The Chain Bridge Defenses During the Maryland Campaign, Part III: Sigel Stays Put and Stands Guard

In the last couple of posts, I've followed the story of the Chain Bridge defenses around Washington in the days prior to Antietam.  During the first week of September 1862, Franz Sigel led his corps from Fairfax Court House to the vicinity of Ft. Ethan Allen.  As Gen. George McClellan moved his army across the Potomac to chase down the Robert E. Lee, he left Sigel's men, along with the corps of Fitz John Porter and Samuel P. Heintzelman, to guard the Virginia side of the river in front of the nation's capital.  By September 7, Sigel's line stretched from Ft. Marcy and Ft. Ethan Allen, near Chain Bridge, to Ft. DeKalb in present-day Arlington.

McClellan Tries to Extract Sigel and Other Reinforcements from Washington's Defenses

Before long, McClellan was asking Washington to send him reinforcements, including men from Sigel's corps and the other commands around the capital.  Generally inclined to overestimate Confederate troop strength, Little Mac was no different this time around.  He believed that Lee had "not less than 120,000 men" near Frederick, Maryland. (OR, 1:19:2, 254.)  In fact, the Army of the Potomac had around a two-to-one advantage over Lee.  (Sears, Landscape, 102.)

On September 10, McClellan wrote to General-in-Chief Henry Halleck:

At the time this army moved from Washington, it was not known what the intentions of the rebels were in placing their forces on this side of the Potomac. It might have been a feint to draw away our troops from Washington, for the purpose of throwing their main army into the city as soon as we were out of the way, or it might have been supposed to be precisely what they are now doing. In view of this uncertain condition of things, I left what I conceived to be a sufficient force to defend the city against any army they could bring against it from the Virginia side of the Potomac.  (OR, 1:19:2, 254.)*

McClellan, however, felt that "[t]his uncertainty . . . exists no longer."  (OR, 1:19:2, 254.)  The immediate danger to the capital had passed.  McClellan informed Halleck of the overwhelming number of Confederates at Frederick and warned that "if we should be defeated the consequences to the country would be disastrous in the extreme."   (OR, 1:19:2, 254.)  Little Mac pleaded for Halleck to send him more men:

Under these circumstances, I would recommend that one or two of the three army corps now on the Potomac, opposite Washington, be at once withdrawn and sent to re-enforce this army . . . . (OR, 1:19:2, 254.) 

The commander perceived little threat to Washington:

If there are any rebel forces remaining on the other side of the Potomac, they must be so few that the troops left in the forts, after the two corps shall have been withdrawn, will be sufficient to check them; and, with the large cavalry force now on that side kept well out in front to give warning of the distant approach of any very large army, a part of this army might be sent back within the entrenchments to assist in repelling an attack.  (OR, 1:19:2, 254.) 

McClellan seemed almost nonchalant about the possible capture of the nation's capital:

But even if Washington should be taken while these armies are confronting each other, this would not, in my judgment, bear comparison with the ruin and disaster which would follow a signal defeat of this army.  If we should be successful in conquering the gigantic rebel army before us, we would have no difficulty in recovering it. On the other hand, should their force prove sufficiently powerful to defeat us, would all the forces now around Washington be sufficient to prevent such a victorious army from carrying the works on this side of the Potomac, after they are uncovered by our army? I think not.  (OR, 1:19:2, 254-55.)** 

From his headquarters near Rockville on September 11, McClellan further urged Halleck:

Please send forward all the troops you can spare from Washington, particularly Porter's, Heintzelman's, Sigel's, and all the other old troops. Please send them to Brookville, via Leesborough.  (OR, 1:19:2, 253.)***

President Lincoln himself responded to McClellan's plea for additional soldiers from the defenses of Washington.  (OR, 1:19:2, 253.)  The President understood that the new recruits streaming into Washington were mixed with the three commands and worried that "[i]f Porter, Heintzelman, and Sigel were sent you, it would sweep everything from the other side of the river. . . ." (OR, 1:19:2, 253.)  Instead, he released only the remainder of Porter's Fifth Corps, which was ordered to cross the Potomac and join the Army of the Potomac in the field.  (OR, 1:19:2, 253, 255.)  Lincoln held out the possibility of future reinforcements: 

I am for sending you all than can be spared, and I hope others can follow Porter very soon.  (OR, 1:19:2, 254.)

In the end, however, Sigel's men would stay put near the Chain Bridge defenses while the Army of the Potomac tracked down and fought Lee.

"General McClellan Entering the Town of Frederick, Maryland--The Popular Welcome," Harper's Weekly, Oct. 4, 1862 (courtesy of sonofthesouth.net).

Sigel's Corps and Everyday Life in Front of Washington

During the Maryland Campaign, Sigel's corps underwent a few organizational changes.  Once McClellan took to the field with the main army, Sigel reported to Gen. Nathaniel Banks, whom McClellan had placed in overall command of Washington's defenses. (OR, 1:19:2, 202, 214.)  Under General Orders No. 129, dated September 12, the War Department officially re-designated the three corps of the former Army of Virginia, and Sigel's First Corps became the Eleventh Corps of the Army of the Potomac.  (OR, 1:19:2, 279.) 

As McClellan battled Lee at South Mountain and Antietam, Sigel's men dealt with the mundane routine of camp life.  Soldiers spent the days drilling or on picket duty.  One regiment, the 27th Pennsylvania, changed camps around Chain Bridge several times throughout September and performed picket duty in Falls Church, a few miles in advance of the defensive line.  Gen. Robert Milroy, a brigade commander in Sigel's corps, used his free time to venture into Washington City and sit for his photograph at Mathew Brady's studio.

Not surprisingly, the presence of thousands of Union soldiers from Sigel's corps had an impact on the surrounding community.  Jospeh Sewell lived in Langley, just down the road from Forts Marcy and Ethan Allen where Sigel's men stood guard.  The farmer, like other locals, was no stranger to the Union Army.  Soldiers from Gen. "Baldy" Smith's division lived on and around Sewell's farm during the first winter of the war and had taken their fair share of crops and timber from him.  In September 1862, troops from Milroy's brigade entered Sewell's property and seized thirty barrels of corn.  They also took around three acres of garden vegetables and potatoes.****  Other civilians in the area likely experienced similar losses at the hands of the Union defenders.

Gen. Robert Milroy, from the Brady National Photographic Art Gallery (courtesy of Library of Congress).  Not long after sitting for his photograph, Milroy was sent with his brigade to western Virginia.

After Antietam: Sigel Advances to Centreville and Fairfax Court House 

As the Maryland Campaign drew to a close, Sigel's men were moved forward from the defenses near Washington.  Concerned about a possible Confederate attempt to reoccupy the railroad junction of Manassas, Banks ordered Sigel to send Gen. Julius Stahel's division to Centreville on September 21.  (OR, 1:19:2, 340-41, 344-45, 351.)   A few days later, on September 25, the remainder of Sigel's corps was dispatched to Fairfax Court House to cover an expedition being made to recapture several railroad engines at Bristoe.  (OR, 1:19:2, 356, 359.)  Banks, anxious about Confederate intentions, ordered that Sigel exercise "[g]reat caution. . . to prevent surprise," keep the cavalry "well to the front and on the alert," and "report frequently the state of affairs."  (OR, 1:19:2, 356.)

Banks originally intended to have Sigel's corps "fall back to its former position" following the expedition.  (OR, 1:19:2, 359.)   Sigel's men, however, remained in and around Fairfax Court House and Centreville to act as a "corps of observation."  (OR, 1:19:2, 425, 428.)  In this new role, Sigel kept an eye on Confederate activity in Northern Virginia, but Banks made sure to tell Sigel that "if menaced by a superior force of the enemy," he was "to fall back to the lines of defense."  (OR, 1:19:2, 425.)

The Eleventh Corps eventually ended up in Stafford Court House for the winter.  Although the soldiers missed the bloody encounter at Antietam, as well as the slaughter at Fredericksburg in December, they would go on to experience their fair share of brutal combat during the remainder of the war.  The soldiers of the Eleventh Corps became a scapegoat for the Union defeat at Chancellorsville, where they earned the derisive nickname of the "Flying Dutchmen."  Their reputation also suffered at Gettysburg.  During the tense days of September 1862, however, the corps served a necessary, yet unheralded role, in guarding the nation's capital as McClellan confronted Lee.

Notes

*Stephen Sears demonstrates that this correspondence was likely sent on September 10, even though the OR indicates that it was sent the next day.  (Sears, McClellan Correspondence, 446.)

**In correspondence dated September 13, Halleck rebuked McClellan:  "[Y]ou attach too little importance to the capital. I assure you that you are wrong. The capture of this place will throw us back six months, if it should not destroy us. Beware of the evils I now point out to you. You saw them when here, but you seem to forget them in the distance. No more troops can be sent from here till we have fresh arrivals from the North."  (OR, 1:19:2, 280-81.)

*** Earlier on September 11, Halleck had even suggested to McClellan that he send forward either Sigel's or Porter's corps when another division that Little Mac had requested was unavailable. As Halleck said, "Why not order forward Porter's corps, or Sigel's?  If the main force of the enemy is in your front, more troops can be spared from here." (OR, 1:19:2, 253.)

****The Southern Claims Commission files indicate that Sewell was not granted compensation for the claims he made concerning the taking of this property by Milroy's men.  The Commission considered that the $150 claim for corn rested solely on Sewell's testimony.  The $300 claim for garden vegetables and potatoes was considered a "depredation."

Sources

Aside from the citations to the Official Records above, the following sources were useful in compiling this post:

Samuel P. Bates, History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-1865, Vol. I (1869); Stephen D. Engle, Yankee Dutchman: The Life of Franz Sigel (1993); Bradley Gottfried, The Maps of Antietam (2012); Charles V. Mauro, The Civil War in Fairfax County: Civilians and Soldiers (2006); Johnathan A. Noyalas, "My Will is Absolute Law": A Biography of Union General Robert H. Milroy (2006); Pennsylvania Daily Telegraph, Sept. 29, 1862; Stephen W. Sears (ed.), The Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan: Selected Correspondence, 1860-1865 (1989); Stephen W. Sears, Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam (1983); Southern Claims Commission File of Joseph Sewell, available at fold3.com.

The Chain Bridge Defenses During the Maryland Campaign, Part II: Sigel Adjusts His Line While the Confederates Demonstrate at Pimmit Run

Last week I examined the withdrawal of John Pope's defeated Union force following Second Manassas.  Franz Sigel's First Corps of the Army of Virginia, along with the corps of Edwin V. Sumner and Fitz John Porter, moved from Fairfax Court House to Langley.  By September 3, 1862, Sigel's men occupied the ground closest to the strategic crossing at Chain Bridge.  Porter sat not far away, around Hall's Hill, while Sumner crossed the Potomac and took up a position at Tennallytown.

As Gen. George B. McClellan divined Robert E. Lee's next move, he sent instructions through his chief of staff, Randolph B. Marcy, to ensure the adequate safeguarding of Washington's defenses.  On the morning of September 4, Sigel was told to "draw in the main line of his forces. . . so as to run from Ft. Ethan Allen toward [Porter's] right."  (OR, 1:51:1, 789.)  This shift would shorten Sigel's line and close any gaps between the two corps.  (OR, 1:51:1, 785, 789.)  

That same day, a small fight erupted about a half a dozen miles from Sigel's force near Chain Bridge.  As Lee prepared his army to invade Maryland by crossing the Potomac near Leesburg, Confederate cavalry was ordered to make a demonstration in front of the Federal lines near Washington.  On the morning of September 4,  Gen. Beverly Robertson led the 7th and 12th Virginia Cavalry and three guns from Capt. R. Preston Chew's horse artillery down the Leesburg-Alexandria Turnpike towards Falls Church.  Between Vienna and Lewinsville, the Confederates ran into Union pickets from Gen. Alfred Pleasonton's cavalry command and drove them back "after a brisk skirmish."  (OR, 1:19:1, 828.)  Robertson sent one gun and part of his cavalry to a point "near Lewinsville to prevent surprise" and proceeded with the rest of his force to a hill above Pimmit Run along the pike.  (OR, 1:19:1, 828; see also OR, 1:19:2, 176.)*  Two of Chew's guns opened on the Union troops, and the Federals soon returned fire with two guns of their own.  Around six that evening, Marcy alerted Sigel to the attack and cautioned him:

Your pickets should be on the alert, and your command at once drawn into the new position indicated to you this morning.  (OR, 1:51:1, 785.) 

Robertson's fight with the Union troops lasted until about sundown, when the Confederates spotted several regiments advancing from the direction of Falls Church.  Robertson deemed "the object of the reconnaissance. . . fully accomplished" and withdrew his men "at dark."  (OR, 1:19:1, 828; see also OR, 1:19:1, 814; OR, 1:19:2, 176-78; Harsh 67.)  Pleasonton dismissed the action as a mere "show of force to conceal [Lee's] movements on the Upper Potomac," and McClellan agreed.  (OR, 1:19:2, 178; OR, 1:51:1, 785.)

Gen. Beverly Robertson (courtesy of Wikipedia).  The cavalry commander had few fans among the top brass of the Army of Northern Virginia and was transferred to North Carolina soon after the skirmish of September 4.

Armed with intelligence on Lee's intentions, McClellan set his army in motion to pursue the Confederates in Maryland.  His entire force, however, would not go with him.  The Lincoln Administration wanted assurances that Washington would remain sufficiently protected.  For the time being, Sigel's corps would have the chief responsibility for guarding the key approaches to Chain Bridge. 

Late on the afternoon of September 6, Marcy sent an order to Sigel at Ft. Ethan Allen:

The commanding general directs that you at once place your corps in position to occupy the line extending from Forts Marcy and Ethan Allen to the vicinity of Fort De Kalb. General F. J. Porter's corps will occupy the line from Fort De Kalb to Hunting Creek, and General [Samuel P.] Heintzelman the line from Hunting Creek to the river below Fort Lyon. . . .  You will please post your pickets well out so as to give timely information of the approach of the enemy.** (OR, 1:51:793.)

Marcy emphasized in a postscript: "Forts Marcy and Ethan Allen will be intrusted to your charge, and you will please connect your pickets with those of General Porter."  (OR, 1:51:1, 793.)  The admonishment about tightening the line likely stemmed from complaints by Porter, who a few days earlier had advised Marcy to send "a staff officer along our lines, to establish the picket lines and the proper connections between corps."  (OR, 1:19:2, 179.)  Not long after Marcy sent the order to Sigel, he reassured Porter that "General Sigel will hold the forts at the Chain Bridge and connect with you."  (OR, 1:51:1, 791.)

Detail from 1862 Union Army map of Northeastern Virginia showing the area of Sigel's line from Ft. Marcy and Ft. Ethan Allen near Chain Bridge to the vicinity of Ft. DeKalb (courtesy of Library of Congress).  For a modern view of the same area, see here.

That night, the area around Chain Bridge buzzed with activity.  McClellan ordered the Sixth Corps under Gen. William B. Franklin to cross the bridge and march to Rockville via Tennallytown.  (OR, 1:51:1, 793; OR, 1:19:1, 38.).   Gen. George Sykes's division from Porter's corps was likewise instructed to proceed to Tennallytown.  (OR, 1:51:1, 791; OR, 1:19:1, 38.)  As the day dawned on September 7, the bulk of McClellan's army sat across the Potomac from Virginia.  Little Mac was on the move, and Sigel's men may have started to wonder when their turn would come.

Notes

*This fight likely occurred near the current-day location of the Whole Foods supermarket along Leesburg Pike (Rt. 7)  (See here for a map). 

**Ft. Marcy and Ft. Ethan Allen guarded the immediate approaches to Chain Bridge on the Virginia side of the Potomac above Georgetown.  For more on the two forts, see here and here.  Ft. DeKalb sat near current-day US-29 (Lee Highway) between N. Adams and N. Vance Streets in Arlington, Virginia.  It was later renamed Ft. Strong.  Hunting Creek is a tributary stream of the Potomac located to the south of Alexandria, Virginia near the present-day Woodrow Wilson Bridge.   Ft. Lyon was located beyond Hunting Creek to the southwest of Alexandria.  For a complete map of the defenses of Washington from the OR, see here.

Sources

Aside from the citations to the Official Records above, the following sources were useful in compiling this post:

Samuel P. Bates, History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-1865, Vol. I (1869); Benjamin Franklin Cooling III & Walton H. Owen II, Mr. Lincoln's Forts: A Guide to the Civil War Defenses of Washington (2010 ed.); Stephen D. Engle, Yankee Dutchman: The Life of Franz Sigel (1993); Bradley Gottfried, The Maps of Antietam (2012); Joseph L. Harsh, Taken at the Flood: Robert E. Lee & Confederate Strategy in the Maryland Campaign of 1862 (1999); George Michael Neese, Three Years in the Confederate Horse Artillery (1911); Stephen W. Sears, Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam (1983).

The Chain Bridge Defenses During the Maryland Campaign, Part I: Sigel and Company on the Move

This summer's Sesquicentennial calendar is crowded with observances of several key events.  We've just finished Second Manassas and are now headed into the Maryland Campaign and Antietam.  During such times, I start to think about my own little corner of Northern Virginia. What was happening here as the armies left behind the wreckage at Manassas and marched through Maryland on the way to a bloody encounter outside Sharpsburg?   Although far less dramatic than other events unfolding in September 1862, the ground around present-day McLean and North Arlington witnessed a build-up of Gen. Franz Sigel's army corps.  These men played a key role in manning the defenses of Washington while Gen. George B. McClellan hunted down Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in the Old Line State.

Born in Germany in 1824, Sigel rose to become a military leader in the Revolution of 1848.  He emigrated to the United States in the early 1850s and eventually settled in St. Louis.   When war broke out, Sigel helped to recruit German-Americans to the Union cause.  He first served out West at Wilson's Creek and Pea Ridge.  Sigel, favored by the Lincoln Administration for his ties to the German-American community, was appointed a major general of volunteers and sent East, where he was named commander of the First Corps of Gen. John Pope's Army of Virginia in June 1862.  Sigel seemed a fitting choice to lead the new corps, whose ranks were filled with many German immigrants.   Sigel's men fought hard at Second Manassas (August 28-30, 1862) and helped to stem James Longstreet's massive counter-attack on the Union left. 

Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel (courtesy of Library of Congress).  German-Americans were recruited to the Union cause with the slogan, "I goes to fight mit Sigel."  The general had a less than stellar record on the battlefield and was later trounced at the Battle of New Market in 1864.

By September 2, Pope's defeated army had concentrated at Fairfax Court House.  The Union commander worried that his men were not up to the task of fighting Lee anytime soon and strongly suggested to general-in-chief Henry W. Halleck that his army return to the safety of Washington's defenses.  On mid-morning September 2, Halleck finally ordered Pope to "bring your forces as best you can within or near the line of fortification."  (OR, 1:12:3, 796-97.) 

The anxious and demoralized Pope wasted no time in carrying out Halleck's instructions.  He soon put his troops on the move towards the outskirts of Washington. Sigel's First Corps, along with Edwin V. Sumner's Second Corps, Army of the Potomac, and Fitz John Porter's Fifth Corps, Army of the Potomac, were told to march "via Vienna toward the Chain Bridge."  (OR, 1:12:2, 86.)*  The Chain Bridge, located above Georgetown, was one of three pivotal crossing points into the nation's capital from Virginia.  Pope cautioned the three corps to "keep well closed up and within easy supporting distance of each other."  (OR, 1:12:2, 86.) 

The men started out towards Chain Bridge with Porter in the lead.  Sigel followed, and Sumner brought up the rear.  (Armstrong 57; Powell 256; McClellan, Own Story, 537-38.)   J.E.B. Stuart, however, was not about to let the Federal troops have an easy time of it.   The Confederate general sent cavalry under Gen. Wade Hampton, along with Capt. John Pelham's flying artillery, to harass the Union column as the men snaked their way along the road towards Vienna and Langley.

McClellan, who was just recently restored to overall command, rode out in the afternoon towards Upton's Hill, where he greeted Irvin McDowell's corps arriving from Fairfax.  Pope and McDowell soon appeared.  While speaking with the two generals, McClellan noticed "rather heavy artillery-firing . . . in the distance."  (McClellan, Own Story, 537.)  Pope speculated that Confederates were likely shelling Sumner's rear guard and "intimated that Sumner was probably in a dilemma."  (McClellan, Own Story, 537.)  McClellan could not help but get in a dig at Pope in his post-war account:

[Pope] could give me no information, of any importance in relation to the whereabouts of the different corps, except in a most indefinite way; had evidently not troubled his head in the slightest about the movements of his army in retreat, and had coolly preceded the troops, leaving them to get out of the scrape as best they could.  He and McDowell both asked my permission to go on to Washington, to which I assented, remarking at the same time that I was going to that artillery-firing. They then took leave and started for Washington.  (McClellan, Own Story, 537.)

McClellan dashed off with an aide and three orderlies to investigate what was happening along the road to Langley.  He first encountered Porter's men after dark.  The soldiers let out a rousing cheer upon recognizing Little Mac and crowded around their beloved commander.  By this time, "the firing had ceased, with the exception of perhaps a dropping shot occasionally."  (McClellan, Own Story, 537.)  McClellan nevertheless continued onward in the moonlight, until he came to Sigel's corps.  As McClellan described the remainder of his excursion:

I . . . soon satisfied myself that Sumner was pursuing his march unmolested, so I sent on to inform him that I was in command, and gave him instructions as to his march. I then returned by the Chain bridge road, having first given Sigel his orders; and at a little house beyond Langley I found Porter, with whom I spent some time, and at length reached Washington at an early hour in the morning.  (McClellan, Own Story, 538.)

Pope, meanwhile, seemed less than troubled by the Confederate action against the retreating Federal column.  He told Halleck:

The whole army is retiring in good order, without confusion or the slightest loss of property. . .  Three army corps pursue the route via Vienna to Chain Bridge, covered by all the effective cavalry.  (OR, 1:12:2, 87.)

 At 7:10 p.m., upon arriving near Washington, Pope sent an update to Halleck:

Command coming in on the road without much molestation. Some artillery firing on the road through Vienna to Chain Bridge, but nothing of a serious character, so far as I can learn.  (OR, 1:12:2, 87.)

Pope was not far off the mark in his assessment.  The 71st Pennsylvania under Col. Isaac Wistar, along with the 1st Minnesota, was protecting Sumner's rear.  Wistar's overall view was that the enemy's shells did "little damage" that night, although stragglers greatly complicated matters for the retreating army corps. (Wistar 48.)  As it was, the narrow road was already crowded with "thousands of disorganized troops and fragments of commands; disorderly wagon trains; guns without officers; caissons without guns."  (Wistar 46.)  However unfairly, Wistar singled out stragglers from Sigel's command for getting in the way of his regiment's rear guard duty:

Many hundred perhaps thousands of Germans from the routed Division of Siegel [sic], had abandoned their colors, thrown away their arms, and deliberately gone to sleep around fires kindled in the woods, a spectacle most exasperating to our men, since these stragglers could have no other design than to be taken prisoners after the passage of the rearguard. The soldiers in ranks begged to be let loose on these 'coffee-boilers,' promising there should be none left for the enemy; but the integrity of the rearguard was of too much importance to permit risking it, even for that just vengeance. Nevertheless, such stragglers did not all go unwhipt of  justice. Unfortunately, the Adjutant's horse being killed and no Major present, the only mounted regimental officers were Lieut.-Col. [William] Jones and myself, who, when otherwise unoccupied, busied ourselves with charging into these sleeping squads of loafers, to the intense delight of the gallant fellows of the hard-worked rearguard.  (Wistar 48-49.)

During the night of September 2 and early morning hours of September 3, Federal soldiers streamed through Lewinsville and entered Langley, only a handful of miles from the Chain Bridge over the Potomac.  (OR, 1:12:2, 87; Wistar 50.)**  Sumner's men took some time to recover from their march, but later on September 3, the Second Corps crossed the Potomac at Chain Bridge and headed to Tennallytown, northwest of Washington City.  They were joined by soldiers from the Second Corps, Army of Virginia (soon to be re-designated as the Twelfth Corps, Army of the Potomac).  Porter's men soon took up a position around Hall's Hill (near current-day US-29 and N. Glebe Rd. in Arlington).  Sigel's corps encamped closest to Chain Bridge, including the area around Ft. Ethan Allen.***  Sigel also kept pickets at Langley. 

As the Union Army sat within Washington's defenses, Lee prepared to invade Maryland.  Before long, the Army of Northern Virginia was fording the Potomac upriver from Washington.  The bulk of McClellan's force would soon be on the move, but not everyone would join in the chase.  After all, someone had to ensure that the nation's capital remained safe while the main body of the army was away. 

Notes

*For a Union Army map of Northeastern Virginia in 1862, click here.  The general route taken by the three army corps from Fairfax Court House through Vienna to Lewinsville, Langley, and Chain Bridge can be traced on this map in detail.  I unfortunately could not post the desired portion of the map at a level of magnification that was satisfactory enough for viewing.

**Precise arrival times are difficult to ascertain. Some elements reached the area around Chain Bridge on the evening of September 2, while the rear guard arrived in Langley "about daylight" on September 3.  (OR, 1:12:2, 466; McClellan, Own Story, 537-38; Wistar 50.)

***The exact placement of Sigel's corps on September 3-4 is unclear.  Sigel received dispatches on September 4 at Ft. Ethan Allen, so presumably most of his men were encamped in that general vicinity.  (OR, 1:51:1, 785).  A history of the 27th Pennsylvania, a regiment in Sigel's corps, indicates that around the same time the unit "was for several days engaged in picket duty" at Langley. (Bates 388.)

Sources

Aside from the citations to the Official Records above, the following sources were useful in compiling this post:

Marion V. Armstrong Jr., Unfurl Those Colors: McClellan, Sumner, & the Second Army Corps in the Antietam Campaign (2008); Samuel P. Bates, History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-1865, Vol. I (1869); Stephen D. Engle, Yankee Dutchman: The Life of Franz Sigel (1993); George H. Gordon, History of the Campaign of the Army of Virginia Under John Pope (1880); Bradley Gottfried, The Maps of Antietam (2012); Joseph L. Harsh, Taken at the Flood: Robert E. Lee & Confederate Strategy in the Maryland Campaign of 1862 (1999); John J. Hennessy, Return to Bull Run: The Campaign and Battle of Second Manassas (1993); George B. McClellan, McClellan's Own Story (1887); George B. McClellan, Report on the Organization and Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac (1864); William H. Powell, The Fifth Army Corps (Army of the Potomac) (1896); "Franz Sigel (1824-1902)," Encyclopedia Virginia; Isaac Jones Wistar, Autobiography of Isaac Jones Wistar, 1827-1905, in Two Volumes, Vol. II (1914).

A Visit to the Battlefield of Second Manassas

As we approach the 150th anniversary of Second Manassas, I wanted to share a few impressions of a trip that I took a few months ago.  Each year of the Sesquicentennial, I have a goal of visiting a few sites associated with the events that took place in the corresponding year during the Civil War.  This past April I decided to tour the battlefield of Second Manassas, a short 30 minute drive from home.  I picked up my friend, Rufino, at a nearby Metro station and headed out I-66 to Manassas National Battlefield Park.  A little music from the 2nd S.C. String Band set the mood as we drove west.

Based on some initial research I had done on visiting the battlefield, I decided to take the audio driving tour.  I've gravitated towards this method of touring ever since a childhood trip to Gettysburg.  My Dad was a big fan, and I suppose his fondness rubbed off on me.  I purchased the audio tour and guidebook at the Henry Hill Visitor Center.  The package is produced by a private company known as "Travel Brains," but don't let the name fool you.  Overall, the tour was worthwhile and provided detailed information to supplement the National Park Service (NPS) brochure and the markers on the battlefield.  Those Civil War enthusiasts with extensive knowledge of the battle may find the tour a tad too basic.  I haven't read much on Second Manassas, so I appreciated the refresher.  The CD also gave useful, on-the-scene interpretations of what I was seeing on the battlefield.

A tour of the Second Manassas battlefield requires driving on some busy area roads.  As we headed down U.S.-29 (Lee Highway), I noticed tailgaters pressuring me to move faster.  Such behavior made my visit a little less pleasurable and prevented a more careful study of the surrounding terrain.  Pulling in and out of some tour stops also proved a bit dicey.  Needless to say, I am glad to hear that a by-pass of the battlefield is in the works.

The audio tour for some odd reason does not include the Brawner Farm, Tour Stop 1 on the NPS brochure.  Whatever you do, however, don't miss going to the Brawner Farm.  The NPS opened the site in 2007 after restoring the post-Civil War farmhouse and installing an Interpretive Center on Second Manassas.  Despite the old-school technology, the electric map in the farmhouse offers an excellent overview of troop positions over the course of the three-day engagement.  A variety of exhibits place the battle in a larger context and cover such topics as the court-martial of Gen. Fitz John Porter, a scapegoat of the Union defeat at Second Manassas.

The restored farmhouse at the Brawner Farm site.  The present structure was built after the Civil War and was enlarged in 1905.  John Brawner and his family moved to this site in 1857.  He leased the property and worked as a tenant farmer.  The original house was damaged during Second Manassas, and the Brawners moved away not long after the battle.

The Brawner Farm, of course, was the scene of Stonewall Jackson's attack on Union soldiers from John Pope's Army of Virginia on the evening of August 28, 1862.  Jackson intended to draw Pope into battle and prevent him from concentrating with the remainder of the Federal Army.  The fight is perhaps best known as the site of an encounter between two of the Civil War's most famous units--the Iron Brigade and the Stonewall Brigade.  Rufino and I took the Ranger-guided tour of the battle at Brawner Farm.  The Ranger re-traced the Union and Confederate lines and really helped us to visualize the brutal, close-range fighting that took place there.

View from the position of the Stonewall Brigade towards the area of the Union lines occupied by the Iron Brigade.

The Stone House (Tour Stop 3), at the junction of Sudley-Manassas Road (today's VA-234) and the Warrenton Turnpike (present-day U.S.-29).  The home is one of two pre-Civil War buildings that is still standing on the grounds of the national park.  During Second Manassas, the Stone House served a field hospital for the wounded.  Pope's retreating Federal troops passed by the house on the way back to the defenses of Washington.

The Unfinished Railroad (Tour Stop 6) made a lasting and haunting impression.  On August 29, 1862, elements of Pope's army launched a series of attacks against Jackson's men, who were positioned along the grade of an unfinished railroad.  Today, the tranquility of the quiet, wooded setting stands in sharp contrast to the savage killing that happened at the same spot 150 years ago.  Although a breeze gently blew through the trees, the air seemed strangely leaden.  I am not an overly supernatural person, but I somehow felt surrounded by the very spirits of those who had fought and died there.

Looking down the unfinished railroad cut.  Confederate defenders from Jame Archer's Brigade, A.P. Hill's Division, occupied the ground to the left.  Federal soldiers from Col. Daniel Leasure's Brigade of Isaac Stevens' Division of the Ninth Corps, Army of the Potomac attacked across the cut.  The bodies of Union dead and wounded covered the slope of the embankment.  A one-mile loop trail allows visitors to explore this truly hallowed ground. 

A few other stops on the battlefield also deserve top billing.  The Deep Cut (Tour Stop 7) witnessed a massive Federal assault on Jackson's right flank by Porter's Fifth Corps and part of Gen. Irvin McDowell's Third Corps on the afternoon of August 30, 1862.  At one point, Jackson's men, running low on ammunition, threw rocks at their attackers.  It is well worth the time to hike up the slope where the Union force advanced to the Confederate lines along the unfinished railroad bed.  The sweeping view from the top conveys a feeling for the vastness of the Union attack.  Chinn Ridge (Tour Stop 10) was the site of a Federal fight to delay Gen. James Longstreet's counter-attack on the afternoon of August 30.  Nearly 30,000 Confederates had surged forward and overwhelmed the Union left flank.  A desperate stand by Union troops on Chinn Ridge helped to prevent complete annihilation of Pope's army.  The placement of markers and artillery do a commendable job of interpreting the fighting that occurred there.

Looking up the slope towards the site of the Confederate line at the Deep Cut.  Porter's men advanced across this ground on August 30.  The Groveton Monument, erected by Union veterans after the war, is visible at the top of the hill to the center-right.

The unfinished railroad bed at the Deep Cut.  Confederates from William E. Starke's Division repulsed the Federal attack from this position.  I can't help but wonder whether some of the rocks were intentionally placed there to evoke images of the famous "stone fight."

Marker on Chinn Ridge indicating the position of the 73rd Ohio Infantry of Col. Nathaniel McLean's Brigade, First Division, First Corps, Army of Virginia, which fought to stem the tide of Longstreet's advancing Confederates on August 30.

Vantage point of a gunner with the 5th Maine Battery on Chinn Ridge.  Longstreet's men advanced across the field in front of the 12-pounder Napoleon.  The fighting here bought Pope additional time to mount a defense at Henry Hill.

As Rufino and I left the battlefield, I pondered why Second Manassas lives in the shadows of the much smaller battle that occurred there in July 1861.  The Park Ranger at Brawner Farm told me that around one in three tourists go to the Henry Hill Visitor Center, compared to just one in ten who stop by the Interpretive Center for Second Manassas.  The 1861 engagement looms large as the first major land battle of the war.  The exalted Stonewall Jackson won his nom de guerre there.  And we've all heard about the death of poor widow Henry or the congressmen and civilians who rode out to watch the battle.  The country, so the story goes, lost its innocence on the fields of Manassas and braced for a long, violent war.  This is the stuff of myth and legend. 

Second Manassas, although a significant victory for Robert E. Lee, is sandwiched in between Lee's emergence at the Seven Days Battles and Antietam, the bloodiest single day in U.S. history.  The long-dominant Lost Cause school of interpretation had little use for Longstreet and his spectacular counter-attack, and the Northern victors of the war viewed Union commanders like Pope, McDowell, and Franz Sigel as less than heroic or else entirely forgettable.  Is it any wonder that the battle failed to inspire the popular imagination in the same way as First Bull Run?  Second Manassas, however, deserves more from us.  After all, the battle, which resulted in yet another crushing Union defeat, showcased the formidable fighting prowess of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and opened the way for the Confederate invasion of Maryland.  I hope that the 150th anniversary will focus more attention on this critical and fascinating battle.  And those looking for a perfect way to commemorate Second Manassas this year should consider heading to the battlefield and walking the very ground where the armies clashed.

For more information:

The National Park Service website for Manassas National Battlefield Park contains a wealth of information on visiting the battlefield of Second Manassas.

For more details on Second Manassas, check out the Civil War Trust's page on the battle.

The National Park Service is planning several days of Sesquicentennial-related activities from August 25-September 2, 2012.  More information can be found here. 

The City of Manassas and Historic Manassas, Inc. are also sponsoring 150th commemorative activities.  Check out the schedule here.

Historic Blenheim: The Writing is on the Wall

This past spring I visited the Civil War Interpretive Center at Historic Blenheim in the City of Fairfax.  I arrived a little before a lecutre on the Civil War defenses of Washington and had the opportunity to tour the historic Blenheim house and grounds.  Blenheim, a red brick farmhouse constructed in 1859 and owned by the Willcoxon family during the war, "is nationally significant for the more than 100 signatures, art and poetry created by Union soldiers during their occupation of the Fairfax Court House area in 1862-63. The house contains one of the most voluminous and best-preserved examples of Civil War inscriptions in the nation, a 'diary on walls' providing insight into typical soldier life during the Civil War." (City of Fairfax website description)  Most of these wall writings were on the second floor and attic, which were closed for structural safety issues, so I only had a chance to view those on the first floor, which were less dramatic and fewer in number.  Lucky for me, the Civil War Interpretive Center had constructed a full-size replica of 2/3 of the house's attic, complete with the soldiers' graffiti.  The center provides information on the soldiers stationed at Blenheim and examines the meaning of the wall etchings.  Behind Blenheim house sits "Grandma's Cottage," a residence built in the 1830s or 1840s, which was  home to the daughter of the estate's owner.  The cottage was not originally located on the Blenheim estate, but was moved there from another location in Fairfax County.

Blenheim Farmhouse (1859)

Reproduction of wall inscriptions and pictographs in the Interpretive Center.  I liked this particular signature of a Union soldier from my hometown of Pittsburgh, Christian Spiegel of the 74th Pennsylvania.  Note also the sketch of a ship.

"Grandma's Cottage" (1830s/1840s)

Since 1998, the names of 115 soldiers inscribed on the walls at Blenheim have been identified.  They represent 23 Union regiments from Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.  There were three distinct periods of the Federal presence at Blenheim.  In Spring 1862, as soliders passed through Fairfax Court House on their way to the Peninsula Campaign or the Shenandoah Valley, they left their mark on the walls of Blenheim.  Starting in September 1862, Union troops of Major General Franz Sigel's 11th Corps, consisting of many German-Americans, occupied Fairfax Court House.  Blenheim served until January 1863 as a reserve hospital for the corps.  These patients also wrote and drew on Blenheim's walls. Finally, in spring of 1863, the 1st Michigan Cavalry, the 1st West Virginia Cavalry, and the 18th Pennsylvania Cavalry from the 22nd Corps patrolled the area around Fairfax Court House and left behind graffiti at Blenheim.

I encourage local residents and visitors to the Washington, DC area to check out Blenheim. This lesser-known site provides an interesting glimpse into the life and times of Union soldiers in and around the City of Fairfax.