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).