Illustration: _General Jackson_]
[Illustration: _General Pope_]
Gen. Thomas J. Jackson, marching from Mitchell’s Ford to support Bee,
Bartow, and Evans, reached Henry House Hill before noon. Deploying his
valley regiments behind the eastern crest of the hill, Jackson awaited
attack from the victorious Federal forces. Behind the Robinson House,
400 yards north, Bee was striving to rally his disorganized troops.
Pointing to Jackson’s line, he shouted: “Look! There stands Jackson like
a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians!” Bee’s men echoed the shout
and formed on their colors. “Stonewall” Jackson had won his immortal
name.
McDowell threw portions of four brigades against Jackson’s position in a
daring offensive. At the height of the attack Ricketts’ and Griffin’s
Federal batteries were advanced to Henry House Hill directly facing
Jackson’s line. The guns were captured and recaptured in confused
fighting, but the arrival of additional Confederate troops from
Winchester turned the tide of battle. The desperate Confederate defense
was changed to an attack, which routed the Union Army and forced it back
upon Washington. The Federal strength of the battle was 35,732, losses
2,708; Confederate strength 31,810, losses 1,982.
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.
Early on the 30th, Pope, ignorant of Longstreet’s arrival, renewed the
battle with a drive against Jackson’s line, which he thought was
withdrawing. As the attacking column staggered under the raking fire of
Confederate batteries, Jackson delivered a furious counterstroke. At
this juncture Longstreet wheeled his line northeast, swept over Bald
Hill, and drove on toward the pike. Only a resolute stand of Federal
troops on Henry House Hill prevented Pope’s lines of retreat from being
cut and enabled him to fall back eastward over Bull Run to Centreville.
On September 1, Pope foiled a second Confederate attempt to cut across
his line of retreat in a desperately contested action at Ox Hill
(Chantilly) and then retired to the defenses of Washington. Lee prepared
to invade Maryland.
[Illustration: _Administration—Museum Building_]
The Federal strength at the battle was approximately 73,000, losses
14,462. Confederate strength at the battle was approximately 55,000,
losses 9,474.