Friendly Fire Episodes at Dranesville

As students of the Civil War know, friendly fire-related incidents sometimes occurred during the heat and confusion of battle, often with tragic consequences.  One of the more infamous episodes involved the shooting of "Stonewall" Jackson by his own men during the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863.  But battle histories are replete with other, lesser-known examples.  While researching the Battle of Dranesville, I recently came across a few tales related to friendly fire.

Battle flag of the 1st Kentucky (courtesy of Sand Hill Flag Co.)

As J.E.B. Stuart prepared to attack the Union force under General E.O.C. Ord which had entered Dranesville on December 20, 1861, he sent forward the 1st Kentucky and the 6th South Carolina to the left of the Centreville Road.  According to Stuart in his official report of the battle:

The thicket where the Sixth South Carolina and First Kentucky operated was so dense that it was impossible to see either [their] exact position or their progress in the fight, and I regret to say that the First Kentucky and the Sixth South Carolina mistook each other for the enemy, and a few casualties occurred in consequence. . . .

Colonel Conrad F. Jackson, commander of the 9th Pennsylvania Reserves (courtesy of the Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteer Corps Historical Society)

(Stuart's report does not mention the exact number of dead and wounded as a result of this friendly fire incident, but according to The Glories of War by Charles P. Poland, Jr., the 1st Kentucky killed five men of the 6th South Carolina.)  The 1st Kentucky, recovering from this unfortunate encounter, pressed forward into the fight.  Meanwhile, Ord had dispatched the 9th Pennsylvania Reserves south of the Leesburg and Alexandria Turnpike on the Union right.  Before long, Colonel Conrad F. Jackson heard movement in the underbrush and ordered the 9th Pennsylvania into position.  According to a letter to the Pittsburgh Gazette from an unknown soldier of Company A (Pittsburgh Rifles), 9th Pennsylvania Reserves, some men called out "Who are You?," to which the Confederate troops responded, "The 1st Kentucky Regiment."  Other Pennsylvanians heard something else.  As Colonel Jackson recounted:

One of the enemy called out, "Don't fire on us." One of my men imprudently asked, "Are you the Bucktails?" The answer was, "Yes, we are the Bucktails; don't fire."

The unknown soldier recalled that the Kentuckians also shouted "For God's sake don't fire we are your friends."  This deception strengthened the impression for some soldiers that the men in front of them were fellow Pennsylvanians from the Bucktail regiment.  Jackson soon heard from another officer that "the troops opposite were the Bucktails."  Concern over accidentally opening fire on Union soldiers overcame Jackson.  He wrote:

Determined to avoid falling into the fatal error of killing our own men, I at once used all my energy to prevent firing, nor did we fire until after we had received a volley from the enemy, as they proved to be. We received their first fire as Captain Galway was in the act of reporting that he had obtained a view of them, and assured me in the most emphatic manner they were rebels. The order to fire was then given and promptly obeyed, but I found there still existed a doubt on the part of the men as to the true character of the troops we were engaged with, which caused considerable confusion in the ranks, which was overcome to a great extent with some difficulty.

The anonymous soldier had a somewhat different recollection.  He wrote to the Pittsburgh Gazette that Colonel Jackson "rode in the rear of the line begging the men not to fire into the Buck Tails, though the shot was flying thick as hail and our boys were falling on our right and our left."  This soldier's account raises questions about whether in fact the 9th was under an intense attack before Jackson learned that the regiment opposite his men was the 1st Kentucky.  The unknown soldier also indicated that some soldiers may not have waited for the order to fire:

Yet, regardless of all orders, there was firing all along the line, and finally the Colonel could no longer be heard and all loaded and fired as fast as we could for half an hour.  

Jackson and his unknown soldier were in agreement about one thing.  As Jackson wrote in his report of the battle:

I feel perfectly convinced, had the men been assured at the onset that the troops before us were rebels, we might have driven them from their position before they could have fired on us, as we could hear them distinctly load their pieces.

The soldier from the Pittsburgh Rifles likewise believed that "Had we been commanded to fire immediately, we might have done terrible execution."  Regardless, even with the confusion at the outset of the encounter, the 9th Pennsylvania held its ground and drove back the 1st Kentucky.  But this story goes a long way to showing just how soldiers and commanding officers could be gripped by anxiety over friendly fire.  As the earlier encounter between the 1st Kentucky and the 6th Carolina shows, the 9th Pennsylvania had every reason to fear such a costly mistake.

The Action at Dranesville

Of all the skirmishes and minor battles around the Washington area during the Civil War, Dranesville has attracted its fair share of attention.  A quick search on Google reveals plenty of material about this engagement on December 20, 1861.  The Friday after Thanksgiving, my Dad and I set out to explore the area around Dranesville.  The battlefield is now marred by the suburban D.C. development, but a few historical markers recall the encounter, and Fairfax County has preserved an old tavern there.  

The hamlet of Dranesville sat just west of the crossroads of the Leesburg & Alexandria Turnpike (today's VA Route 7/Leesburg Pike) and the Leesburg & Georgetown Turnpike (VA Route 193/Georgetown Pike).  In December 1861, Dranesville occupied "debatable ground" between the Union and Confederate lines in Northern Virginia, characterized by heightened tensions among local inhabitants.  The Union Army learned that enemy cavalry was operating in the region and threatening Union sympathizers.  Brigadier General George A. McCall, commander of the Pennsylvania Reserves, instructed Brigadier General E.O.C. Ord on the evening of December 19 to set out the next morning with his brigade to drive back Confederate pickets and collect forage from secessionist farmers.  Another brigade commander, Brigadier General John F. Reynolds, was instructed to move to Difficult Run, where he was to wait and provide support to Ord if necessary.  Early on the morning of the 20th, Ord left Camp Pierpont in Langley with his brigade of the 6th, 9th, 10th, and 12th Pennsylvania Reserves, along with the "Bucktail" regiment (13th Pennsylvania Reserves), four guns under Captain Hezekiah Easton of Battery A, 1st Pennsylvania Artillery, and two squadrons of the 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry.  All told, the force comprised about 5,000 men.

Brigadier General E.O.C. Ord (courtesy of Georgetown University Library)

The Confederates, meanwhile, were planning a similar foraging expedition in the area.  Brigadier General J.E.B. Stuart was assigned to guard the wagons with around 1,600 infantry of the 1st Kentucky, 6th South Carolina, 10th Alabama, and 11th Virginia, as well as four guns of the Sumter Flying Artillery and 150 cavalry.  When Stuart learned of the approaching Federal brigade, he sent the wagons back towards the Confederate camps in Centreville and prepared to defend what he perceived as a threat to his recently collected supplies.

"The Battle of Dranesville -- Sketched by an Officer Who Was Present," Harper's Weekly, Jan.11, 1862 (courtesy of sonofthesouth.net).  This print depicts a view from the position of Easton's battery.  Ridge Road is to the left of the artillery.  The Thornton House, occupied by the Bucktails, is immediately to the front of the artillery, on the right.

As Ord arrived in the vicinity of Dranesville, Rebel pickets fled before his men.  Ord's soldiers moved west of the intersection of the two pikes.  Ord soon discovered that the Confederate force was advancing in his rear, and dispatched his artillery to high ground east of the intersection.  He then wheeled his regiments around and aligned them facing south, towards the Confederates, who were advancing on either side of Ridge Road (or Centreville Road, more or less today's Reston Avenue).  A hot fight ensued between the two armies, lasting around two hours.  The Union artillery, occupying a dominant position, proved particularly effective and wrecked havoc on the Confederate battery.  The Bucktails engaged the 6th South Carolina and 10th Alabama from an advantageous location in and around the Thornton House in the Union center. Off to the Union right, the 9th Pennsylvania battled the 1st Kentucky.  Finally, Stuart, who feared the arrival of Union reinforcements, withdrew from the field and fell back to Frying Pan Church, about half a dozen miles distant.  Lucky that Stuart left, as Reynolds, and another brigade of Pennsylvania Reserves under Brigadier General George G. Meade, were on the way  after learning of the battle that had erupted at Dranesville.  The Union had lost about 68 killed and wounded, and the Confederates suffered 194 casualties.  McCall, worried that the Rebels might cut off Ord's men from Union lines during the night, ordered Ord to march his brigade back to Camp Pierpont.  Stuart returned the next day to collect the wounded and bury the dead.

Modern view of the intersection of Leesburg Pike and the Georgetown Pike at Dranesville.  Ord aligned his forces along the Leesburg Pike, facing south.  The 9th and 12th Pennsylvania were positioned just beyond the intersection, where the ground slopes down.  Easton's artillery was placed to the right of the intersection on elevated land (not visible here).



State historical marker on the "Action at Dranesville," along Leesburg Pike heading west towards the Dranesville intersection of VA Routes 7 & 193. More information can be found on the Historical Marker Database.  



Dranesville Tavern (c. 1824), located west of the Dranesville intersection.  This historic site is owned by Fairfax County, which restored the tavern to its 1850 appearance.  The tavern was moved about 125 feet southwest of its original location.  During the time of the Civil War, the tavern was considered "one of the best roadside inns in America," according to the Virginia Gazette.  The tavern's role in the Battle of Dranesville is not known.  However, a Civil War Trails marker in front of the tavern commemorates the action at Dranesville.

Dranesville was hailed in Northern papers as a major victory.  After the ignominious defeats at First Bull Run and Ball's Bluff, the North was hungry for a win over the Confederates.  Dranesville gave Northerners the opportunity to celebrate.  Secretary of War Simon Cameron, himself a Pennsylvanian, wrote to General McCall that "[i]t is one of the bright spots that give assurance of the success of coming events, and its effect must be to inspire confidence in the belief that hereafter as heretofore, the cause of our country will triumph."  Confederate papers largely portrayed the engagement as a loss.  The Richmond Examiner, for instance, observed that "[t]he impression is, that we have suffered no inconsiderable disaster."  Larger-scale, more brutal battles would follow, and for all the attention Dranesville got in the winter of 1861, it would soon become, as historian Charles Poland has said, "a virtually forgotten sideshow of the war."

A Note on Sources:

I found several sources useful in learning more about the Battle of Dranesville.

The Glories of War: Small Battles and Early Heroes of 1861, by local historian Charles P. Poland, Jr. has a detailed chapter on the battle.

The Official Records, Series I, Volume V contains official reports of the battle by Union commanders and Confederate General Stuart.

"The Battle of Dranesville, Va." by William S. Hammond in the Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. XXXV, Richmond, Jan.-Dec. 1907 (available here) provides a concise account of the engagement.

Craig Swain, over at To the Sound of the Guns, does a great job of describing troop positions in relation to the current lay of the land in Dranesville.