Snapshots of Alexandria at the Start of the Peninsula Campaign

A few of my recent posts have focused on George A. McCall's Pennsylvania Reserves as they moved across Northern Virginia from Langley to Hunter's Mills and Alexandria in March 1862.  The division established camp on the outskirts of Alexandria at a spot near the Fairfax Seminary (today's Virginia Theological Seminary).  During the course of my research, I discovered several fascinating newspaper accounts about occupied Alexandria at the start of the Peninsula Campaign.  Some of these articles were written by soldiers for their hometown papers back in Pennsylvania.  The Philadelphia Press also published special dispatches by war correspondent George Alfred Townsend, who came to Alexandria as the divisions of the Army of the Potomac converged on the town in mid-March.  These news articles paint a portrait of wartime Alexandria as seen through the eyes of Northern observers.  Together, they reveal a city profoundly transformed by military occupation and civil strife.

Starting around March 17, 1862 and continuing for a few weeks, the Union Army moved 121,500 soldiers, 14,592 horses, 1,150 wagons, 74 ambulances, 44 batteries, and mountains of other supplies and equipment to Ft. Monroe at the tip of the Peninsula.  (McClellan 109.)  Gen. George McClellan used Alexandria as his primary point of embarkation for the campaign.  Most of the Union soldiers waiting in Alexandria were struck by the sheer magnitude of this logistical feat unfolding before them.   The scene made quite an impression on a soldier from the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves (or "Bucktails").  As he wrote to the Wellsboro Agitator on April 3:

From the hills adjoining our camp, we have a fine view of Alexandria . . . also the old Potomac is clearly seen for ten miles in extent, thickly dotted with vessels of all descriptions.  The wharfs in Alexandria are crowded with vessels for the embarkation of troops, who are leaving daily for Fortress Monroe, and other places down in "Dixie."  (Wellsboro Agitator, Apr. 9, 1862.)

A soldier from Clearfield, Pennsylvania realized that he was witnessing a truly historic moment:

Last night at its mid-hour I stood on the brow of the gentle eminence on which we are bivouacked, and grazed on the sublime spectacle before me.  The glancing of the [P]otomac moonbeams, the blazing camp fires of a vast army scattered over thousands of acres, and the myriad twinkling lights of the national capital formed a night scene, the likes of which I may probably never look upon again.  (Democratic Banner, Mar. 26, 1862.)

Townsend provided newspaper readers with a dramatic description of his view from atop Seminary Hill outside of Alexandria:

The monument to Washington lifted its stumpy shaft against the hills, and the great dome of the Capitol was purely and beautifully white.  A hundred steam transports lay in the river; half as many clusters of white tents stretched along Arlington Heights; a score of forts bristled upon as many hilltops, and the foreground was a confused plain of wagons, mules, artillery, and men.  The pregnancy of the time and the power of the Government was here revealed at a winkfull, as never, for all ages, it shall be again.  What other generations shall only read I had seen!  (Phila. Press, Mar. 20, 1862.)

Orrin Stebbins, another soldier-correspondent from the Bucktail regiment, editorialized on McClellan's personal involvement in the preparations for the upcoming campaign:

Gen. McClellan is as busy as a bee, every moment of his time; either dashing from camp to camp--at the wharf, or the Capital, or else in his room laying plans to puzzle the brains of common politician, and to crush this great rebellion.  His boat is now anchored in the bay, with his staff and body guard on hand, ready to start at a moment's warning. . . . (Wellsboro Agitator, Apr. 9, 1862.) 

Townsend rode to McClellan's headquarters at "a cosy farm house on a hill top."  (Phila. Press, Mar. 20, 1862.)  He captured the sense of importance that had descended on the place:

Here. . . paymasters, quartermasters, commissaries, and brigadier generals have quarters.  Forage of every description surrounds the house; teamsters come lumbering through the rents in the garden fence, and discharge their burdens under the apple tree boughs in the orchard.  (Phila. Press, Mar. 20, 1862.)

The nearby Fairfax Seminary also attracted Townsend's attention.  He considered it "a noble building, with wings, dormitories, and chapels."  (Phila. Press, Mar. 20, 1862.)  The Union Army had converted the seminary into a hospital to treat the sick and wounded.  With a touch of characteristic melodrama, Townsend lamented that "where tuitions were once made in the quiet mysteries of religion, lives now go out in pain, and the wounded and diseased toss and tremble in the agonies of death."  (Phila. Press, Mar. 20, 1862.)

Wartime view of the Fairfax Seminary outside of Alexandria (courtesy of Library of Congress). Townsend took note of "the lofty cross" atop the cupola.  (Phila. Press, Mar. 20, 1862.)  Stebbins described the seminary as "a splendid building. . . situated on a high and beautiful hill, in the midst of a splendid grove."  (Wellsboro Agitator, Mar. 26, 1862.)

Stebbins had an opportunity to visit town and offered readers a few observations. He felt that "Alexandria, next to Cumberland, Maryland, is the most forsaken and dilapidated place I ever saw." (Wellsboro Agitator, Mar. 26, 1862.) He noticed that "[h]undreds of houses are deserted, and the whole city looks as though it was built before the flood, and had never repair." (Wellsboro Agitator, Mar. 26, 1862.) Stebbins passed by the Marhsall House, scene of Col. Elmer Ellsworth's slaying the year before, and discovered that "[t]he old secesh flag-staff is still standing on the top of the house." (Wellsboro Agitator, Mar. 26,1862.)

Townsend contemplated the changes that the war and occupation brought to Alexandria.  As he wrote in an article entitled "Transition Period in Alexandria":

If one fact in Alexandria is more apparent that any other, it is that the city is losing its Southern character.  Alexandria will never again be a Virginia town.  The Yankees have occupied its dwellings, hotels, and warehouses; driven out the negro and the negro-trader, and put his foot upon the old customs, institutions, and laws.  (Phila. Press, Mar. 28, 1862.)

He was particularly struck by the war's impact on slavery in Alexandria:

The slave-pen, as such, is no more. . . .  whatever Congress may enact relative to bondage, here or elsewhere, I am sure that slavery is at an end wherever the Northern army goes.  The soldiers, unused to such scenes, will not tolerate them; and the slave auctioneer -- an old favorite in Alexandria -- would provoke the cry of "shame" if he mounted the block to auction off either man or woman in the presence of these hard-fisted freemen of Vermont, Michigan, or Pennsylvania.  (Phila. Press, Mar. 28, 1862.)

The former slave pen in Alexandria, located at 1315 Duke Street (courtesy of Library of Congress).  Before the Civil War, the city was a major center of the domestic slave trade.  Franklin & Armfield, located here prior to Price, Birch &  Co., was one of the largest slave dealers in the United States.  The firm sent over 3,750 slaves to cotton and sugar plantations in the Deep South.  Following occupation in May 1861, the Union Army used the slave pen as a guard house. 

Townsend may have exaggerated the strength of anti-slavery sentiment prevailing in the Union Army at the time.  He also overlooked the complicity of the Federal authorities in holding fugitive slaves at the city jail or in taking money from absentee masters to keep slaves locked up.  But some soldiers, like Stebbins, surely were appalled by the vestiges of slavery in Alexandria and elsewhere in Northern Virginia.  As Stebbins explained to readers:

I always, from my earliest recollections, had a natural hatred for that Southern institution, but that hatred grows stronger and stronger, as I see the ignorance and immorality which follows in its train, and the desolated country, dilapidated towns and cities which might hum with industry, with the grass growing in their streets.  (Wellsboro Agitator, Mar. 26, 1862.)

Stebbins saw the slave pen in Alexandria, but the words would not come:  "I would describe it if I knew what to compare it to, but I do not, for nothing but a slave-pen can be compared to it."  (Wellsboro Agitator, Mar. 26, 1862.)

The Northern presence in Alexandria encouraged migration of all kinds.  Townsend commented on one such demographic shift:

The importation of Northern ladies. . . has not been calculated, thus far, to impress the Virginians with our social superiority.  There are about five hundred women in Alexandria, all of the migratory description, many of whom should have been camp vivandiers.  (Phila. Press, Mar. 28, 1862.)

When all was said and done, Townsend betrayed a sense of affection for the natives, or at least those of wealth and power:

The leading families have gone, and in many respects, Alexandria will miss them.  There was much of hospitality, ingenuousness, and real nobility about these Virginians.  (Phila. Press, Mar. 28, 1862.)

The war correspondent also expressed his hope for the future and his belief in Northern superiority:

With the ascendancy of the wild tribes of the North. . . a new era will dawn upon this beautiful, but neglected country.  I hope to see Pennsylvania barns and stack-houses upon these hills, and Yankee mills by all the steams.  (Phila. Press, Mar. 28, 1862.) 

Townsend and the solider-correspondents witnessed and wrote about the movement of the very army that could win a victory and bring peace to the land.  However the war would unfold in the coming months, they also captured the dramatic changes that had already arrived in Alexandria along with the Union Army.  Lucky for us, their articles survive to tell the story.

Sources

City of Alexandria/Alexandria Black History Museum, "Alexandria's African-American History" (web page); Civil War Washington, D.C., "Alexandria's Jail and Contrabands;" The Friends of Freedmen's Cemetery (website); Democratic Banner, Mar. 26, 1862; George B. McClellan, Report on the Organization and Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac (1864); Philadelphia Press, Mar. 20, 1862; Philadelphia Press, Mar. 28, 1862; Wellsboro Agitator, Mar. 26, 1862; Wellsboro Agitator, Apr. 9, 1862.

Military Reviews to Pass the Time: McDowell's Corps Waits in Alexandria

As I discussed in last Thursday's post, Federal commander George McClellan ordered the scattered elements of his army to concentrate at Alexandria in mid-March 1862.   Tens of thousands of men soon boarded transports at the city docks and headed down the Potomac, destined for the Peninsula and the advance on Richmond.  The soldiers in Gen. Irvin McDowell's First Corps, however, remained in camp near Alexandria as the rest of the army moved south.  McClellan had originally intended to send McDowell to the Peninsula first, but plans changed for logistical and strategic reasons.  Private A.F. Hill of the 8th Pennsylvania Reserves recalled the prevailing sentiment among many of his fellow soldiers:

Day after day passed away; troops were continually embarking, and still our turn did not come. Anxiously and impatiently did we await the order to go on board; for we wanted to be off for Dixie. All felt that some important movement was about to be made, and we were eager to begin active operations—to meet the rebels. (Hill 210.)

The days spent in camp presented the perfect opportunity for one of Little Mac's favorite pastimes.  On Tuesday afternoon, March 25, the entire First Corps -- three whole divisions -- assembled outside of Alexandria near Fairfax Seminary and Ft. Ward for a grand review.  The sights and sounds of such pageantry made quite an impression on many of the young men that day.  William Ray of the 7th Wisconsin observed that "[t]he whole country seemed to be alive, so great were the number of men of all grades and in all positions of modern warfare."  (Ray in Herdegen & Murphy 72.)  The review stirred a sense of pride and patriotism.  As Orren Stebbins, a Bucktail from George A. McCall's Pennsylvania Reserves, wrote to his hometown paper:

There were 45,000 in one solid mass, which looked like a moving forest of bayonetts [sic] -- they looked invincible, and I believe they are, when fighting for that which is dearer than life itself -- "Liberty and Union." (Wellsboro Agitator, Apr. 9, 1862.) 

The review also gave soldiers the opportunity to get a glimpse of McClellan himself.  In words reminiscent of a proclamation that Little Mac had recently issued to his men, Stebbins told the Agitator that "McClellan sat upon his fiery steed, and moved not, but watched every move as a father would watch the movements of his children."  (Wellsboro Agitator, Apr. 9, 1862.)*  All in all, the Bucktail felt that "I never saw but one thing surpassed it, and that was the grand review [at Bailey's Crossroads] last fall."  (Wellsboro Agitator, Apr. 9, 1862.)

Gen. Irvin McDowell with Gen. George McClellan, from The Photographic History of the Civil War in Ten Volumes, Vol. 1: The Opening Battles (courtesy of Wikipedia)

The day was not without a comedic moment.  An entourage of journalists followed a group of high-ranking Union officers as they rode past the assembled soldiers at the start of the review.   William Howard Russell of The London Times was an "awkward rider" and struggled to keep up.  (Ray in Herdegen & Murphy 72.)  According to Ray, Russell's poor horsemanship "caused a great deal of sport," and the men of the 7th Wisconsin "just hooted at him."  (Ray in Herdegen & Murphy 72.)

The grand review elicited a generally favorable reaction from the newspapers. A headline in the Philadelphia Press proclaimed, "A Magnificent Display."  (Phila. Press, Mar. 26, 1862.)  Betraying a sense of pride in McDowell's men, the New York Times reported that "[t]he troops never looked better."  Russell noted that British officers who attended the grand review had an "exceedingly favorable" impression of the event, "partly owing, perhaps, to the idea they had formed of this great volunteer army, and partly in consequence of the undeniably good physical properties of the troops."  (as reprinted in N.Y. Times, Apr. 30, 1862.)  Surely these soldiers were destined for great things in the name of the Union.

Lord Lyons, British Minister to the United States, 1858-65 (courtesy of Wikipedia)

Most of the men had little down time before the next big event.  McDowell decided to hold a review in honor of Lord Lyons, the British Minister to the United States.  On March 27, the corps commander hosted a lunch for the Minister and several British Army officers.  After the repast, Lord Lyons and the other dignitaries proceeded to the nearby parade ground outside of Alexandria.  Around two to three thousand spectators had gathered to watch the review, including "many carriages of ladies and several equestriennes."  (N.Y. Times, Mar. 28, 1862.)  McDowell's wife also attended.  Starting at 2:30, the divisions of Gen. William B. Franklin and Rufus King paraded before the dignitaries under a beautiful spring sky. (OR, 1:51:1, 64.)  Gen. McCall's Pennsylvanians, however, were not invited to attend the review.   According to Gen. George G. Meade, a brigade commander in McCall's division, McDowell claimed that "the ground was limited, and that he found it took too much time to review three divisions, and therefore he only ordered two on the ground." (Meade 254-55.)

Following the review, Lord Lyons and the other guests joined McDowell for tea, a most English of traditions.  By all accounts, the foreign guests were impressed with what they saw.  According to a glowing report in the Weekly Mariettian:

[T]hese gentlemen spoke in terms of unqualified approbation of the general appearance of the troops, not only in point of discipline, but of physique, and in addition, remarked that they had never seen a finer body of men in any army.  They also spoke in the highest terms of Gen. McDowell.  (Weekly Mariettian, Apr. 5, 1862.) 

Not everyone was so pleased with the review.  The Pennsylvania boys in McCall's division were still smarting from McDowell's decision to exclude them.  Meade wrote to his wife on March 28 that many of the Pennsylvanians had a sneaking suspicion that McDowell "did not consider them sufficiently presentable for his English friends."  (Meade 255.)  He elaborated on the reaction of McCall's men to the perceived slight and provided his own assessment of the Pennsylvanians in his division:

. . . some little feeling has been excited by [McDowell's] course, particularly as he has had the bad taste to come out to-day with an order extolling the troops for their yesterday's appearance, and announcing that the English officers pronounced them equal to any troops in the world. I was quite satisfied with the inspection of the appearance and movements of the men, that our Pennsylvania ragamuffins are fully equal to them, though in some few instances, like Phil Kearney's brigade (who had spent a mint of money on them), their uniforms were in rather better order. Our fellows console themselves with the reflection that the only troops in the First Army Corps that have beaten the enemy in a fair field, with equal numbers, are the Pennsylvania ragamuffins, whereas of the divisions deemed worthy to be presented to the Englishmen the greater portion were regiments who either did nothing or else behaved shamefully at Bull Run.  (Meade 255.)**

Secretary of Treasury Salmon P. Chase worried about the message that the spectacles were sending to a Northern public hungry for action against the Rebels.  He wrote to McDowell "as a true friend" not long after the March 25 review:

It grieves me to see the confidence of the country, which was revived by the late movement of the Army of the Potomac, already relapsing into distrust. Let me beg you to do all that is possible to inspire vigor and energy. Permit me also to suggest the expediency of having no more reviews. The country is in no mood to hear of anything, however useful and valuable in itself, which savors of show rather than action. Think how much is to be done and how near is midsummer.  (in Warden 422.)

Some of the men in McDowell's corps were also getting tired of the reviews and wanted nothing more than to join their fellow soldiers on the Peninsula.  John Chase of the 1st Massachusetts Light Artillery in Franklin's division told his brother about the recent spate of reviews in a March 29, 1862 letter.  As he wrote, "we have had Lord Lyons and all the rest of the great men to see us. . . ."  (in Collier & Collier 71.)  But Chase had already become jaded. The artilleryman was starting to "grow sick of this cleaning up carriages and harnesses and uniforms and I think if they dont [sic] want us to fight they had better send us home."  (in Collier & Collier 71.)  Unfortunately for Chase and others like him,  McDowell's men had a while to go before the Union Army would put them to good use against the Confederates.

Notes

*On March 14, 1862, McClellan issued a proclamation to the "Soldiers of the Army of the Potomac," in which he expressed his affection for the men under his command:

I am to watch over you as a parent over his children, and you know that your General loves you from the depths of his heart. It shall be my care -- it has ever been -- to gain success with the least possible loss. But I know that if it is necessary you will willingly follow me to our graves for our righteous cause.  (N.Y. Times, Mar. 16, 1862.)

**Meade's reference is to Dranesville, a battle won by soldiers from the Pennsylvania Reserves on December 20, 1861.

Sources

Russel Beatie, Army of the Potomac: McClellan's First Campaign, March-May 1862 (2007); John S. Collier & Bonnie B. Collier (eds.), Yours for the Union: The Civil War Letters of John W. Chase, First Massachusetts Light Artillery (2004); Lance Herdegen & Sherry Murphy (eds.), Four Years with The Iron Brigade: The Civil War Journal of William R. Ray, Company F, Seventh Wisconsin Volunteers (2002); A.F. Hill, Our Boys: The Personal Experiences of a Soldier in the Army of the Potomac (1864); George B. McClellan, Report on the Organization and Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac (1864); George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 1 (1913); New York Times, Mar. 26, 1862; N.Y. Times, Mar. 16, 1862; N.Y. Times, Mar. 28, 1862; N.Y. Times, Apr. 30, 1862; Official Records, 1:51:1, 63-64; Philadelphia Press, Mar. 26, 1862; Edmund J. Raus, Jr., Banners South: A Northern Community at War (2005); J.R. Sypher, History of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps (1865); Robert B. Warden, An Account of the Private Life and Public Services of Salmon Portland Chase (1874); Weekly Mariettian (Marietta, Pa.), Apr. 5, 1862; Wellsboro (Pa.) Agitator, Apr. 9, 1862.

A Mud March to Alexandria: McCall and Smith on the Move

As the middle of March 1862 approached, Union commander George McClellan faced the gargantuan task of transporting his Army of the Potomac to the Peninsula for the planned advance on Richmond.  His divisions, however, were scattered across Northern Virginia following an earlier march towards Centreville and Manssas.  McClellan now had to get these soldiers to Alexandria, Virginia, where they could board transports for Ft. Monroe.  Life was about to get very rough for the men in Little Mac's army.

The Pennsylvania Reserves Leave Hunter's Mills and Take a Detour in a Downpour

As I discussed in Tuesday's post, Gen. George McCall's Pennsylvania Reserves advanced on March 10 from Langley to Hunter's Mills.  On March 14, the general was directed to move his division "on the road towards Alexandria, and await orders" from the newly appointed First Corps commander, Gen. Irvin McDowell.  (Sypher 169.)  At that moment, it was unclear whether McCall would return to Camp Pierpont at Langley, or proceed to Alexandria.  Around six that evening, the men received orders to march.  They reacted with a mixture of curiosity and enthusiasm.  As Private A.F. Hill of the 8th Pennsylvania Reserves remembered:

. . . we hastily pulled down our miniature tents, each making one of the blankets fast to his knapsack—we were to carry them of course. It was rumored that we were to march to Alexandria, there to embark in steam transports, for parts to us unknown. Soon we were in line, soon in motion, directing our steps toward the Alexandria and Leesburg pike.  (Hill 204.)

As a light rain fell, the division crawled north along the road through Hunter's Mills.  The column stretched for about three miles.  A few soldiers "were left to fire the huts and guard the forage, and the great commissary wagons closed in behind the last battalions. . . ."  (Phila. Press, Mar. 17, 1862.)  Flames illuminated the night sky and helped to guide the advance.  After a few hours, the division turned right onto the Leesburg-Alexandria Turnpike and stopped in a "dense woods" around Powell's Mill (today's Colvin Run Mill) between eleven and midnight.  (Woodward, Third Pennsylvania, 65.)  The Pennsylvania boys started camp fires despite the rain and attempted to get a night's rest.

The morning of the fifteenth brought even more miserable conditions.  The rain continued to fall, and to make matters worse, the Confederates had previously destroyed the bridge over Difficult Run, and the creek was unfordable due to the recent spate of inclement weather.  McCall was forced to turn off the pike and march seven miles to the Leesburg-Georgetown Turnpike, where he could cross Difficult Run and send for instructions from McDowell.  Once on the pike to Georgetown, McCall felt that the rains had made continued marching next to impossible, and he asked McDowell for permission to bivouac on the spot, or at least return to the division's old camp in Langley, only four miles away.  McDowell rejected the suggestion, and ordered McCall to "march without delay to Alexandria, with infantry and artillery, and prepare to embark [for the Peninsula] immediately."  (Sypher 170.)  McCall was likely unhappy with McDowell's decision, but had no choice but to obey orders and march the remaining twelve miles to Alexandria.

The division now moved south through low-lying country to re-connect with the Alexandria pike.  As Evan Woodward of the 2nd Pennsylvania Reserves described the remainder of the dismal march that day:

The rain by this time was falling in torrents, flooding the swampy ground, making the marching most tiresome and fatiguing. Soon the ranks were broken, the men scattering, plunging through the mud, and toiling under their knapsacks, made doubly heavy by their blankets and overcoats becoming saturated with water. Soon they commenced dropping out, and laid scattered through the woods for miles. (Woodward 85-86.)

Hill also recalled that "the mud became deep, and the marching was both unpleasant and laborious; a cold wind-was blowing; our clothes became saturated, our shoes were filled with mud." (Hill 204.)  The division reached the Leesburg-Alexandria Turnpike, but the men had dealt with enough for one day.  According to  J.R. Sypher's classic history of the Pennsylvania Reserves, McCall halted his tired men near Falls Church and told McDowell that his division could go no farther that day.  A journal maintained at McDowell's headquarters, however, indicates that "McCall was ordered to encamp where he was, beyond Falls Church, he having got into the mud."  (OR, 1:51:1, 62.)  Whoever was responsible for the respite, the Pennsylvania troops were surely thankful. 

Fairfax Seminary, near Alexandria, Virginia (courtesy of Library of Congress).

At Falls Church, the soldiers combated the rain and managed to start fires "[a]fter much patient labor."  (Woodward, Our Campaigns, 86.)  Woodward recalled the misery in camp that night: ". . . such was the violence of the storm, that it was impossible to put up our tents, the most of the men spending the night in cutting wood and standing around the fires."  (Woodward, Our Campaigns, 86.)  Hill decided he could not bare another uncomfortable night attempting to sleep in the rain.  He walked the remainder of the way to Alexandria along with a few Bucktails from his division.  In Alexandria, the public buildings were open to the soldiers, and Hill found a warm spot on the floor inside a building near the post office.

McCall's men resumed the march at ten on the morning of the sixteenth.  By this time, the weather had improved somewhat from the day before.  As they moved down the pike, the soldiers tramped past "a long line of fortifications erected at different times by the Union and Confederate troops."  (Woodward, Our Campaigns, 86.) 

The division finally halted near the Fairfax Seminary (current-day Virginia Theological Seminary) outside of Alexandria, where the men discovered that they would not be embarking anytime soon.  The soldiers became angry with McCall and "complained of the hard treatment."  (Sypher 171.)  McCall himself "put on record the fact, that this was the only occasion on which the Pennsylvania Reserves, while under his command, complained of the severity of any duties they were required to perform." (Sypher 171.)  Many of the men must certainly have shared Gen. George Meade's sentiment.  As the commander of the Second Brigade wrote to his wife a few days after arriving in Alexandria: "I do not think I have ever seen a much harder march than the one from Hunter's Mills to this place."  (Meade 252.)

"Baldy" Smith's Men Brave the Elements on the Way to Alexandria

Smith's division, including the Vermont Brigade, was encamped at Flint Hill, a few miles north of Fairfax Court House, when orders came to march at six on Saturday morning, March 15.  As the soldiers set out and approached Fairfax, the skies opened.  Just like the Pennsylvania Reserves, the troops in Smith's command were forced to contend with torrential downpours and muddy ground.  The division advanced slowly along the Little River Turnpike towards Alexandria.  Some of the men began to fall out, and officers tried to help weaker soldiers carry their knapsacks or rifles.  All the regiments of the Vermont Brigade, with the exception of the 2nd Vermont, had never experienced such a difficult march.  (in Zeller 58.)  

After about twenty arduous miles, the division finally reached the outskirts of Alexandria and set up camp in a pine woods.  As Corporal Dan Mason of the 6th Vermont recalled in a letter to his fiancee:

I was wet through long before we halted. About the time we stopped it rained harder than ever. My boots were full of water & I felt cold & chilly. Others were in as bad or even worse condition than I was.  Some were inclined to curl up by a tree. They did not seem to care whether they lived or died. (Ltr., Mason to Fiancee, Mar. 31, 1862) (minor corrections made to punctuation/capitalization)

The soldiers lit fires to stay warm and attempted to sleep.  The next morning, steam was literally rising from their saturated bodies.  The men soon learned the disappointing news that their transports were not yet ready.  The movement to the Peninsula would have to wait.  The Vermont Brigade marched about four miles to Cloud's Mill (current-day West End area of Alexandria).  There the soldiers established what they nicknamed "Camp Hard Crackers." 

Detail of 1862 Union Army map of Northeastern Virginia showing the approximate location of McCall's camp at the Fairfax Seminary and Smith's camp at Cloud's Mill (courtesy of Library of Congress)

Smith's division spent several days in camp around Alexandria. Surgeon Alfred Castleman of the 5th Wisconsin worried that his regiment was staying put:

We are sending to Washington for our tents. Our General Smith is building stables, and it looks as if we were again settling down. What does it mean ? Is there another change of programme ? And are we not to embark after all?  (Castleman, entry for Mar. 17, 1862, 100.)

But Castleman's concerns were misplaced.  On March 23, the 13,000 men of Smith's division marched to the Alexandria waterfront with great fanfare and boarded transports to take them down the Potomac to the Chesapeake and Ft. Monroe.

McCall's men, meanwhile, eagerly waited for orders at their camp around the seminary.  McClellan originally intended to move McDowell's corps en masse before any of the other corps.  The transports were slow to arrive, however, so McClellan switched plans.  He sent the other corps by division "as fast as transports arrived" and "determined to hold the 1st corps to the last, and land it as a unit whenever the state of affairs promised the best results."  (McClellan, Own Story, 254, 256.) 

McCall's men learned of yet another change of plans within a few weeks.  At the start of April, President Lincoln decided to hold back the First Corps for the defenses of Washington.  The Pennsylvania Reserves would ultimately be sent to reinforce McClellan in June 1862.  The hard march in the rain and mud to Alexandria had amounted to a whole lot of hurry up and wait.  But those days would pale in comparison to what was in store for the Pennsylvania Reserves once they got to the Peninsula.

Sources:

Russel Beatie, Army of the Potomac: McClellan's First Campaign, March-May 1862 (2007); George Grenville Benedict, Vermont in the Civil War, Vol. 1, (1886); Alfred I. Castleman, Army of the Potomac: Behind the Scenes, A Diary of Unwritten History (1863); M.D. Hardin, History of the Twelfth Regiment Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteer Corps (1890); A.F. Hill, Our Boys: The Personal Experiences of a Soldier in the Army of the Potomac (1864); George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 1 (1913); George B. McClellan, McClellan's Own Story (1887); Philadelphia Press, March 17, 1862; Stephen W. Sears, To the Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign (1992); J.R. Sypher, History of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps (1865); O.R. Howard Thomson & William H. Rauch, History of the "Bucktails" (1906); Vermont Historical Society, On-Line Collection of Letters of Dan Mason; Paul G. Zeller, The Second Vermont Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 1861-1865 (2002); Edward Morrison Woodward, History of the Third Pennsylvania Reserve (1883); Edward Morrison Woodward, Our Campaigns (1865).

Camp Life at Hunter's Mills and Flint Hill

As I wrote in my last post, divisions under George McCall and "Baldy" Smith left their winter camps on March 10, 1862 and advanced towards Centreville. The soldiers were excited at the prospect of beating Joseph Johnston's Confederates, who had just evacuated their lines around Centreville and Manassas.  By noon, Smith's men had reached the area around Flint Hill, where they stayed for night.  McCall's division, meanwhile, stopped in the neighborhood of Hunter's Mills that same evening. 

Federal commander George McClellan was about to disappoint his men.  The Union soldiers encamped at Hunter's Mills, Flint Hill, and elsewhere soon learned that Johnston had withdrawn beyond the reach of the Army of the Potomac and that McClellan had halted their advance.  As Gen. George G. Meade, commander of McCall's Second Brigade told his wife, "the prospects of another Bull Run battle are much dissipated, unless [the Confederates] have, as the French say, only reculer pour mieux sauter."  (Meade 251.)*  Private A.F. Hill of the 8th Pennsylvania Reserves remembered that when his regiment got the news, "[w]e didn't half like it, for we had hoped to assist [the enemy] in leaving" Centreville and Manassas.  (Hill 204.)  Smith and McCall would now stay put until further orders.**

View of the neighborhood of Hunter's Mills as shown on an 1862 Union Army map of Northeastern Virginia (courtesy of Library of Congress).  The main road through the area (current-day Hunter Mill Road) linked the Leesburg-Alexandria Turnpike with Flint Hill and Fairfax Court House to the south.  The Alexandria, Loudoun, & Hampshire Railroad (present-day Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail) intersected the road to the north of Difficult Run.  The three brigades of the Pennsylvania Reserves encamped on land surrounding Hunter's Mills.  The soldiers dubbed the camp "Smoky Hollow."  (Sypher 168.) 

Intersection of Hunter Mill Road and the W&OD Trail (Alexandria, Loudoun, & Hampshire Railroad at the time of the war).  The crossroads is located in the center of the 1862 map, above.  Generals McCall, Meade, and E.O.C. Ord had their headquarters to the north of this intersection, and Gen. John F. Reynolds located his headquarters to the south. 

While at Hunter's Mills and Flint Hill, the soldiers received shelter tents for the first time. Each man was issued half a tent, which was attached with buttons to a half belonging to another soldier. Sticks or rifles were used as poles. Corporal Dan Mason of the 6th Vermont, part of the Vermont Brigade, welcomed the protection that the tents provided against the wet March weather. He told his fiancee that "they make quite a comfortable shelter to crawl under in a climate like this." (Ltr., Mason to Fiancee, Mar. 31, 1862.) Most soldiers would have begged to differ. According to a history of the Pennsylvania Reserves, "[t]he men, accustomed to the comfortable tents and huts at Camp Pierpont, received the shelter tents with much dissatisfaction." (Sypher 169.) The soldiers nicknamed the tents "dog houses." (Sypher 169.)  Private Wilbur Fisk of the 2nd Vermont, derisively called the shelter tent a "hencoop with the ends open." (in Zeller 56.) Hill remembered his own experience with the newfangled tents while at Hunter's Mills:

. . . it rained most mercilessly; which rain, aided by a brisk wind, succeeded in entering our frail abode in torrents, drenching us completely. March rains are no delicacy, even in the sunny South; so we huddled together within our narrow house, bumping each other's heads, knocking each other's caps off, and looking very glum. The fact is, these tentblankets, as described, do not constitute a very spacious apartment. (Hill 203.)

Historical marker commemorating the camp of the Pennsylvania Reserves at Hunter's Mills.  This marker is located to the right of the above intersection.  For more information, see the entry on the Historical Marker Database.

During the march from camp, some of the Pennsylvania Reserves had "foraged quite liberally" from the farms along the way.  (Sypher 168.)  The men stole chicken, milk, and whatever other provisions they could find.  At Hunter's Mills, orders were issued to prohibit foraging, and the Reserves stationed guards to prevent soldiers from leaving camps.  Over at Flint Hill, Private Fisk of the 2nd Vermont recalled that "orders at dress parade gave us to understand that stealing, plundering private dwellings, house burning, and such unsoldierlike depredations would be visited by severe and speedy punishment."  (in Zeller 57.)  The efforts at combating foraging were not altogether successful. As the Philadelphia Press reported, "all the pigs and chickens had mysteriously disappeared from the barnyards" within a few days of the Pennsylvania Reserves' arrival.  (Phila. Press, Mar. 17, 1862.) 

The "Old Miller's Home" located on a rise next to Hunter Mill Road. This house, now on private property, served as brigade headquarters for Gen. Meade in March 1862.  The left side of the house dates to the 18th century.  On March 11, Meade wrote to this wife: "I have been in the saddle all day, posting troops and pickets, and making all the preparations to meet the enemy, though, from the reports in existence and believed, there is not much probability of his showing himself about here ."  (Meade 251.)

Detail of 1862 Union Army map of Northeastern Virginia showing the area around Flint Hill where Smith's division set up camp (courtesy of Library of Congress).  Hunter's Mills sits roughly a half dozen miles to the north of Flint Hill.  The road from Flint Hill led to Fairfax Court House, where McClellan established his headquarters.

Overall, the Pennsyvlanians' stay at Hunter's Mills had a dramatic impact on the neighborhood and the civilians living there.  Correspondent George Alfred Townsend of the Press told readers that "[a] few nights' occupation, by an army, changes the whole appearance of a country."  (Phila. Press, Mar. 17, 1862.)  He observed:

The quartermasters here, for instance, have already opened up new roads and parts of roads to avoid quagmires or steep hills; the timber is cut away for acres; huts and structures of brush dot the bleak summits and slopes; and the untenanted houses are being despoiled for purposes of fuel, and all the fences are torn up. (Phila. Press, Mar. 17, 1862.)   

News of the Union Army's presence spread throughout the region, and contraband slaves began to "arrive hourly."  (Phila. Press, Mar. 17, 1862.) 

Prior to the arrival of the Reserves,  Confederate pickets and scouts populated the area around Hunter's Mills.  Some of these Confederates returned, "either by accident or design."  (Phila. Press, Mar. 17, 1862.)   The Pennsylvanians arrested them, or "compelled" them to take an oath of allegiance to the Union.  (Phila. Press, Mar. 17, 1862.)  At least in one instance, a Confederate scout was spotted and shot dead by Union soldiers.  The Pennsylvanian troops cheered upon learning the news.  As Townsend later described the scene, "[t]housands of brave men were shouting the requiem of one paltry life."  (Townsend 31.)

On March 13, McClellan rode from his field headquarters at Fairfax Court House to Flint Hill, where he conducted a review of Smith's division.  As surgeon Alfred Castleman of the 5th Wisconsin wrote in his diary, about 10,000 men gathered on "a large plain" for the event.  (Castleman 97.)  He considered the review "the most beautiful. . . that I ever beheld."  (Castleman 97.)  Private Fisk walked away inspired, writing that McClellan's "very looks. . . are sufficient to enkindle a spirit of energy and bravery in the hearts of the troops under his command."  (in Zeller 57.)  McClellan reported that night to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton that he found Smith's division "in admirable condition and spirits."  (OR, 1:5, 751.)

While in camp, both McCall and Smith got new bosses.  On March 8, 1862, President Lincoln had ordered McClellan to organize five army corps with the men under his command.  McClellan protested to Secretary Stanton that the imminent march on Centreville prevented him from effectively carrying out the President's order.  Stanton relented.  On March 13, when the dust had finally settled on the movement towards Centreville, McClellan issued General Orders No. 101, which assigned his separate divisions to five army corps.  McCall's division was placed with Gen. Irvin McDowell's First Corps, while Smith's division was placed in the Fourth Corps under Gen. Erasmus Keyes.  (McClellan, Report, 58-59.)

McClellan was also busy plotting his next move.  On March 13, the general's new corps commanders endorsed his revised plan to advance on Richmond by way of the Peninsula between the York and James Rivers.  (OR, 1:5, 55-56.)  The soldiers encamped at Hunter's Mills and Flint Hill would soon be on the march again.

Notes

*This phrase can best be translated as "to give way a little in order to take up a stronger position."
**Based on sources used in compiling this post, it is unclear how much the Union troops initially knew about the advance and Johnston's retreat.  When McClellan ordered his divisions forward on March 10, he had received intelligence that Johnston was withdrawing from Centreville.  However, enlisted men may have known little of what was happening, other than that they were apparently on their way to meet the enemy.  High-level officers like Meade presumably had more knowledge of the situation, but even Meade's letter of March 11 to his wife indicates a degree of surprise that a battle was unlikely.

Sources

A special thanks to historian Jim Lewis of the Hunter Mill Defense League (HMDL).  Jim was kind enough to show me around the Hunter Mill Road corridor a couple weeks ago and to discuss the history of the Union encampments in the area with me.  The HMDL does excellent work and has produced a guidebook and documentary about the Civil War history of Hunter Mill Road.  Jim also conducts the popular Hunter Mill Road Corridor History Tour.  The HMDL played a key role in the installation of several historical markers in the Hunter Mill road area, including the one pictured above.  For more information about the HMDL, click here.

The following sources were useful in writing this post:

Russel Beatie, Army of the Potomac: McClellan's First Campaign, March-May 1862 (2007); George Grenville Benedict, Vermont in the Civil War, Vol. 1, (1886); Alfred I. Castleman, Army of the Potomac: Behind the Scenes, A Diary of Unwritten History (1863); M.D. Hardin, History of the Twelfth Regiment Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteer Corps (1890); A.F. Hill, Our Boys: The Personal Experiences of a Soldier in the Army of the Potomac (1864); James G. Lewis, Jr., Hunter Mill Road Civil War Self-Guided Tour (2008); George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 1 (1913); George B. McClellan, McClellan's Own Story (1887); George B. McClellan, Report on the Organization and Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac (1864); Philadelphia Press, March 17, 1862; Stephen W. Sears, To the Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign (1992); J.R. Sypher, History of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps (1865); O.R. Howard Thomson & William H. Rauch, History of the "Bucktails" (1906); George Alfred Townsend, Campaigns of a Non-Combatant (1866); Vermont Historical Society, On-Line Collection of Letters of Dan Mason; Paul G. Zeller, The Second Vermont Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 1861-1865 (2002).

Good Bye to Camps Pierpont and Griffin: The Union Army Moves Out

As frequent readers of this blog are aware, I have devoted considerable attention to the Union Army camps that were established near Langley and Lewinsville, Virginia in October 1861.  After all, I live near the very area in present-day McLean where thousands of blue clad troops spent the first winter of the Civil War.  Camp Griffin served as the base for Gen. William "Baldy" Smith's division, including the famous Vermont Brigade.  The Pennsylvania Reserves under Gen. George A. McCall considered Camp Pierpont their home.

This week marks a 150th anniversary that pales in comparison to the Battle of Pea Ridge and the clash of the ironclads in Hampton Roads.  However, in my quiet little corner of the Civil War universe, the Union Army bid farewell to Lewinsville and Langley.  The units encamped here went on to participate in the storied history of the Army of the Potomac, and many became famous in their own right.  But it was at Camps Pierpont and Griffin that they drilled, paraded, and otherwise prepared for the campaigns ahead.

As I wrote in my last post, Confederate Gen. Joseph Johnston withdrew his army from Centreville and Manassas on March 9, 1862.  Word of the evacuation soon reached Union commander George McClellan in Washington.  That night he issued a general order for the divisions of his army to advance towards Manassas and Centreville.  In the first instance, the commander felt that he "might be able to take advantage of some accident and bring Johnston to battle under favorable circumstances."  (McClellan, Own Story, 222.)  However, recognizing that Johnston may have escaped altogether, McClellan felt that he could also use the advance to "break up the camps, give the troops a little experience in marching and bivouac before finally leaving the old base of supplies, to test the transportation arrangements and get rid of impedimenta, and thus prepare things" for his upcoming campaign.  (McClellan, Own Story, 222.)   As an added bonus, the movement could possibly throw Johnston into a state of confusion about the Union Army's true intentions.

The Vermont Brigade at Camp Griffin learned at midnight that they were to march at three in the morning on March 10.  The men were directed to prepare two days' rations.  The news of an advance "was received with cheers and rejoicing throughout the brigade."  (Benedict 241.)  The Vermonters were finally striking camp, and many soldiers became excited at the thought that they might soon have a chance to fight and defeat the Rebels.  The men raced to ready their knapsacks for the march. They also set fire to equipment and supplies that they could not easily take with them.  Some soldiers even dashed off letters to loved ones back home. 

Camp of the 3rd Vermont at Camp Griffin, Lewinsville, Virginia, by George Houghton (courtesy of Vermont Historical Society)

The brigade assembled with the rest of the division in a large field and set out in a "drizzling rain" at sunrise.  (Benedict 241.)   The snaking column of Smith's division moved through Lewinsville and continued southwest to Vienna, site of an early skirmish in 1861.  The men walked mainly on the side of the road to make way for wagon trains that accompanied the division.  Corporal Dan Mason of the 6th Vermont felt that the rain "made it muddy & hard walking."  (Ltr., Mason to Fiancee, Mar. 31, 1862.)  After a march of around ten miles, the division was halted north of Fairfax Court House at Flint Hill (present-day Oakton).  As the minutes turned into hours, the soldier surely began to wonder what was happening.  Near the end of the day, the Vermont boys heard "a whispered rumor that there was no enemy in front to be attacked."  (Benedict 241-42.)  Disappointed in the news, the men prepared to spend the night at Flint Hill.

The Pennsylvania Reserves at Camp Pierpont received the orders to march around midday on March 10.  As Private A.F. Hill of the 8th Pennsylvania Reserves recalled:

Instantly all was bustle and excitement. Coffee-pots were kicked over; a few extra provisions were thrust into haversacks; knapsacks were hurriedly packed, and in fifteen minutes the regiment was formed. . . .  (Hill 200).

The Bucktail regiment also "broke camp in good spirits."  (Thomson & Rauch 89.)  Just like the Vermonters who had left Camp Griffin that morning, the Pennsylvania boys hoped that they were on their way to fight the enemy. 

McCall's division left Langley around 1 p.m.  As Hill described the departure of the 8th Pennsylvania Reserves, "[t]he band struck up a favorite air, we moved as one man, and uttering one wild farewell cheer, we marched from Camp Pierpont—forever."  (Hill 200.)  The soldiers moved along the Leesburg-Georgetown Turnpike in the direction of Dranesville, a place where many of them had fought the previous December.  The rain soon gave way to clearer weather.  Hill observed that due to the rough conditions of the march, "many extra great-coats, many blankets, and much superfluous clothing were abandoned by the way—left lying at the road-side."  (Hill 201.)

The division continued across Difficult Run.  Around three miles from Dranesville, the men turned left onto a smaller road through the woods and crossed the Leesburg-Alexandria Turnpike.  Around eight that night, the Pennsylvania Reserves entered the neighborhood of Hunter's Mills (current-day Hunter Mill Road area of Reston), north of Fairfax Court House.  The men had marched around fifteen to eighteen miles since setting out.  As one Bucktail told to a local newspaper a few days later, "[t]his was one of the hardest marches for a short one, that we ever had, and it was worse because we had been confined in camp so long. . . ."  (Wellsboro Agitator, Mar. 19, 1862.)   The division was halted, and the men bivouacked for the night in the cold and damp weather.

Meanwhile, other elements of the Union Army had reached Centreville and Manassas and found that Johnston was long gone.  McClellan considered that "it was now evident, from the information received, that it would be impossible to reach the enemy within a reasonable distance from Washington."  (McClellan, Own Story, 224.)  The commanding general therefore decided to keep his divisions where they stood and returned to planning for his upcoming campaign.   The men sleeping at Flint Hill and Hunter's Mills would have to wait a while longer before they had the chance to beat Joe Johnston.

Up Next:  Life in the camps at Hunter's Mills and Flint Hill.

Sources
Russel Beatie, Army of the Potomac: McClellan's First Campaign, March-May 1862 (2007); George Grenville Benedict, Vermont in the Civil War, Vol. 1, (1886);  M.D. Hardin, History of the Twelfth Regiment Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteer Corps (1890); A.F. Hill, Our Boys: The Personal Experiences of a Soldier in the Army of the Potomac (1864); George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 1 (1913); George B. McClellan, McClellan's Own Story (1887); George B. McClellan, Report on the Organization and Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac (1864); Stephen W. Sears, To the Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign (1992); J.R. Sypher, History of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps (1865); O.R. Howard Thomson & William H. Rauch, History of the "Bucktails" (1906); Vermont Historical Society, On-Line Collection of Letters of Dan Mason; Wellsboro Agitator, March 18, 1862; Paul G. Zeller, The Second Vermont Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 1861-1865 (2002).

Farewell to Centreville: Johnston Takes the Army South

Last week I examined the extensive preparations that Gen. Joseph Johnston made to evacuate the Confederate lines around Centreville.  Concerned about enemy activity in the region, and facing a multitude of logistical challenges, Johnston began to transport supplies to Gordonsville on February 22, 1862.  His efforts continued into March.  Johnston was consumed with worry that he might not be able to pull it all off before Gen. George McClellan had the opportunity to strike first, and he made sure that President Jefferson Davis heard about the numerous difficulties that plagued his every move.

Johnston Finally Issues the Order to Withdraw

On March 5, Johnston got word of increased Union activity across the Potomac from Gen. W.H.C. Whiting's division at Dumfries.  This was all that Johnston needed to hear.  The cautious general was convinced that a Union attempt to turn his right flank was a real and imminent possibility.  (In fact, Confederate scouts had merely picked up on movement associated with an aborted plan to attack the Confederate batteries blockading the lower Potomac.) Johnston issued orders for the army to withdraw from Northern Virginia.  As for any stores remaining in Manassas and elsewhere, the commander felt that "the space of fifteen days was time enough in which to subordinate an army to the Commissary Department."  (Johnston, B&L, 257.) 

Johnston directed Whiting to fall back to Fredericksburg on the morning of March 7.  D.H. Hill was to take his brigade from Leesburg on the same day and move south of the Rappahannock River.  The four divisions encamped around Centreville received orders to withdraw on the morning of Saturday, March 8.  Given the large amount of supplies remaining at Manassas Junction, Johnston decided to delay the evacuation so that the army had a little more time to collect as much as possible from the depots before moving out.  The baggage trains were sent ahead of the divisions, and on Sunday evening, March 9, the divisions finally got underway and slipped into the night.  (OR, 1:5, 526-27; Johnston, Narrative, 102-03.)

Despite Johnston's efforts, a large amount of provisions and other supplies remained at Manassas.  The soldiers were given permission to take what they could carry as they moved through the railroad junction.  Many soldiers helped themselves to food and whiskey for the long march ahead.  Civilians were also invited to come in and take what they could before the remainder was destroyed.  

The Confederates Move Out and "Little Mac" Moves In

The divisions of James Longstreet and G.W. Smith moved southwest along the Warrenton Turnpike, while divisions under Richard Ewell and Jubal Early followed the Orange & Alexandria Railroad.  Longstreet's division alone stretched "4 or 5 miles," and the wagon train "was at least three miles in length."  (in Cutrer 82.)

Johnston dispatched Jeb Stuart's cavalry to screen the retreat and act as a rear guard.  The troopers made sure that nothing at Manassas remained for the Union Army.  They wasted no time in torching the storehouses and other railroad buildings.  Tom Goree, an aide to Longstreet, wrote home about the losses:

You can form no idea of the amount of stores, etc. that could not be moved back, and which it was necessary to destroy, not only public but private stores.  There was at least one million dollars worth of heavy baggage belonging to the soldiers which it was impossible to get away.

We burned several thousand barrels of flour, a great deal of corn, hay, etc., and at least one million pounds of bacon. . . . (in Cutrer 81.)

Trooper William Blackford, who played a role in destroying the remaining supplies, remembered that "the smell of fried bacon was wafted for twenty miles."  (Blackford 60.)  Private Edgar Warfield of the 17th Virginia spoke for many men when he lamented that "[o]ur regiment, although it could ill afford the loss, had to give up most of its baggage."  (Warfield 67.)

"Bull Run, Virginia. Ruins of Stone Bridge," by George Barnard, March 1862 (courtesy of Library of Congress).  Barnard and James Gibson, who worked for Matthew Brady's studio in Washington, headed to Manassas and Centreville following the Confederate evacuation.  The two men and their assistants have left a priceless photographic record of the destruction associated with the withdrawal.

"Centreville, Virginia. Quaker Gun," by George Barnard, March 1862 (courtesy of Library of Congress).  Union forces occupying Centreville after the retreat found that the Confederates had armed some fortifications with wooden cannon.  The story of the so-called "Quaker guns" reached the Northern papers and proved an embarrassment to McClellan.

The Confederate losses were not confined to Centreville and Manassas.  Johnston destroyed a meat packing establishment at Thoroughfare Gap whose existence had given him a bit of heartburn as he prepared to evacuate.  The Confederates also blew up the Stone Bridge at Bull Run to delay any Yankees who dared to pursue.  Most significantly, Johnston was forced to abandon the heavy artillery along the lower Potomac.  Many of the guns were destroyed by the retreating Confederates, although the Union Army later managed to salvage some of the pieces.

"Manassas, Va. Orange and Alexandria Railroad Wrecked by Retreating Confederates," by George Barnard & James Gibson (courtesy of Library of Congress).  According to photographer Alexander Gardner, the Confederates burned a railroad bridge south of Manassas before two trains were moved to safety.  The Confederates set fire to the trains, and only six cars survived.  This photograph shows one of the damaged locomotives, as well as the remaining cars.   Ruins of various buildings are visible to the left.

Before long, McClellan received news about an alleged Confederate withdrawal and ordered the Army of the Potomac to advance.  Johnston, however, was long gone when the Union Army entered Centreville and Manassas on March 10.  The New York Times reported that the junction "presented a scene of the utmost desolation, a mass of charred and blackened ruins."  (N.Y. Times, March 12, 1862.)  Burned railcars smoldered on the tracks.  Union soldiers found abandoned knives, sabers, clothing, tents, and other equipment.  The Philadelphia Press observed that "[b]etween Centreville and Manassas the road was strewn with hundreds of dead horses, who had evidently died of starvation."  (Phila. Press, March 13, 1862.)  The Confederates were soon replaced by fugitive slaves, who fled in "droves" to the newly established Union lines around Manassas. (N.Y. Times, March 12, 1862.)

Johnston Surprises President Davis

As Union troops occupied Manassas, Johnston's men continued their march unmolested.  Goree told his mother that "we had a great deal of bad weather," but at least the men experienced "very little sickness."  (in Cutrer 82.)  The four divisions that had set out from Centreville finally crossed the Rappahannock on March 11.  Longstreet and Smith pushed on to Culpeper Court House, while Ewell and Early set up camp close to the river on either side of the O&A Railroad.  (Johnston, Narrative, 103-04.)

On March 13, Johnston finally informed Davis of the withdrawal of his army from Centreville.  Perhaps Johnston's tardiness in reporting the date of the evacuation stemmed from his fears about a leak, but his behavior also smacks of passive-aggressiveness.  The news took the Confederate President by surprise.  In fact, on the very day after the evacuation, he had written to Johnston that reinforcements were on the way.  (OR, 1:5, 1096.)  Davis appeared particularly upset by the abandonment of supplies:

'Tis true I have many of alarming reports of great destruction of ammunition, camp equipage, and provisions, indicating precipitate retreat; but, having heard of no cause of such a sudden movement, I was at a loss to believe it. (OR, 1:5, 527.)

Johnston refused to shoulder any of the blame for the supplies that he left behind.  After all, he had warned Richmond about stockpiling massive amounts of provisions at the front.  When all was said and done, out of more than 5 million pounds of provisions, "[a]bout one million pounds . . . was abandoned, and half as much more was spoiled for want of shelter."  (Johnston, B&L, 257.)   In any event, the Confederate government had "collected immediately on the frontier five times the quantity of provisions wanted" and was "responsible for the losses." (Johnston, B&L, 257.)  Goree privately agreed, writing on March 23, 1862 that "the authorities at Richmond are to blame for permitting such a vast amount of stores to accumulate upon us," despite Johnston's protests "time and again."  (in Cutrer 82.)

The Confederate Army's adventures around Washington were finished for now.  At one time, the lines had extended all the way to Munson's Hill, where the advanced outposts could see the unfinished dome of the Capitol.  Johnston pulled his men back once, and then again, where they settled down for a long winter in Centreville.  As spring approached, Johnston left the region altogether, and prepared to defend Richmond from a more feasible location.  The ball was now in Little Mac's court.

Sources
George B. Abdill, Civil War Railroads: A Pictorial Story of the War Between the States, 1861-1865 (1999 ed.); Gary E. Aldeman, Manassas Battlefield Then & Now: Historic Photography at Bull Run (2011); Russel Beatie, Army of the Potomac: McClellan's First Campaign, March-May 1862 (2007); W.W. Blackford, War Years with Jeb Stuart (1993); Thomas W. Cutrer, Longstreet's Aide: The Civil War Letters of Major Thomas H. Goree (1995); Jubal A. Early, Autobiographical Sketch and Narrative of the War Between the States (1912); Joseph E. Johnston, Narrative of Military Operations (1874); Joseph E. Johnston, "Responsibilities of the First Bull Run," Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. 1 (1887); New York Times, March 12, 1862; Philadelphia Press, March 13, 1862; Philadelphia Press, March 14, 1862; Philadelphia Press, March 17, 1862; Stephen W. Sears, To the Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign (1992); Craig L. Symonds, Joseph E. Johnston: A Civil War Biography (1992); Edgar Warfield, Manassas to Appomattox (1996): Jeffry Wert, General James Longstreet: The Confederacy's Most Controversial Soldier (1993); Mary Alice Wills, The Confederate Blockade of Washington, D.C., 1861-1862 (1975).