Battlefield of Cedar Mountain, August 9, 1862. Here the Confederate army
in its second advance on Washington first felt out the strength massed
against it. After Lee's brilliant tactics had turned McClellan's Peninsula
Campaign into a fiasco, the Confederate Government resolved to again take
the offensive. Plans were formed for a general invasion of the North, the
objective points ranging from Cincinnati eastward to the Federal capital
and Philadelphia. Immediately after Washington got wind of this, Lincoln
(on August 4th) issued a call for three hundred thousand men, and all
haste was made to rush the forces of McClellan from the Peninsula and of
Cox from West Virginia to the aid of the recently consolidated army under
Pope. On August 9, 1862, the vanguards of "Stonewall" Jackson's army and
of Pope's intercepting forces met at Cedar Mountain. Banks, with the
Second Corps of the Federal army, about eight thousand strong, attacked
Jackson's forces of some sixteen thousand. The charge was so furious that
Jackson's left flank was broken and rolled up, the rear of the center
fired upon, and the whole line thereby thrown into confusion. Banks,
however, received no reënforcements, while Jackson received strong
support. The Federal troops were driven back across the ground which they
had swept clear earlier in the afternoon.
[Illustration]
The Battle of Cedar Mountain, August 9, 1862. The lower picture was taken
the day after the battle that had raged for a brief two hours on the
previous evening. After an artillery fire that filled half the afternoon,
the advanced Federal cavalry was pressed back on the infantry supporting
the batteries. Banks underestimated the strength of the Confederates.
Instead of sending to Pope for reënforcements, he ordered a charge on the
approaching troops. The Confederates, still feeling their way, were
unprepared for this movement and were thrown into confusion. But at the
moment when the Federal charge was about to end in success, three brigades
of A. P. Hill in reserve were called up. They forced the Federals to
retrace their steps to the point where the fighting began. Here the
Federal retreat, in turn, was halted by General Pope with reënforcements.
The Confederates moving up their batteries, a short-range artillery fight
was kept up until midnight. At daylight it was found that Ewell and
Jackson had fallen back two miles farther up the mountain. Pope advanced
to the former Confederate ground and rested, after burying the dead. The
following morning the Confederates had disappeared. The loss to both
armies was almost three thousand in killed, wounded and missing. The
battle had accomplished nothing.
[Illustration: COPYRIGHT BY PATRIOT PUB. CO.]
[Illustration: SURVIVORS OF THE FIGHTING TENTH