The Greatest Civil War Battles: The Second Battle of Bull Run (Second Manassas)

“A splendid army almost demoralized, millions of public property given up or destroyed, thousands of lives of our best men sacrificed for no purpose. I dare not trust myself to speak of this commander as I feel and believe. Suffice to say...that more insolence, superciliousness, ignorance, and pretentiousness were never combined in one man.” – Union II Corps Commander Alpheus Williams

The Second Battle of Bull Run (August 28-30, 1862) was one of the most decisive battles fought during the Civil War, and it was also one of the most unlikely. Less than three months before the battle, Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Northern Virginia had been pushed back nearly all the way to Richmond by George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac, so close that Union soldiers could see the church steeples of the Confederate capital. And yet, at the end of Second Manassas, Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia found itself in the field unopposed about 20 miles away from the Union capital of Washington D.C. How could such a remarkable reversal of fortunes take place so quickly?

After Lee succeeded the wounded Johnston, he pushed McClellan’s Army of the Potomac away from Richmond and back up the Peninsula in late June, only to then swing his army north to face a second Union army, John Pope’s Army of Virginia. Needing to strike out before the Army of the Potomac successfully sailed back to Washington and linked up with Pope’s army, Lee daringly split his army to threaten Pope’s supply lines, forcing Pope to fall back to Manassas to protect his flank and maintain his lines of communication. At the same time, it left half of Lee’s army (under Stonewall Jackson) potentially exposed against the larger Union army until the other wing (under James Longstreet) linked back up. Thus, in late August 1862, the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of Virginia found themselves fighting over nearly the exact same land the South and North fought over in the First Battle of Bull Run 13 months earlier.

When Pope’s army fell back to Manassas to confront Jackson, his wing of Lee’s army dug in along a railroad trench and took a defensive stance. The battle began with the Union army throwing itself at Jackson the first two days. But the concentration on Stonewall’s men opened up the Union army’s left flank for Longstreet’s wing, which marched 30 miles in 24 hours to reach the battlefield by the late afternoon of August 29. Lee used Longstreet’s wing on August 30 to deliver a devastating flank attack before enough reinforcements from the retreating Army of the Potomac reached the field, sweeping Pope’s Army from Manassas and forcing the Union soldiers into yet another disorderly retreat from Manassas to Washington D.C., a scene eerily reminiscent of the First Battle of Bull Run.

The Greatest Civil War Battles: The Second Battle of Bull Run comprehensively covers the campaign and the events that led up to the battle, the fighting itself, and the aftermath of the battle. Accounts of the battle by important participants are also included, along with maps of the battle and pictures of important people, places, and events. You will learn about the Second Battle of Bull Run like you never have before, in no time at all.

© 2025 Charles River Editors (E-bog): 9781475332551

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E-bog: 2. maj 2025