Battle of Second Manassas

[Saris]

August 30, 1862, after two days of hard fighting, both Jackson and Pope are still on the field expecting each other to give up and cede their foe the victory. On the third day, Pope misunderstand the maneuvering of the confederate wounded and believed Jackson is retreating. But unknown to Pope, Longstreet has arrived on Jackson's right flank 3 am that morning. Pope decided to send Porter, who was supported, to attack the Confederate right flank to block their "escape route." After two hours of forming up his 10,000 men, Porter ordered the assault, which had initial success, routing the 48th Virginia Infantry and mauled the Stonewall Brigade which was sent in to reinforce the crumbling line. But in doing so, Porter's force suffered massive casualties during their assault, which ended in a standstill. Jackson's line was too weak to counterattack allowing Porter to reinforce himself with Reynolds's Division from Chinn Ridge. Seeing this movement by Reynolds, both Lee and Longstreet agreed it was time to attack Pope's undefended left flank. His mile and a half long force of 25,000 men spearheaded by Hood's Texans would crashed into the undermanned Union left flank at 4 pm. The first units to meet this unrelenting force was the 5th and 10th New York Zouaves who are both undermanned. Hearing reports of Confederates in the woods, the 10th New York was sent to screen the 5th New York, these men would not stand against the onrushing Texans and sent them screaming back. The 5th New York Zouaves couldn't fire because the the 10th was retreating in their line of sight with the Texans right on their tail. By the time they were able to fire, the Texans unleashed a devastating fire which sent the 5th New York reeling, over the course of 10 minutes, the 5th New York lost 297 out of their 500 man force. One of the Texas officers noted that the field of dead and dying Zouaves reminded him of the Texas countryside when the wildflowers were in full bloom. Finally seeing the danger of his situation, Pope ordered all his troops to reform on Henry Hill. The only unit to stand in the way of the onrushing Confederates were McLean's Brigade of 1200 Ohioans and a battery of 2 cannon. This force would beat back two assaults from the Confederates before buckling under the pressure and retreating but their stand gave Pope 30 precious minutes to organize his stand. At 6pm Jackson also countered attack to support Longstreet's left flank but failed to gain a decisive blow, giving Pope enough straighten out his lines and to retreat across Bull Run Creek at 8 pm. The Second Battle of Manassas was a shocking victory for Lee, Jackson, and Longstreet, but they failed to completely destroy Pope's army. The success off of this battle embolden Lee to lead his first invasion into the North until he would be forced to retreat south eighteen days later after the single most bloodiest battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Antietam.

[A. P. Hill]

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[Saris]

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