Second Manassas (Bull Run) Walk and Talk: 159th Anniversary

oh yeah here we are it is second manassas 159 and i'm looking over the stone house toward henry hill you can see off there in the background uh many people don't you know think that sort of when you cross the warrenton turnpike that's that road there and luckily it's a weekend or else this would be one of the busiest intersections in the country at least at rush hour like it is right now many people think when you cross this this hill must be matthews hill but no matthews hill is a good mile still off in that direction where in the first battle of manassas or the battle of bull run the confederates took position as a blocking maneuver at the bottom base of matthews hill and the union occupied something closer to the crest but the hillary now is called buck hill where on august 28th 29th and 30th 1862 at least for part of that time the miscreant according to robert e lee john pope will take position and make this at least for a time his headquarters of course the second battle of manassas while it will overlap uh on some areas along the sudly road in chin ridge and on henry hill with the first battle most of it a much larger battle will be fought in this direction there are three days to the battle of second manassas sometimes you hear them called different names the first day is often called um broner's farm sometimes you hear it called groveton as well but groveton is sometimes applied to the entire thing but the 28th is a smaller fight a stand-up fight between you know select units before they are going to you know eventually break off the battle is going to grow pope thinks he has the confederates right where he wants them it's just stonewall jackson's men way off in the distance on a ridge fronted by most of the time buy a railroad cutter a railroad great over there and you know on at that time pope thinks he has jackson where he wants him and he just keeps launching attack after attack he could not play into the confederate moves any better for while jackson is waiting there and getting pushed and even his line being penetrated sometimes the confederates are assembling the other half of their army james longstreet soldiers who begin to arrive on the 29th as pope is attacking along a wide front several separate attacks carney's attack um grover's attack and others on the 29th while longstreet is getting into position over here the union does have some reinforcements coming up in the form of fits john porter porter will ultimately be ordered to attack on the 30th against the railroad cut it's not right here it's over um from here about a mile but he's going to be ordered to do a massive attack it pushes the confederates to the brink but provided the uh confederates long streets men with the perfect opportunity to advance with i don't know 25 000 soldiers on the other side of the warrington turnpike over there and uh you know where the union has hardly any uh soldiers at all we're talking about maybe a thousand new yorkers and some cannons over there and the southerners just roll over them the unions put up a stiff fight a brigade of ohioans come in other troops come in there's a stiff fight on chin ridge and they are looking looking always west as they seem to often do the union soldiers in the east waiting for that sun to go down and they're going to make a last holding action on henry hill the union has just enough left to hold on henry hill and then fall back to centerville like they did 13 months earlier so there's your summary um overview of the battle of second manassas uh it is like i said the 159th the park has a lot of things going on and i'll do my best to shoot a a few other videos while i'm here by the way there's a gary i'm a chief historian american battlefield trust thank you so much for supporting battlefield preservation and education although there is a lot happening elsewhere in the park right now i find myself perfectly alone on the first day of the second manassas battlefield generally known as brawner's farm exactly 159 years ago right now this battle was raging and this battle of 2nd manassas was starting up i'm looking over toward the warrenton turnpike over there and the brawner farm is just out of view off to my right over here beyond those trees i believe to set this up uh the confederates uh were having it their own way um you know left george mcclellan down on the peninsula moved north with jackson where uh you know uh jackson's part of lee's army is going to uh whip uh elements of john pope's army at the battle of cedar mountain on august 9th uh jackson will go all the way around pope and get fully into his rear um and uh first sack and then burn uh manassas junction there and then jackson comes back here and by august 28 1862 he is occupying the stony ridge off in the distance there and i think most you know there's a railroad cut or a railroad grade in front of it no iron no rails but they'd laid the bed already as a connector sort of railroad this movement put some of the union army over in that direction far to the west in other words jackson was sort of between some of pope's army in washington so pope immediately recalled rufus king's division which begins to march along the warrington turnpike over there and the confederates jackson wanting to draw the union into a fight uh of his own choosing does just that opens up on the union column off in the distance there the union column has in it the veteran second wisconsin that it fought um at the first battle of manassas and uh elsewhere the second wisconsin is detached they're going to come up into the north in this direction and they're going to run square into the stonewall brigade the stonewall brigade just a shadow of its former self um having really uh done some hard service since it was a 4 000 soldier unit uh 13 months earlier now it was less i think than a quarter of that but bigger than the second wisconsin the wisconsin troops are then reinforced and both sides continue to do it you're going to have toliver's division it looks like talia faro um you're going to have eventually ewell's division adding to this fight actually behind me over to a little hamlet called groveton and i'm trying not to move too fast but that's over in this direction ultimately these two confederate divisions are going to be moving out right around this time of the evening it's really cool being here right now um in terms of trying to understand the battle especially that we're perfectly alone here um and that you the members of the american battlefield trust by the way have helped us to preserve significant chunks of land right off in this direction here so it's even more meaningful to be here uh giving this little narrative right now um ultimately the union is going to commit more troops doubleday puts troops in others do but ultimately the confederates simply have more soldiers and they probably would have won a pretty great victory were it not for both confederate division commanders uh yule famously uh getting a wound that will result in the loss of his leg over there um as well as uh toliver going down as well that will that and the darkness will really end the context contest over here once you could once they come out the confederates to actually look at the wounded uh they were apparently in neat lines uh you could see their lines of battle after this stand-up fight of course this fight is going to go on for two more days and i'll try my best uh if it doesn't rain and with the uh waning daylight to shoot more videos about it but there's going to be fights on the 29th and you can actually see way off in the distance there we might actually be able to catch the area right around the grove tin monument the one that looks like the other one on henry hill but there is a memorial over there in other words that's the area of the deep cut and around there and beyond it the union on the 29th will launch a tax over there on the 30th they're going to launch the tax over there and of course right over here i'm standing along some of the areas where jackson's left flank i'm sorry long street's left flank will be where he comes to join jackson and mostly on the other side of the warrenton turnpike will launch one of the top probably five largest attacks of the entire civil war you can see how some of the confederate cannons here i think these are partly long streets guns are going to have a great view to disrupt porter's attack on the 30th which comes out of those woods in the distance actually i don't know if the woods are exactly right there and sweeping across this field they had to go like this to confront the confederate deep cut position over there and these guns are just raking that line there porter did the confederates a huge favor for he had been lurking off in this direction over here but now here on the 30th of uh august 1862 longstreet is going to launch some 25 000 soldiers on the other side of the road where there are basically no union soldiers it's a miracle that pope's army wasn't completely swallowed up or worse but they sent in timely reinforcements pope did his best fighting probably once he was really under the gun and they barely held out till darkness came on uh henry hill and then retreated back to centerville just like they had done 13 months earlier [Applause] so you

Channel: American Battlefield Trust

Views: 13,598

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Keywords: American Battlefield Trust, Civil War Trust, second manassas tour, second bull run tour, second manassas overview, garry adelman manassas

Id: 0bTMsMbhXUw

Length: 10min 53sec (653 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 08 2021