SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS, AUGUST 29 AND 30, 1862
Major-General Pope in command of Union troops in
Northern Virginia--Religious observances in our
army--Homesickness--Furloughs--Rations--March against Pope--Artillery
duel at Rappahannock--Spy captured and hung--Jackson's
marches--Thoroughfare Gap--Longstreet's attack--Enemy routed--General
Wilcox and Union general--Wilcox's and Couch's baptismals--Brig.-Gen.
A. G. Evans--General Toombs and the picket--His arrest--Released and
joins brigade in the fight.
McClellan still lay at Westover, recruiting and reorganizing. It was
apparent that his army would not be long in that position. Confidence
in him had been lost, and there was a new paladin in the field, the
doughty John Pope, major-general, with "Headquarters in the saddle."
He was a man of some ability, but did not have a reputation for high
character in the old Army; and now with elevated rank and command
thrust upon him, he turned into abuse of his enemy, explained how he
meant to whip him, and filled the air with bombast and threatening. He
was in command in northern Virginia, and Lee had marked him for his own.
We were rather a devout army. The men came from their homes deeply
tinged with religion. Methodists were in large numbers and next to them
Baptists and Presbyterians. There were many meetings and addresses
conducted by worthy chaplains. These devoted ministers could always
be counted on to follow beside their men, in camp or on the firing
line. The men were fond of hearing in camp any kind of address, and
were an easy prey to sharpers. I recall that some years later, on the
Petersburg line, a crank came along with what he called an artis-avis
(a bird of art) with him, and some fifty thousand like it; he was
to drop a shell into Grant's army and fleet and destroy them! He
wanted permission to address my men and solicit cash for building his
wonderful birds. He was sent out of camp. The soldiers were fond of
chanting hymns and quaint old plantation airs, and at times they were
touching with the recollections of home. Homesickness was often very
prevalent, and the awful nostalgia came near crippling us. There is a
general order from Longstreet on that matter somewhere and I may be
able to find it to attach to these leaves.
At this date, July and August, 1862, food was plentiful and good. No
variety, but fresh beef or bacon, flour, coffee and sugar were issued
in full rations. There was an abundance of whiskey, but comparatively
little drunkenness. Encouragement and incentives to good conduct
came from the General-in-Chief down through the officers. Previous
to the Chickahominy Campaign a balloon had been constructed for
reconnoitering. The enemy had several and we also wanted one, so the
women--Heaven bless them!--came to the front with, it may be, tearful
eyes but willing hearts and chipped in all their pretty silk frocks
and gowns. It was a wonderfully picturesque balloon and at first did
some little service, captive to a locomotive pushed far to the front.
Then it was packed on a little steamboat in an adventurous cruise down
the James. She ran aground, was gobbled up, with the bright ball-dress
balloon, by the delighted Yankees, and that was the last of the pretty
things of our sisters, sweethearts, and wives.
But the march against Pope is now beginning and must have a little
space. The movement was masked as much as possible, a few troops only
being at first concentrated at Gordonsville by rail. Lee collected
then his outlying commands with great skill and started in earnest
against his braggart opponent. Pope seems to have quite underestimated
or disbelieved what was awaiting him, and his dispositions were all
in favor of Lee. His first rude awakening was the shock Jackson gave
him at Cedar Mountain, very costly to him; but we lost Charles Winder,
one of the finest and most promising of the brigadiers. The march of
the army was in tactical language "left in front," Jackson's position
throwing him on the left; and this formation was necessarily observed
by all the commands of the army. In these operations Stuart and his
cavalry were exceedingly active and performed most valuable service.
Our command, the full division, and two smaller ones under D. R. Jones
and N. G. Evans, came to a halt hunting a ford on the Rappahannock and
found a strong force of the enemy, with good artillery, at the railroad
bridge. The gunners (ours the Washington Artillery) on both sides took
up an artillery duel for nearly all day, but nothing decisive was
achieved. We forded the river in another place without opposition.
It was in these operations that a spy was taken. He had murdered one
of our cavalry couriers, and was caught almost red-handed, and with
papers on him compromising enough to hang a dozen spies. Nevertheless,
we gave him a trial. I convened a drum-head court martial of three
brigadiers and they sentenced him to be hanged immediately. The wretch
was mounted, arms tied, on a horse, with the noose and limb of a
tree connected. He finally admitted he was a spy from Loudoun County,
Virginia, but to the last stuck out he had not shot the cavalry
courier. A smart blow with the flat of a saber started the horse on the
jump and left the spy breathless, and there he hung until the army,
continuing its march, passed almost under the tree and perhaps took the
lesson to heart.
Jackson's marches, in swiftness, daring, and originality of execution,
were almost extraordinary. At one time there was great fear for
his safety, widely separated as he was from the right wing under
Longstreet. General Lee's route was near Longstreet's and night and
day he was always close to us. Longstreet was delayed by the enemy
at Thoroughfare Gap. This is a mountain gorge, not long, but narrow,
rocky, and precipitous. It was capable of stubborn defense. Its echoes
were wonderful--a gun fired in its depths gave forth roars fit to bring
down the skies. Here Longstreet had to stop impatiently until he could
work his way through. He knew Jackson was hard pressed on the other
side and praying for a sight of him. It took a little time, but we sent
a flanking force over the mountains by a rocky path and the enemy gave
way speedily and left the gap early. Pushing through we saw the dust
of Jackson's masses miles away and heard his guns. Forward we pressed
almost at a run, and in time. The attack on Stonewall ceased as soon as
Longstreet came on the scene.
This was early enough in the day to permit us in turn to make a
combined attack. The enemy was disheartened, and Jackson's column,
although fatigued and losing heavily, was triumphant and still capable
of great efforts. Our own force was large, comparatively fresh, and
eager to crush John Pope, but for some reason the attack was not made,
although I think General Lee preferred it to waiting.
The great battle that followed, and all these operations covering
several days, were called the Second Manassas. Some of the ground
was identical with the first. Most of it lay beautifully for good
tactical operations, and as the country was quite open much could be
observed at considerable distances. When the enemy's masses began again
pressing Stonewall on the 30th of August, Longstreet moved quickly up
to support. Their dense columns had been left exposed to artillery fire
from our position and Longstreet instantly saw it. Planting a battery
in the road, the first shots, together with Jackson's incessant fire,
began to tell.
We were near enough to see some wavering in the blue masses, then
halt, and then a flight back to cover. But it was all up with John
Pope. No rest was given his army. Longstreet started every man of us
to his division to push them into attack, and soon everything was
hotly engaged. The easy, rounded ridges ran at right angles to the
turnpike, and over these infantry and artillery poured in pursuit.
The artillery would gallop furiously to the nearest ridge, limber to
the front, deliver a few rounds until the enemy were out of range,
and then a gallop again to the next ridge. And thus it went on until
black darkness stopped operations--the enemy defeated at all points
and hastening back to the Potomac. Many prisoners, guns, colors, small
arms, and large quantities of stores and equipments fell into our hands.
J. E. B. Stuart was highly tickled at his capture of Pope's wagon and
personal effects, including a very fine uniform.
Losses on both sides were heavy. Alas! the butcher's bill is always to
be paid after these grand operations, and at Manassas especially there
were some splendid young lives laid down for our cause and our homes.
Longstreet was seen at his best during the battle. His consummate
ability in managing troops was well displayed that day and his large
bodies of men were moved with great skill and without the least
confusion.
As General C. M. Wilcox was moving forward at the head of his brigade
in the open field, he was attracted by the waving of a handkerchief
at some little distance. He found time to go to the spot and there
mortally wounded was a Federal general, Wilcox's old army friend, who
had recognized the Confederate as he passed and wanted to say farewell.
His soul soon took flight and his body was cared for by his old-time
comrade--the name is forgotten.
Wilcox told me that he once officiated at a christening with D. N.
Couch, afterwards a Federal major-general. Wilcox's baptismals were
Cadmus Marcellus, and Couch's Darius Narcissus. It is said that when
these sonorous designations reached the parson's ear he almost dropped
the baby in round-eyed astonishment!
N. G. Evans ("Shank" Evans) had two brigades with Longstreet and was
a rather marked character. A regular soldier, he had served well in
Mexico, and at Manassas, on July 21, had done exceedingly well with a
small command, a good eye, and quick decision. It was he, too, that
commanded at Ball's Bluff on the upper Potomac when Baker attempted to
take it with a fine regiment and lost some 800 men. Baker was Senator
from Oregon and only a few days before had addressed the United States
Senate in full uniform in farewell. It was forever, for he died with
hundreds of his men in the waters of the Potomac. Evans was difficult
to manage and we found him so. He had a Prussian orderly, with a wooden
vessel holding a gallon of whiskey always strapped on his back, and
there was the trouble. At the little artillery fight he had on the
Rappahannock, G. T. Anderson (Tige), commanding one of the Georgia
brigades, was ordered by Evans to attack a powerful battery and silence
it. In vain did Anderson explain that it was on the far side of a deep
river and that without a bridge his infantry could not get to it.
Evans would not listen to reason and Anderson came to me. Of course he
was told to make no such attempt, and I proceeded to hunt up Evans,
finding him under a tree, too near his "Barrelita," as he called his
whiskey holder. But he had to listen and comply. In the progress of the
campaign after the Manassas battle he became so unruly as to arrest
without reason Hood, one of his brigadiers, and Longstreet had to get
him out of the way in some manner. He disappeared afterwards from field
work and I don't know his end. He had been a very brave, experienced
cavalry officer. Anderson's indignation at the impossibility of the
order to take the battery was highly amusing.
In the early part of the march against Pope we made a bivouac near
where some Federal cavalry were reported to have been prowling. The
enemy had no troops near by to disturb us except this body of horse.
It was therefore thought prudent to post a regiment at the cross-road
which would warn our camps. General Toombs was ordered to detail one
and I saw that it was posted.
During the night a cavalry picket reported that the regiment had been
withdrawn. I awoke Longstreet to ascertain if by his orders. "No, but
place immediately in arrest the officer who has done so." It proved
to be Toombs. He was a great lawyer and a good politician, but in the
wrong place when posing as a soldier. He had taken a notion that his
regiment was not really needed at the cross-road and the men would be
more comfortable with the others in bivouac.
Toombs was therefore put in arrest and the march continued. The next
evening on halting it was reported to me that he had followed, as was
proper, in rear of his brigade, but had worn his sword, and upon his
men going into camp had made them a violent speech. I felt called on
to make this known to General Longstreet, whereupon he directed me to
order General Toombs back to Gordonsville and confine himself there;
also to prefer charges against him on two grounds--withdrawing the
regiment from picket duty and breaking his arrest. This was done and
Toombs went back to Gordonsville, not many miles away, whence he wrote
a short note asking to be released of the charge of breaking arrest,
saying he had worn his sword only for convenience and there was nothing
improper in his speech to the men. Longstreet always had a decided
liking for Toombs, and upon seeing this note he not only withdrew that
charge, but the other also and sent him back to duty. Knowing that we
should soon be engaged he advised me to be quick about it if I wanted
the Georgian to see something of hot work.
An intelligent courier was sent to Toombs with the latest orders, and
meantime we were marching forward. He returned; General Toombs was
not at Gordonsville. I might well have left the matter there, but it
seemed to me that one of our foremost Georgians should have a chance
with the army and I sent a second man after him; this time he was
found. The situation was explained to him and he was advised to lose
no time in joining his men if he desired to be with them in the smoke
of battle. And so Toombs came; late, but just in time to be with his
brigade in its last victorious charge when everything, as already
described, was turned loose.
Toombs stuck to the army through Sharpsburg, where he did good service,
and then returned to more congenial fields--politics and oratory. In
after years he always showed me much kindness and appreciation for the
trouble I had taken to get him back to his brigade for fighting at the
Second Manassas.