Second Battle of Bull Run, Full Video | Animated Battle Map

by the end of the seven days battle a confederate army now led by robert e lee had pushed george mcclellan's army of the potomac off the peninsula in virginia looking to capitalize on this success lee moved north to begin his first invasion of the united states the rebel commander had organized his army of northern virginia into two core the first corps under james longstreet and the second core under thomas stonewall jackson the union commander confronting the rebels in northern virginia was john pope's army of virginia the union had taken up position on the rappahannock river near the orange and alexandria railroad pope was to be reinforced by elements of the army of the potomac lee wanted to defeat pope before this could happen so he divided his force sending jackson to march north to threaten the right flank and rear pope's army long street would fall the next day for the next few days pope searched for the elusive jackson at manassas junction the union commander found only destroyed railroad cars and confederate deserters claiming that jackson had went to centerville that was not the truth after ransacking manassas junction stonewall had moved northeast of the old battlefield from a year earlier positioning his core on and above an unfinished railroad cut at the base of stoney ridge pope was baffled as to where the confederates had gotten to he got word that longstreet was making his way east through thoroughfare gap but instead of attacking long street pope continued to search for jackson the union commander ordered most of his men towards centerville where he thought jackson might be part of mcdowell's core a division under rufus king began their march east toward the town along the warrington turnpike just a few hundred yards away from the unfinished railroad cut in the woods lay jackson and his 24 thousand men sprawled across a front more than a mile long hill on the left near suddenly yule in the center and tolliver on the right north of the broner's farm jackson had at the moment joined many of his men in slumber and lay alone in a fence corner the pounding of approaching horses however soon ended his rest mounted scouts reported a large body of federals passing eastward along the warrington turnpike only a few hundred yards in front of the confederate position jackson jumped up he grabbed his sword and belt buckling it as he ran to his horse he mounted and rode away galloping across the broomsedge fields until only an easy musket shot separated him from king's column he trotted back and forth watching the yankees as they tramped by for several minutes jackson studied the federals then he pulled up wheeled his horse and galloped back toward his fence corner headquarters the officers rose he touched his hat and salute and said softly bring out your men gentlemen king's division marched with hatchet's brigade in the lead then gibbons soon to be iron brigade followed by abner doubleday's brigade and patrick's new york brigade bringing up the rear colonel gibbon rode to a knoll and saw movement just north of where his men were marching it was confederate artillery jackson's cannons and limbered and began firing rounds of ammunition into the prone federals union artillery of kings division began unlimbering to return fire at this moment the four brigade commanders thought they had found jeb stewart's horse artillery protecting the rear of jackson's movement towards centerville especially because they had not yet seen any infantry at this point the federal units began to hug the ground as shrapnel exploded over their heads and attempted to find any sense of security in such a devastating barrage gibbon himself made his way to doubleday and asked what to do the brigades were without their division commander rufus king had become incapacitated from an epileptic seizure just before the opening shots the two brigade commanders decided to attack and capture the battery located near bronner's farm for this job gibbon dispatched his veteran regiment a second wisconsin they moved toward the artillery position but to their surprise a long confederate infantry battle line appeared out of the woods it was the famed stonewall brigade the men from wisconsin were itching for a fight even though they were outnumbered two to one when the confederates got within 150 yards the second wisconsin let loose a volley the veteran rebel brigade was unfazed and continued advancing they got to within 80 yards and lowered their rifles and fired into the union ranks for 20 minutes the second wisconsin held out against superior numbers the commander of the second edgar o'connor got word given that his men needed reinforcements the 19th indiana took up the position on the seconds left to help even the odds jackson became irritated at the lack of movement displayed by two of his division commanders toliver and yule oliver had only committed the stonewall brigade and had failed to move his other brigades ap hills division was too far away to attack before nightfall yule who jackson ordered to advance was only preparing one brigade the georgians under general lawton for an attack and only two or three of the regiments were ready for deployment eager to get his men into the fight in order to overwhelm king's brigades jackson personally led part of lawton's brigade to secure baylor's left flank gibbon countered lawton's men by calling up the seventh wisconsin the badgers quickly filed in along the second wisconsin one member of the seventh remembered we advanced to within hailing distance of each other then halted and laid down and my god what a slaughter no one appeared to know the object of the fight and there we stood one hour the men falling all around us we got no orders to fall back and wisconsin men would rather die than fall back without orders jackson again bypassed the chain of command and went straight to general tremble ordering his brigade forward on the union side gibbon once secured his battle line and ordered his last regiment 6 wisconsin to the right into the battle however they did not connect with the 7th instead they drifted to the east and would clash almost simultaneously with trimble's brigade a member of the six remembered hearing the rebel yell from trimble's men that yell there is nothing like it this side of the infernal region and the peculiar corkscrew sensation that it sends down your backbone under the circumstances can never be told the drift of the sixth exposed a 700 yard gap in gibbon's battle line doubleday who had yet to commit any of his regiments sent the 76 new york and the 56 pennsylvania into the fray to plug the hole both sides duked it out in near darkness only knowing where the enemy was by the flash of muskets despite the superior numbers jackson had been debilitated by a lack of coordination by his division commanders with minimal lot left jackson ordered an all-out assault by his left flank tremble sent the orders to his regiments but only the two rightmost regiments received word to attack as they moved forward with no support they became pinned down lawton's men lumbered forward but got thrown back both sides had lost substantial amounts of men the second wisconsin fighting from the start had lost their colonel edgar o'connor now lieutenant colonel lucius fairchild his sleeves rolled up and soared in hand stalked up and down the line barking orders and directing the regiment's fire finally general toliver's uncle who commanded one of his brigades made it to the battlefield but the late hour made it nearly impossible to see his regiments were pointed in the direction of the 19th indiana and were able to push them back a few hundred yards but did not move further the fight trailed off as it became too dark to see lanterns began to appear on the battlefield as comrades looked for their wounded it had been a bloody few hours the second wisconsin lost 276 of 430 engaged the 7th wisconsin lost 164. the 19th indiana lost 210 trimble's 21st georgia and lawton's 26 georgia lost more than 70 percent the stonewall brigade lost 40 percent 340 out of 800. stonewall himself would be greatly impacted by one casualty from his famed brigade willie preston his nephew from his first marriage had joined the brigade only days before the battle when jackson's surgeon hunter maguire told the general of the young boy's death maguire stated that the general's face was a study the muscles were twitching convulsively and his eyes were all aglow he gripped me by the shoulder till it hurt me and in a savage threatening manner asqua had left the boy in a few seconds he recovered himself and walked off into the woods alone the day's fighting might have been over but the second battle of manassas was just getting started august 28 saw stonewall jackson failed to defeat the division of rufus king before darkness covered the battlefield as the confederates awoke the next morning ready for a fight they found that king's men had left the field the whole night the union army of virginia and its commander john pope attempted to make sense of the engagement that had just taken place pope believed that jackson was on the run and he was determined to catch him the union commander sent out orders to his commanders to move toward groveton however his abrasiveness while in command caused acts of insubordination general philip carney who pope ordered to march immediately for jackson's last known position refused to move until dawn because he had marched his men dozens of miles out of the way according to orders from pope and refused to force his men to chase jackson without a proper rest pope was also not aware where many of his units were located he thought mcdowell's core was to the west of jackson and ordered that corps to attack the rebels in reality mcdowell's men were southeast of the confederate position pope's vague orders did not help the situation either in the early morning hours jackson shored up his lines jackson's position was undeniably strong but it was not flawless most obviously the railroad excavation which jackson at first probably planned to use as a breastwork the entire length of his line on close inspection providing an inconsistent and hence vulnerable bulwark in some places the fields were too high and sheer to be used elsewhere the cut's too deep in other places the excavation amounted to nothing at all probably for these reasons jackson's line did not follow precisely the unfinished railroad on the left generals greg and thomas availed themselves of higher ground behind the field on the right general toliver's division now under general stark after toliver was wounded used the excavation only for skirmishers and positioned his main line 200 yards behind a wooded ridge only in the center where the ground on either side was flat and wooded did the two brigades of general ewell's division now under general lawton after yule's wounding the day before positioned themselves immediately along the unfinished railroad cut by 8 am union general fran siegel and his corps arrived on the battlefield although the federals knew the general area of jackson they still had to fill their way blindly with skirmishers investigating the woods north of groveton colonel krisinowski's brigade of brigadier general schurr's division made first contact with jackson's line as krizanowski's men entered the woods they pushed back general maxie gregg's skirmish line to counter the approaching enemy greg sent the first south carolina to engage with the enemy fire two volleys and charge them when they made contact with the enemy the overwhelming numbers of the union brigades nearly encircled the rebels and forced the south carolinians back greg acted quickly and ordered the 12th south carolina to strengthen the first left together the two southern regiments delivered a devastating attack against the new yorkers krisinowski ordered the last of his regiments the 75th pennsylvania to attack the flank of the first south carolina the two sides flung lead at one another until general greg could hold back no longer and sent the 13th south carolina into the first route to counter the pennsylvanians advance the back and forth between krzenowski and greg lasted most of the morning to the west more union brigades made their way towards stonewall's lines divisions under general shank and reynolds and milroy's independent brigade of virginians began to size up the situation but a heavy barrage of artillery from the confederates made known the need to silence those guns on their left reynolds dispatched george gordon mead's brigade across the turnpike with a battery under captain james cooper mead ordered the 13th and 4th pennsylvania reserves to accompany cooper who unleashed a devastating volley into the rebel artillery captain william pogue pulled his battery out of the main line of artillery and began firing at cooper the exchange lasted for an hour with both sides experiencing heavy casualties cooper was obliged to fall back but only after causing sufficient damage and taken pressure off the union infantry being harassed by the confederate artillery in the center of the union line milroy's independent brigade heard elements of shura's brigades on his right engaging with the confederates and without knowing the situation ordered two of his regiments the 86th ohio and the fifth virginia to attack the rebel line in front of his troops were parts of stark and lawton's divisions mostly the troops of isaac tremble and bradley johnson some of them in the cut with wonderful cover from the enemy fire the excavation presented a formidable obstacle here except for a hundred yard gap in the field known ever after as the dump nearly a hundred yards wide the dump marked a no man's land between stark and launch divisions five years before construction workers had begun to fill the gap by dumping stones into it hence its nickname but the work on the project was never completed the 82nds left companies struck the dump and pushed back the defenders but the rest of the regiment and the 5th virginia began taking heavy fire from the well-defended rebels the 82nd commander was killed and both regiments began to fall back in disorder milroy seeing his men fall back ordered the second virginia to support the ohioans but the lead flew so thick from the confederate rifles that all three regiments fell back in a last-ditch effort milroy prepared the third virginia for an advance captain david gibson of company h walked up to his regimental commander major theodore lang as lang remembered it a face is calm and spiritual as if he had been preparing for the march the bridal altar major i shall be killed in this charge gibson said lane tried to brush off gibson's gloom with some pleasant words but gibson was not dissuaded i tell you i'm going to be killed in this charge i knew it last night i have known it all morning gibson's earnestness in lane his voice and manner were so changed that i begged him not to make the charge but he would not listen to that the third advanced and in the early movement gibson was struck in the head by a rebel bullet fulfilling his premonition the virginians soon to be west virginians made a gallant stand but could not withstand the rebel volleys and retreated back to safety with the disordered retreat of milroy's brigade the union center was vulnerable the blue troops thus far had attacked in piecemeal fashion getting pushed back each time by the well-protected rebel lines on the right the division of philip kearney was approaching the field and consulted with shures to launch attacks as his brigades made it to the front kearney was determined to break jackson's left flank he ordered schemiflix brigade to the krisinowski's right in the gap that remained carney sent the first new york krizanowski's men had fought with greg's regiments for over an hour and now with support the federals converged on the south carolinians greg's men held on but just barely as federal raffle fire decimated their ranks the 12th south carolina's commander colonel barnes took a risk he ordered his regiment to charge the fury of the southerners sent the first new york into a panic along with the 54th new york and the 8th virginia shures saw his men sprinting for the rear and immediately ordered the newly arrived 29th new york to halt the south carolinians but the momentum of the rebels sent the new yorks into retreat like the comrades they were sent to help the first south carolina was able to take up a position on the 12th right jurors reformed 29th and 54th and sent them back into the fray but the southerners pushed them back once again by this point greg's regiments were exhausted and running low on ammunition so he pulled all his regiments north of the unfinished railroad and waited for the federals to advance on him he would get his wish sures would receive a copy of a letter from siegel to carney in it siegel requested carney to launch his entire division against jackson's left with the knowledge that support would soon be falling into his right shures complied with the orders and ordered his entire division two brigades under krzenowski and schmiffelneg against jackson's left to help break the confederate battle line he also ordered up two mountain howitzers carried into battle on the back of mules to the front line infantry and artillery moved forward against ap hills division both sides exacted high casualties on one another the union troops stayed inside the tree line in the brush to conceal themselves forcing the confederates to aim at muzzle blasts from the federals shure's men kept holding their position expecting help to come in the form of kearney's division on their right but it didn't come for two hours the blue troops doggedly held their position for most of august 29th stonewall jackson had left much of the fight into his division and brigade commanders his main concern that morning was linking up with long street's wing of the army of northern virginia that morning james longstreet and his core along with the commander of the army robert e lee passed through thoroughfare gap and marched toward jackson's position north of groveton stonewall anxiously awaited the other half of the army because he knew that pope's full strength would soon be upon him shortly after 8 am that morning a young lieutenant of evander law's staff named john cousins galloped up to jackson's headquarters he found jackson to be agitated long streets through the gap and i reckon at haymarket by this time cousins announce who heads the column jackson snapped hood's division general those gallup fellows who led your battle at gaines farm and who jackson cut off the young man and asked what brigade sir texas brigade cousins answered finally getting the drift of jackson's simple wants jackson wheeled to one of his staff officers major yelled pointing toward the warrenton turnpike put the texas brigade here it's left on the pike gallop sir jackson would soon direct jeb stewart to guide longstreet's men to the battlefield it was 10 a.m shortly before shorts division made their attack against ap hills division when lee came galloping up the warrenton turnpike to place the calm of texans and to get a good look at the ground himself leaving his staff behind a few minutes later lee returned and said a yankee sharpshooter came near killing me just now his staff looked and his cheek had been grazed by the bullet of the sharpshooter although longstreet was now on the field it would take time for his men to deploy into battle the texas brigade arrived and sent out skirmishers they made contact with the skirmishers of john reynolds division the unexpected approach of a large confederate force made the union commander fall back jeb stewart's job of guiding longstreet to the battlefield was complete he dashed off south along the road to manassas junction to secure the right flank of the army about a mile down the road he topped a hill and could see a dust cloud peek over the trees indicating a large federal force he immediately realized the danger such a force could do to long street's flank and sent out skirmishers to engage with the column of federals just like he intended the resistance stopped the federal force stewart sent word to longstreet to deploy infantry down the road to help bluff the union troops jeb instructed his men to cut tree branches and drag them behind the horses kicking up dust in the process to give the illusion of a large force approaching until the infantry could get there the blue column stopped by stewart was the core of general fitch john porter that morning porter and irvin mcdowell had been given a joint order from their commander john pope that order would become famous as one historian put it as a masterpiece of contradiction the joint order simultaneously ordered porter and mcdowell to move forward halt and then prepare to fall back both union cores were to move to gainesville miles to the west of jackson's line keep in mind pope thought jackson was fighting out of necessity not because he wanted to and pope also dismissed reports of long street making his way through thoroughfare gap the order also said it may be necessary to fall back behind bull run to centerville tonight i presume it will be if any considerable advantage are to be gained by departing from this order it will not strictly be carried out with such a vague contradictory order porter and mcdowell were unsurprisingly confused however they moved toward gainesville when porter encountered stewart porter and mcdowell came together to discuss what to do next mcdowell thought he could be of little help to porter and since the order said if any considerable advantages are to be gained by departing from this order it will not be strictly carried out he concluded to move his core north toward the fighting and pope along the suddenly road one of the biggest blunders of the battle was the report sent to mcdowell from john buford who had been keeping an eye on longstreet he reported that longstreet's core was approaching the battlefield mcdowell put the report in his pocket he wouldn't alert pope to the information until 7 pm that night porter stayed put decided not to press on since he did not know the force in front of him while the union commanders struggled to understand their orders longstreet ordered corsa's brigade south to relieve stewart's men dr jones's division would deploy to courses left along with kemper's division which would link with hood's division however besides skirmishing longstreet would not press the attack lee hoped to make a quick and surprising assault against pope's army but longstreet balked at the thought he argued that he didn't know the ground in front of him and asked for time to recon order it leah sent it and reports came back that the ground was not favorable for an attack as lee was about to order his own engineers to scout the position stewart sent in a report alertingly that the force on the road south was very large and this settled the matter for the moment pope thinking he only faced jackson and that he had two core one under mcdowell and one under porter approaching the rebel commander's flank made a fatal error he presumed presumed that porter and mcdowell upon reaching gainesville would attack jackson in the flank therefore he did not want to launch an assault on jackson with the portion of the army he had at groveton he just wanted to keep stonewall busy until porter and mcdowell could hit him in the flank the reality was the two union corps never made it to gainesville and longstreet who pope had presumed could not arrive until late the next day was already on the field the combination of long street arguing not to attack and pope's misguided beliefs created a lull on the battlefield about midday the union commander decided to scout the advanced position of his army in person he decided that he needed to keep stonewall busy and distracted until porter and mcdowell could attack he replaced shorts division with the brigades of farnsworth and carr the relieved union division took a much needed rest as they had been fighting for six hours and were down to their last cartridges pope also ordered general joseph hooker to send part of his division to attack jackson center where milroy's brigade had assaulted earlier that morning flabbergasted hooker argued that without more support it would be a disastrous endeavor pope agreed and sent word to general carney to send one of his brigades to attack jackson's extreme left flank with the plan outlined brigadier general grover's new england brigade of hooker's division marched for the confederate center carney sent brigadier general john c robinson to support grover's attack on the confederate left robinson moved with incredible slowness feeling his way through the terrain grover on the other hand moved his men close the railroad cut but thought ordering his troops into such an obstacle too foolish and instead took his brigade on a 500-yard march east behind carr's men in front of farnsworth to where thomas brigade of georgians were when thomas saw short's division leave about an hour before he had moved his men up closer to the cut exposing a large gap between his own brigade and that of maxi greg grover's men formed in two battle lines and moved up to close range with the men from georgia the confederate rifles flung lead at the new englanders but it did not phase them as the rebels laid behind the cut reloading grover gave the order to charge catching the georgians off guard and capturing many and sending the rest into flight the confederate line was dissolving one rebel soldier tripped on a tree root as he attempted to escape a sergeant from new hampshire reached down and grabbed the buoy knife in the prone man's belt and raised it over his head the rebel yelled out oh for god's sake don't the union soldier caught off guard at their request said all right johnny and put the knife in his own belt and kept charging the new englanders surged through the hole in ap hills line gregg's battered brigade attempted to make a stand but the first massachusetts fired bali after volley into the south carolinians grover rode up and down his lines urging his men on and hoping with all his heart that the support from kearney would arrive his new englanders doggedly held on to their position driving the grey-clad troops however without help from kearney the situation was becoming dire pender's brigade held in reserve was deploying against him grover rode back toward the cut urging the wounded who could to come to the front his horse would become horribly wounded and he himself would barely dismount the animal before it ran into confederate lines with no sign of help and his men taking horrible casualties rover regrettably ordered his men to fall back robinson's advance had been stopped by the confederates on the left so the effort made yielded nothing pope then sent orders to john reynolds to move his division against jackson's right but this confused reynolds because he had been driven back by rebel force from the west that force would be in his flank if he attacked where pope intended reynolds made an attempt to attack longstreet's men but realized he was too outnumbered and fell back sending word back to pope that a considerable enemy force was confronting him pope scoffed at the report and assured reynolds that the men he saw were porter's men preparing to destroy jackson's flank at the union center the confederate sharpshooters had been harassing federal artillery pope one of those men dealt with and sent colonel nagel's brigade to drive in the rebels and assault their works nagel's men made initial progress but got brought to a halt seeing their comrades being pushed back johnson and stafford's brigades swung their battle line to encompass nagel's flank sending the federals into a retreat right behind nagel was the brigade under colonel taylor as the union troops advanced they met with the same fate as their predecessors and had to withdraw under the intense pressure of the confederate flanking maneuver stafford's men from louisiana captured some artillery pieces but with no horses available to pull it back to their lines they hitched about 50 captured union soldiers to the pieces and pulled them to safety which brought a laugh from the confederate audience after the brief but bloody attacks of nagel and taylor around 4 pm both sides adjusted their battle lines hoped with the intention of attacking jackson's left flank again since most of the progress had been made in that direction he called on philip carney to organize his division for a major assault meanwhile on the confederate side ap hills brigades had been battered worse than any others on the rebel side especially gregg's south carolinians he'll ask greg whether he could hold the position greg stated i will hold the position with the bayonet but hill knew the situation hill sent a courier with a message to jackson describing greg's situation jackson listened to the courier and followed him back to hill where stonewall declared general your men have done nobly but if you are attacked again you will beat the enemy back as hill rode off to his lines jackson yelled i'll expect you to beat them shortly after 5 pm the brigades of robinson and bernie had deployed in a strong line opposite the rebels with one order charge the blue troops rushed against the brigades of archer thomas and greg it devolved into a bitter back and forth general greg unsheathed his grandfather's sword which had been used in the american revolution and began stalking the battle line encouraging his men by saying let us die here my men let us die here gerald branch in his brigade which was guarding the extreme left flank seeing the perilous situation greg was in ordered forward the 37th north carolina to aid the south carolinians although the union forces had made significant progress they needed additional support kearney riding within the battle lines narrowly missing bullets as they whizzed by him saw union troops moving to his left it was the small brigade of colonel daniel leisure of isaac stevens division stevens rode up to carney for stevens could speak carney asked where are your troops stephen pointed the 100th pennsylvania surgeon forward kearney asked will these men fight stevens replied by god general carney these men are my round heads referring to their ancestry from the roundheads that fought against the king of england during the english civil war carney then proceeded to colonel leisure waving his only arm in the direction of the unfinished railroad and saying that is your line of advance and sweep everything before you look out for your left i'll take care of your right he added before leaving 60 pieces of artillery are on the heights behind you and as soon as you start they will open over your heads so as to prevent any reinforcements being sent against you until you can clear the whole thing out leisure's men bounded into the woods and captured the cut from archer's brigade but moved no further branch moved the rest of his brigade to stop carney but the one-armed union general was on the verge of breaking stonewall's defenses the attack had lasted 45 minutes when a loud rebel yale could be heard behind greg's men and a few moments later 2500 men from jubal early's brigade descended upon the blue soldiers the weight was too much to bear and carney's men were pushed back jackson had narrowly avoided disaster on multiple occasions but had held on for the most part his men could rest because it was getting dark but that was not the case for longstreet's wing which began to stir as darkness began to take over the field long street throughout august 29th had not engaged the enemy while jackson held on for dear life against numerous union brigades around 4 p.m long street realized that porter to the south was of no concern and indeed his corps would be ordered back to pope's position longstreet and lee met to discuss the next actions they agreed that an attack against pope needed to be made as quickly as possible the next morning therefore a reconnaissance and force would be made by all of longstreet's wing toward the east and prepare their positions for an attack at dawn it was after 6 pm when longstreet's men started their movement general pope meanwhile had saw for himself wagons headed west from jackson's position and declared the confederates were on the run his aide believed those to be of jackson's ambulances taken the wounded to the rear but pope would not hear of it in reality the wagons speeding west were ambulances jackson was staying to fight and longstreet was about to move close to pope's lines the union commander turned to mcdowell and ordered him to send a division west along the turnpike to pursue the retreating rebels mcdowell did as he was told and dispatched general hatch's division for the task hood's division and hatches division would clash in the twilight hours hatch saw vander law's brigade to his right and hood's texas brigade behind them to put law's men in check he ordered captain garrosh's battery to arrive overlooking groveton abner doubleday tried to deploy his 95th new york but a combination of their greenness and a rapid enemy fire while attempting to deploy and two companies being detached to guard the battery heavily confused the new yorkers and doubleday was forced to pull them back instead he sent the 56 pennsylvania against hood followed by the 76 new york although garrish was sent in the shrapnel into law's brigade his men were holding firm and his second mississippi was angled parallel to the road which allowed him to unleash their firepower against double day's men with the texas brigade closing up on his men hatch sent one of his aides as fast as he could to tell mcdowell that the confederates were not retreating and he was not in pursuit this was an engagement with a prepared force mcdowell here in the news said what does hatch hesitate tell him the enemy is in full retreat and to pursue him hatch dizzy was told but by the time the aid got back with mcdowell's comments there was no way to safely disengage hood's brigade overlapped his left therefore he sent sullivan's brigade to the left to extend his line south however sullivan's men went into battle line behind double days and then moved forward creating a disorganized amalgam the right wing of the texas brigade moved to the right in an attempt to envelop the union right flank their fire along with the chaos of the intermingled lines sent the federal troops into a retreat north of the warrenton turnpike law's men were advancing against garrish's battery the artillerymen loaded their pieces with canister and fired but they forgot to lower their barrels and ended up shooting over the confederate's head all but one gun made it off the rise before law's men took the position the darkness made the retreat more difficult for the blue troops some officers attempted to rally their men to stand their ground against the confederate wave major charles livingston of the 76 new york was one of those officers he watched a regiment moving by him in what was termed a tolerable order he yelled for them to halt in about face an officer in the regiment asked who are you sir he replied major livingston of the 76 new york the 76 what the officer asked the 76 new york came the answer well then said the officer you are my prisoner for you are attempting to rally the second mississippi the division was scattered as they made their way back to their lines it was now 8 p.m but there would be a little more bloodshed for reasons not clear to anyone then or now lieutenant colonel kilpatrick of the second new york cavalry ordered one of his squadrons to move along the turnpike and charged the confederate position the horsemen rode through the darkness along the pike here in the hoof beats law kept his men on the side of the road the horsemen passed right by them law knew that evans brigade was behind him and he could trap the yankees the squadron found evan's brigade when the muzzle blast rang out from just a few feet away in their attempt to retreat law's men unleashed another volley only 11 men made it back to the union lines the battlefield went silent after that with soldiers sleeping on the field at a safe distance from the enemy at 3am the rebels and hoods division heard the footsteps of thousands they were marching toward the east along the warrenton turnpike the troops were confederates of general richard anderson's division longstreet had failed to send an aid to guide anderson's men to the battlefield the division commander with a lack of guidance simply followed the signs of debris until he believed he was in the right place little did he know that he halted his weary troops only a few hundred yards from the union lines and his men fell out to sleep by the roadside the poor infantry had only gotten maybe an hour of sleep before general hood realized the seriousness of the situation and alerted anderson of his position the troops were woken up and began their march west to the safety of the confederate rear now the movement would not have been much significance if the union troops on dogen ridge only a few hundred yards away hadn't seen the six thousand man division marching away as a few rays of sunshine began to show general patrick alerted his superiors that it appeared the confederate army was in full retreat when pope got the news this only encouraged his belief that jackson and longstreet were on the run he called a council of war but was dismayed that his corps commanders disagreed about the retreat and suggested hitting jackson's left one more time pope relented and planned for mcdowell's porters and hanselman's corps to cross the ground kearney had bloodied the previous day and crushed the rebel left flank however although that was discussed in the meeting no formal orders were given and it seems as though pope's enthusiasm for the attack faded quickly because the morning passed with no attack lee likewise called together jackson longstreet and stewart in order to plan for the day the confederate leader called off the dawn attack after the clash the night before and decided that pope's aggressive behavior would be better used against him lee was perplexed by pope not attacking that morning but instructed his corps commanders to avoid an engagement if pope attacked lee betted it would be directed at jackson thus longstreet would move forward and deliver a devastating blow to pope's left flank however if pope decided not to attack jackson would move across the bull run with his core at night and attack the union right flank at dawn the next morning for the union the morning was filled with movements in the form of porter's core reynolds division and hatches division who were to launch an attack against jackson's right flank porter prepared his men for the attack pope seemed paralyzed by the contrasting information given to him throughout the early morning but ascented to mcdowell and hanselman to personally examine jackson's left flank the two core commanders believed the woods around the railroad cut to be empty despite some small attacks by parts of ricketts division that demonstrated a strong force there meanwhile a union soldier came out of the woods in front of porter's line he stated he had spent the entire night behind confederate lines and heard they were retreating to link up with longstreet porter was skeptical of the man because he knew that the two wings of the confederate army had already united and with stubborn resistance personally seen by him along the cut the man had to be mistaken however he did send the escape bee to pope with his reservations about the story pope sided with the soldier and the corps commanders who arrived shortly after that the confederates were in full retreat porter was put in a hazardous situation his men were ready to launch an attack on jackson but pope sent instructions to pursue the retreating confederates down their warrenton turnpike porter knew that if he marched west jackson could emerge out of the railroad cut attack him in the flank therefore he chose to attack according to his original order porter amassed two of his brigades under colonel roberts and colonel weeks parallel to the grove tunnel suddenly road and planned to perform a right wheel to smash into the confederate defenses as the men formed in the trees north of groveton they had to hug the ground because 700 yards to the west the 18 artillery pieces of stephen d lee threw solid shot and case shot into the tree line the blue troops had a chuckle amidst the carnage when they looked behind them and saw a large newfoundland dog chasing the bouncing cannonballs across the field porter saw that his right flank would become vulnerable and sent for general hatch to bring up one of his brigades to file in alongside roberts colonel sullivan's brigade had to squeeze into formation forcing robert's men to form more of a solid mass of troops with overlapping battle lines to make matters worse for some reason weeks on the left had not formed his men in a battle line but had placed them in columns of divisions doubled on the center which means that each regiment formed five lines of two companies behind sullivan was colonel patrick's brigade this brought the number up to ten thousand soldiers about to make the attack understanding the easy targets they would be on horseback many officers dismounted and took up muskets at 3 p.m porter's charge stepped out of the tree line the artillery from lee's batteries let loose a devastating barrage of iron that caused chaos in the union ranks the regiments in the attack morphed into one solid blue mass a perfect target for lee's cannons the union right moved much faster than the left it also did not help that weeks brigade had to deploy in the battle lines while in the open field colonel frisbie of the 30th new york rolled forward to lead his men and encouraged them a rebel bullet struck him in the jaw carrying away part of the bone the major of the 30th said colonel you are hit frisbee simply said major to your post he rode a few yards further and another bullet struck him in the top of the head killing him instantly the right of the blue mass struck the railroad cut forcing the rebels in that area to the other side of the cut from there the two sides blasted away at one another from just a few yards away each soldier peeking his head up over the embankment just long enough to fire his rifle and duck behind the excavation major andrew jackson barney of the 24th new york rode in front of his regiment and led his men to the cut standing defiantly against the rebels across the cut from himself he encouraged his men some confederates looked on and on and yelled don't kill him but a volley from the great line sent the blue-clad officer tumbling from his horse a rebel dragged his body to safety one new yorker wrote the yells from both sides were indescribably savage we were transformed from a lot of good-natured boys the most bloodthirsty of demoniacs the blue mass was able to puncture a hole in jackson's line when the 48th virginia had took too much damage from the federal raffles portions of the 21st and 1st virginia of johnson's brigade attempted to make a defense but there were too many yankees colonel baylor commander of the stonewall brigade saw the break and led his men forward but before the brigade got to the tree line multiple union bullets had pierced baylor as he carried the flag to encourage his men there were only 500 men in the brigade making that charge that was less than many of the single federal regiments opposing them but they were able to stop the breakthrough the patrick's brigade followed behind sullivan and robert's brigades the outnumbered confederates sent word to jackson that the entire rebel line was about to collapse if reinforcements were not brought up jackson worked to find the closest brigade and as the union attack began to push back the grey-clad troops jackson's reinforcements arrived john m brockenbrawn now leading fields brigade charged into the union lines and pushed back porter's men a man from stafford's brigade who had ran out of ammunition and were standing around waiting for a fallen comrade to present an opportunity to acquire ammunition yelled boys give them the rocks and began throwing rocks at the union soldiers across the railroad cut the union soldiers had lost their momentum and were also running out of ammunition they returned fire with the rocks that were thrown at them but rocks would not be able to fend off the newly arrived confederates however behind them laid the fields where they would become prone to lee's artillery some of them chose to run the gauntlet of artillery shells to the safety of the tree line but some resolved to surrender the attack had only lasted 35 to 40 minutes and both longstreet and lee saw an opportunity now was the time to strike long street sent word to all his commanders to move at 4 pm with hood's texas brigade being the column of direction or who the other battle lines judged their placement on the field and direction lee wanted henry hill captured because that would control the retreat across bull run by the union army at 4 pm long street's wings surged forward attacking the unprepared union army regiments and brigades attempted to hold off the charging confederates but momentum was on the rebel side union army commanders saw henry hill is vitally important to guard the retreat and it was porter's men who moved in that direction and would duke it out with the division of dr jones ironically a critical moment of both first and second manassas focused on henry hill jones was able to push porter's men off the hill and wreak havoc on the retreating yankees after three days of fighting casualties totaled 22 177 with the union suffering 13 824 and the confederacy sustaining 8 353 casualties although it had been bloody for lee's army it was a major victory and he would use the momentum from this battle to launch his first invasion of the north thank you all so much for watching i really appreciate it stay tuned this week for more videos and have a nice day [Music] a professor with knowledge in the heartland [Music] to educate the world is his mission a professor of fortuneism and calm historian [Music] historian

Channel: Have History Will Travel

Views: 79,316

Rating: 4.8912134 out of 5

Keywords: Civil War, History, Battle, battles, military, Stonewall Jackson, National Park, National Battlefield, Battlefield, animated battle map, animation, Armies, Union, United States Army, First Bull Run, Manassas Virginia, soldiers, artillery, troops, War of Northern Aggression, Things they didn't teach you in school, Crash Course, Military History, Today I found out, American History, Debunking myths, Confederate Statues, True History of the Civil War, movie Gettysburg, Second Manassas

Id: 8GnT_t-6y-c

Length: 45min 58sec (2758 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 12 2020