86. LXXXVI.
IN WHICH THE WRITER OMITS A DESCRIPTION OF THE
SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS.
Jackson moved again at dawn. So perfect had been the
cordon of cavalry pickets and scouting parties between the
Southern column and the enemy, that the march was still entirely
undiscovered; and reaching Thoroughfare Gap, a few miles
west of Manassas, Jackson found it entirely undefended.
Passing through the frowning ramparts of the gorge, he descended
upon the great Federal dépôt at Manassas.
He was now completely in General Pope's rear, and directly
upon his communications with Washington. The great object
of the expedition was to destroy the stores at Manassas, defeat
General Pope's attempt to rescue them, and lastly, hold him in
check until General Lee arrived with Longstreet's corps. Then,
a pitched battle.
Jackson made his dispositions rapidly, and with consummate
skill.
Ewell was sent toward Bristoe, a station on the Orange road,
about four miles from Manassas, and Stuart then proceeded with
his cavalry and Trimble's brigade, in advance to Manassas. The
attack was made about daylight, and the troops rushed in, under
a hot fire, and were soon in possession of the place.
About seven in the morning, General Taylor's Federal brigade,
which had been hurried forward from Washington, crossed
at Blackburn's Ford, and made an obstinate attack—but it was
too late. Stuart was in the works, and no sooner had the
Federal infantry appeared than he opened a sudden and determined
artillery fire, which completely drove them back. They
were pursued by Captain Pelham, with his horse artillery, and
driven in the direction of Alexandria.
This attack had scarcely been repulsed when Ewell received
the assault of General Pope, at Bristoe, meeting it with his customary
obstinacy. When notified by Jackson that Manassas was
destroyed, he slowly fell back, burning the bridge in his rear;
and the various columns converged toward the little village of
Groveton, near the old battle-field of July 21, 1861, where, with
his back to Sudley Ford, Jackson awaited the enemy.
The scenes at Manassas, when the troops marched in, were
singular. Enormous stores of every description greeted the eyes
of the men, in the government depots and sutlers' shanties, and
these were seized upon by the starving troops with avidity. I
saw famished men, barefooted and in rags, eating lobster salad
and drinking Rhine wine.
When Jackson turned his back upon Manassas, nothing was
left but a mass of smoking ruins, from which a few straggling
cavalrymen disappeared, slowly retiring before the advance of
Pope.
By the destruction of these great stores, and the railroad toward
Alexandria, which was accomplished by Fitz Lee, General
Pope was left without supplies for men or horses. At one blow
Jackson had wounded him mortally. If the Confederate commander
could only hold his ground now until Lee arrived, a determined
attack upon the starved men and animals of his adversary
must end in his complete defeat.
Jackson made desperate efforts to hold his ground. His force
was under twenty thousand men, and General Pope had his
whole “Army of Virginia” in close vicinity, pouring forward to
crush the andacious destroyer of his stores.
Jackson did not wait to be assailed. He attacked—and a
bloody engagement continued until after night.
Meanwhile, Longstreet was rapidly advancing. Every hour
now counted. Jackson would be attacked on the next morning
by the whole Federal army. He seemed to have made up his
mind to stand at bay, and fight whatever force assailed him—
leaving the rest to Providence.
It was after night when a courier, who had ridden by a bridle
path over the mountain, reached Groveton, and announced that
General Lee was near the Gap, and rapidly advancing. When
Jackson received this intelligence he drew a long breath, his
brow cleared, and he rose erect in his saddle, as if a heavy weight
was raised from his shoulders.
Soon the thunder of Longstreet's guns was heard reverberating
from the gorge of Thoroughfare Gap, and the enemy's force
there made a furious response, completely raking the narrow
pass with shell and canister.
It was not long, however, before the Federal artillery was
withdrawn at a gallop; Longstreet's men rushed through; and,
as the sun rose, the long glittering lines of bayonets were seen
steadily advancing to take position on Jackson's right.
The line of battle thus formed was an open V, with Groveton
in the angle. Jackson's line—the left wing—was in front of
Sudley Ford; Longstreet's—the right wing—running across the
Warrenton turnpike. Where the two lines joined, a crest bristled
with artillery to repulse the attempt which would probably be
made to burst through, and thus pierce the Confederate centre.
My readers must go to the histories for an account of the great
“Second Battle of Manassas.” I cannot enter upon that vast,
desperate, and long-continued combat. The action will always
possess a weird interest, from having been fought upon the identical
ground of the first battle—except that the adversaries had
changed positions. It was the Federal forces which now attacked
from the direction of Manassas, and Jackson who stood with his
back to Sudley Ford.
See the histories. The writer of memoirs deals in colors, incidents,
and “trifles”—not in the great public events about which
so much is said in “official documents.” He would make a fine
“battle-piece” of the great second battle of Manassas, were it
necessary; paint the blue and gray lines reeling to and fro; the
artillery “sweeping like a whirlwind of shot and shell” through
the opposing ranks; and, after reading his “animated description,”
the reader should find himself in that pleasing condition
of mind when the memory retains only a blurred and confused
idea of dust, smoke, uproar, blood—dead men and horses, breasts
riddled with bullets, color-bearers grasping their flags with forms
torn in two by round-shot—bodies deficient in legs, deficient in
heads, deficient in arms—groans, yells, shouts, cheers: and then
a “glorious victory.” A glorious victory is no doubt a glorious
thing; but it is a brutal and bloody affair—this war-making—
under the glory and the laurels.
When the sun set on the third day's fight, the conflict was
over. Pope was defeated, and in full retreat toward Washington;
the Federal Capital was in imminent danger; and General
McClellan, in command of the reserve retained for its defence,
wrote, “This week is the crisis of our fate.”
Such were the magnificent results accomplished by the great
flank movement of Jackson. That march and what it effected
will always remain one of the most remarkable episodes of military
history, and rank with the proudest glories of the great
commander.
There seemed to be something like retributive justice in the
result. General Pope had permitted, if not authorized, the most
flagrant oppression of the poor non-combatants of the country he
had occupied, declaring that he had never seen any thing of his
enemies but their backs.
Now he saw the face of “Jackson's men”—and his star went
down in blood.
