157 Years Ago Today - Day 2 of the Second Battle of Bull Run

The first day of battle had resulted in some two hours of actual fighting that produced roughly 2,000 combined casualties. After the stalemated action on August 28, John Pope and the Union Army of Virginia hoped to achieve total victory over the 24,000 men under the command of Stonewall Jackson. Pope had already made a fatal mistake, however, in that he was only focusing his attention on Jackson's forces. Unbeknownst to him, James Longstreet and Robert E. Lee were moving swiftly toward the battlefield with 28,000 additional men.

On the morning of August 29, Pope lunged at Jackson's forces with reckless abandon. Jackson's men entrenched themselves behind an unfinished railroad cut as well as along a geographic feature known as Stony Ridge. Here, Jackson's men withstood ferocious Union attacks, one which went forward at 10 AM and another which went forward at 3 PM. These attacks both came close to breaking through Jackson's lines but were ill-supported and were without instructions of what to do should a breakthrough occurred.





Complicating matters for the Federals, Longstreet's 28,000 men began to arrive on the battlefield at noon. While Federal scouts did report Confederate reinforcements were indeed arriving on the field, Pope either dismissed them entirely or somehow interpreted this as a sign that the rebels were getting ready to retreat from the field.



Incredibly, Confederate forces clearly identified as belonging to Longstreet clashed with Union forces south of the Warrenton Turnpike on the evening of August 29, but Pope refused to acknowledge Lonstreet's presence on the field - resolving instead to focus squarely on Stonewall Jackson come the morning of August 30. In Pope's mind, Longstreet didn't exist and the only person who mattered was Jackson.