The Union Army is defeated at 2nd Bull Run - 157 years ago today

Major General John Pope and his Union Army of Virginia had been locked in a ferocious stand-up battle with Stonewall Jackson and his 24,000 men since 6 PM on the evening of August 28. While fighting raged along Stony Ridge on the morning and afternoon of August 29, Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet quietly slipped onto the battlefield with 28,000 reinforcements. The additional Confederates took up a position on Jackson's right flank but did not attack the unsuspecting Federals.

On the morning of August 30, Pope still remained oblivious to the presence of Longstreet on his left flank (this despite multiple warnings from officers and enlisted men who were there on the ground). Pope for whatever reason did not want to entertain any notion that the Confederate army was doing nothing other than retreating.

This belief was reinforced, ironically enough, by Longstreet. Many of Longstreet's units did not arrive on the field until after dark on the 29th. One such unit accidentally wandered too far and made camp in the no-man's-land between the two armies. The next morning, when they realized their mistake, they about faced and marched back the way they came. When Pope received word of this movement, he interpreted it as a Confederate retreat and issued orders to Fitz John Porter to attack Jackson's line.

The attack went forward at 3 PM. Instead of finding Jackson in retreat, the 6,000 Union soldiers of Porter's attack instead found a dug in and determined enemy backed up by massed artillery that poured a murderous fire into their exposed left flank.



The attack quickly fell apart but small gains were made in places where Confederate soldiers had run out of ammunition. To counter the continuing onslaught of Federal troops, some Confederate soldiers hurled rocks at them. The Union soldiers, for whatever reason, decided to throw them back and the two sides engaged in a rock fight for several awkward moments.

At last, Porter's attack ran out of steam and the surviving Union soldiers either fell back across the field from whence they came or surrendered themselves to the Confederate defenders. It was at this moment that Lee gave Longstreet the order to attack.



It was the largest massed assault of the Civil War. 28,000 screaming Confederates moved forward at once on the left flank of the Union line. Their objective? Henry Hill. From there the Confederate army could block the retreat of Pope's forces. And as it stood at that particular moment, only 2,200 Federals stood between Longstreet and that goal. The first troops to get hit were those of the 5th and 10th New York, both regiments commanded by G.K. Warren. Within 10 minutes the 5th New York was virtually annihilated, losing 300 of its 500 men (126 of those were killed outright). This was the largest loss of life suffered by a single regiment in any Civil War battle.

Pope only now became aware of the danger facing him and took decisive action to save his army. With virtually no organized resistance to confront Longstreet, Pope and his second-in-command (Irvin McDowell) began to hastily shift troops from the right to sure up the left. Two brigades were sent at the double quick to take up a position on Chinn Ridge. The goal was not to win the battle but to buy time for the rest of the army to safely retreat to Centreville. If Longstreet's forces managed to capture Henry Hill, that retreat would become impossible.

The brigades McDowell sent to Chinn Ridge to slow up Longstreet were those of Tower and Webster. Tower was severely wounded in the fighting that swirled around Chinn Ridge while Webster was killed. The two brigades put up a valiant defense but were soon dislodged by the weight of Confederate numbers. They had bought the Union army enough time, however, as two divisions now took up position in defense of Henry Hill.



While Longstreet's attack went forward, Jackson mysteriously remained uninvolved in the afternoon assault. Lee had sent Jackson somewhat ambiguous orders for his role in the attack and Stonewall did not join in on the festivities until 6 PM, some two hours after Longstreet had begun to move forward. By this time, the Union army had a firm defensive line anchored around Henry Hill. Nightfall brought the fighting to a close and Pope began to quietly move his army across Bull Run, back toward Centreville.

The 2nd Battle of Bull Run was over. In the three days of fighting, more than 23,000 Americans fell killed and wounded or were listed as missing/captured. While it had not been the decisive victory Lee had hoped for, the Confederates had successfully pushed Pope's forces back into the defenses around Washington. John Pope had brought 75,000 men into the fight with him and left with 14,000 fewer. Several days later, Pope was relieved of command and sent to Minnesota to fight Native Americans.

Lee's army came out relatively unscathed. Bringing some 52,000 men into the fight, the Confederates lost some 9,000 men killed and wounded. Bolstered by his successes around Richmond and in northern Virginia over the last 60 days, Lee decided to invade Maryland. His decision to do so would culminate with the bloody Battle of Antietam. But that is a story for another day.