Here we see Catlett's Station, on the Orange & Alexandria Railroad, which
Stuart's cavalry seized in a night sortie on August 22, 1862. The damage
done was not severe. Stuart was unable to burn the loaded wagon-trains
surrounding the station and had to content himself with capturing horses,
which he mounted with wounded Federal soldiers; he escaped at four the
next morning, driven off by the approach of a superior force. Pope, at the
time, was in possession of the fords of the Rappahannock, trying to check
the Confederate advance toward the Shenandoah. Stuart's raid, however, so
alarmed General Halleck that he immediately telegraphed Pope from
Washington: "By no means expose your railroad communication with
Alexandria. It is of the utmost importance in sending your supplies and
reinforcements." Pope did not fall back upon his railroad communication,
however, until after Jackson had seized Manassas Junction.
[Illustration: CATLETT'S STATION]
At Manassas Junction, as it appeared in the upper picture on August 26,
1862, is one of the great neglected strategic points in the theater of the
war. Twenty-five miles from Alexandria and thirty miles in a direct line
from Washington, it was almost within long cannon-shot from any point in
both the luckless battles of Bull Run. It was on the railway route
connecting with Richmond, and at the junction of the railway running
across the entrance to the Shenandoah Valley and beyond the Blue Ridge,
through Manassas Gap. The Confederates knew its value, and after the first
battle of Bull Run built the fortifications which we see in the upper
picture, to the left beyond the supply-cars on the railroad. Pope, after
the battle of Cedar Mountain, should have covered it, extending his lines
so as to protect it from Jackson's incursion through Thoroughfare Gap;
instead he held the main force of his army opposing that of Lee.
[Illustration: WHERE THE THUNDERBOLT FELL