5 6 The American Civil Waron 28 August at the Brawner Farm. There the
Stonewall Brigade and the Union's Iron
Brigade engaged in a famous stand-up fight
at a distance of less than 100 yards (92m). A
series of Union assaults the next day pressed
Jackson's defenders, whose line ran along an
unfinished railroad bed, to the limit. More
than once the attackers broke through, only
to be driven back by reinforcements. In the
course of the long day's action, Jackson
grimly told A. P. Hill, 'If you are attacked
again, you will beat the enemy back.'
While Jackson's troops tenaciously held
their ground, Lee and Longstreet arrived with
the rest of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Longstreet's left joined Jackson's right, and by
about noon the whole line approximated an
open V -Jackson's men facing generally
south-east and Longstreet's nearly due east.
Lee initially wanted Longstreet to attack, but
consented to postponements when
intelligence suggested a Union movement
towards the southern right. Other than a
brief clash at about 7 pm, Longstreet's
soldiers remained inactive on the 29th.
Pope planned additional attacks against
Jackson on 30 August. Despite the
protestations of Fitz John Porter and others,
he clung to the idea that Longstreet's wing
had not reached the field and insisted that a
final push would drive Jackson away. After a
series of delays, the Federals advanced at
about 3 pm. Jackson's weary soldiers, ably
supported by southern artillery that fired
directly into the Union flank, repulsed the
attackers. At about 4 pm, Longstreet
launched a spectacular counterstroke that
yielded a second stunning Confederate
success at Manassas. Tenacious Union units,
some of them fighting on Henry Hill, helped
slow Longstreet's attackers long enough for
Pope to organize an effective withdrawal.
One Confederate soldier graphically described
firing at a group of retreating Federals 'so
near and so thick' that 'every shot took
effect. ... We shot into this mass as fast as we
could load until our guns got so hot we had
at times to wait for them to cool.' A few days
after the battle, a Union survivor described
his experience amid the chaos of Longstreet's
attack, 'I saw the men dropping on all sides,'
he wrote, 'canteens struck and flying to
pieces, haversacks cut off, rifles knocked to
pieces, it was a perfect hail of bullets. I was
expecting to get it every second, but on, on, I
went, the balls hissing by my head.'
Pope withdrew to Washington in good
order, blocking a Confederate blow at
Chantilly on 1 September and reaching the
city's formidable entrenchments the next
day. His successful escape did little to soften
the impact of another Federal defeat. The
campaign had cost Pope 16,000 casualties
out of approximately 75,000 engaged (some
units from the Army of the Potomac had
reinforced the Army of Virginia). Lee lost
about 9,200 out of 50,000 engaged. Lee's
bold decision to split his army, swift
marching and hard fighting had paid off for
the Confederates. Pope had proved to be
aggressive but inept, and Lincoln removed
him from command on 2 September. For
the second time in 13 months, George
B. McClellan stepped forward to restore order
following a northern defeat in Virginia.
Lee lost little time in preparing his next
movement. He had accomplished a
remarkable strategic reorientation in
Virginia, shifting the military frontier from
Richmond to the banks of the Potomac river.
Seeking to maintain the strategic initiative
and improve his logistical situation, he
decided to take the war across the Potomac
into the United States. He knew the Army of
Northern Virginia had suffered enormously
during the preceding ten weeks. As one
veteran wrote, by early September the army's
'divisions had sunk to little more than
brigades, & brigades nearly to regiments.'
Indeed, the average southern regiment
would number fewer than 175 men during
the upcoming campaign. Still, Lee wrote to
Jefferson Davis on 3 September that he
considered it 'to be the most propitious time
since the commencement of the war for the
Confederate Army to enter Maryland.'
Several factors influenced Lee. Logistically,
he wanted to collect food and forage in
Maryland and Pennsylvania, remaining
north long enough to allow Virginia farmers