Campaign

The Second Battle of Bull Run, or the Battle of Second Manassas, as it was known by the South, was fought between August 28 and August 30, 1862,[1] as part of the American Civil War. It was the culmination of an offensive campaign waged by Confederate General Robert E. Lee"s Army of Northern Virginia against Union Maj. Gen. John Pope"s Army of Virginia, and a battle of much larger scale and numbers than the First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas), fought in 1861 on the same ground.

Following a wide-ranging flanking march, Confederate Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson captured the Union supply depot at Manassas Junction, threatening Pope"s line of communications with Washington, D.C. Withdrawing a few miles to the northwest, Jackson took up defensive positions on Stony Ridge. On August 28, 1862, Jackson attacked a Union column at Brawner"s Farm, near Groveton, resulting in a stalemate. On that same day, the wing of Lee"s army commanded by Lt. Gen. James Longstreet broke through light Union resistance in the Battle of Thoroughfare Gap and approached the battlefield.

Pope became convinced that he had trapped Jackson and concentrated the bulk of his army against him. On August 29, Pope launched a series of assaults against Jackson"s position along an unfinished railroad grade. The attacks were repulsed with heavy casualties on both sides. At noon, Longstreet arrived on the field from Thoroughfare Gap and took position on Jackson"s right flank. On August 30, Pope renewed his attacks, seemingly unaware that Longstreet was on the field. When massed Confederate artillery devastated a Union assault by Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter"s V Corps, Longstreet"s wing of 25,000 men in five divisions counterattacked in the largest, simultaneous mass assault of the war.[4] The Union left flank was crushed and the army driven back to Bull Run. Only an effective Union rearguard action prevented a replay of the First Manassas disaster. Pope"s retreat to Centreville was nonetheless precipitous.[5]