On the evening of August 27, 1862, Union Major General John Pope boastfully told his subordinates that he had devised
a strategy to isolate Major General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's wing of the Army of Northern Virginia. "We shall bag the whole crowd", crowed Pope. That was a strange boast considering that very day
Stonewall had given the Federal forces a very bloody nose, the first puch of a brawl that culminated in the Second Battle
of Manassas and disaster for Pope.
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Report
of Major William Henry, Jr., commanding the 1st NJ Vols. Official Records, page 539, Vol. 12. Series I:
HEADQUARTERS
1st N.J. VOLS. . Sept. 6th, 1862
Sir - In obedience
to your order of this date, I have the honor to report that, on the 27th of August, this regiment, in command of
Lieut.-Colonel Collet, with the Brigade in command of Brigadier General Geo. W. Taylor, proceeding by the Orange and Alexandria
Railroad from Camp California, two miles south of Alexandria to Bull Run Bridge, on said road, whence the regiment on the
right of the Brigade, marched to Manassas Plains, some two miles from the bridge, and encountered a large force of the enemy
in formidable position of the heights. By order of the General commanding the left company of this regiment, commanded by
Lieutenant Roberts of Co. "C", were deployed as skirmishers 500 yards to the front, the enemy's skirmishers retiring.
The regiment, in close
column of division, deployed into line of battle, and, by order of the General, advanced to engage the enemy's artillery,
stationed in a redout directly in front, which, in connection with the artillery on the right, had opened upon our advancing
force with a heavy discharge of round shot, shell and grape, through which the regiment advanced in good order, undaunted
and defiant.
The enemy, in the meantime,
had deployed a large force of cavalry and considerable infantry, exhibiting a strength that it was apparent our Brigade was
entirely inadequate to cope with, which, being discovered by the General, he gave the order to fall back, the enemy's cavalry
and infantry in the meantime advancing and attacking us in force. Column against cavalry was formed and the Brigade marched
in good order to the rear. In the execution of this order, accomplished by a rapid movement, the principle part of our loss
was sustained.
Recrossing the bridge
at Bull Run a portion of the regiment was filed to the left, with the order to hold the bridge, the enemy's infantry closely
pursuing, and firing with comparatively insignificant effect from the right bank of the stream diagonally across the bridge,
which was replied to with good effect by our men. After being thus engaged, and holding the bridge for the space of about
half an hour, the Eleventh and Twelfth Ohio Volunteers, under command of Colonel Scammon, who assumed command of the combined
forces, consisting of the First Brigade and two regiments of Ohio Volunteers (the Eleventh and Twelfth), General Taylor having
received a wound which disabled him from duty, and being thus relieved by fresh regiments which had not been exposed to the
enemy's fire, the undersigned, who was at this time in command, Lieut.-Col. Collet suffering from the effects of excessive
fatigue and sunstroke, ordered his men to the rear, where the main body of his regiment had at this time assembled. The loss to this regiment in the affair here reported was killed, wounded and missing,
152.
The regiment marched
on the night of the 27th inst., with the force referred to, via Fairfax Station and the Braddock road to Annandals,
thence by the Little River Turnpike, arriving at this camp near Cloud's Mill, at 12 M. the day following, August 28th.
WILLIAM
HENRY, Jr.,
Major
First New Jersey Vols.
Col. A.T.A. Torbert,
1st NJ Vols.
Commanding Brigade
********************
Report
of the Third Regiment, under Colonel Henry W. Brown
Headquarters Third New Jersey Volunteers
1st
Brigade, 1st Division, 6th Corps.
Camp
Seminary, Sept. 6th, 1862
Sir - I have he honor
to report that on the morning of the 27th ulto., about 3 o'clock, orders were received to be ready to march immediately,
and the regiment, which was then encamped at the foot of the hill near the seminary, marched at daybreak to the railroad depot
near Fort Ellsworth, where it was placed on the cars with the other regiments of the Brigade and the train moved off immediately.
About 9 o'clock a.m. of the same day we came to a point on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, about a quarter of a mile this
(east) side of Bull Run Bridge, where we found the road obstructed by the debris of cars from a collision the night before.
The regiment left the cars and moved up the railroad, crossing Bull Run Bridge, when I filed to the left of the road and formed
it by column of division on the high ground to the left of the track. Here I was ordered to relieve the men of tents, blankets,
knapsacks &c., and they were consequently thrown upon the ground.
From a little previous
to 10 o'clock a.m. cannonading was heard on the front, and from the point we now occupied skirmishers were observed to our
front and left. I now received orders to follow the Second Regiment, and the line of march was obliquely to the right across
the railroad, and after a march of one and a half miles, through rough but open country, we came to a dwelling-house and the
marks of an old camp, when suddenly the enemy opened on our right and left flanks with artillery at short range. A battalion
of cavalry now showed itself on our left, when I formed my regiment in double column at half distance and was ordered to take
my position two hundred or three hundred yards to the rear and opposite the interval between the First and Second Regiments,
which were in line of battle. Thus formed the Brigade moved, the First towards the guns on the right, the Second towards those
on the left, the Third moving opposite the interval, as previously ordered, for a mile or thereabout, when I was ordered to
halt and deploy, the enemy's cavalry having moved to the rear of his right. Almost immediately skirmishing was heard in the
front. Shortly after the leading regiments fell back on my line in good order, and the enemy's cavalry again appeared on our
left when I again prepared to receive them and retreated in column, by order of the General, across an open country to an
elevated position on the railroad, and there formed a line of battle behind some trees and ranks of wood. When the First and
Second Regiments had passed I continued the retreat towards Bull Run Bridge, sometimes threatened by the cavalry, when I formed
column; sometimes by artillery, who fired grape through my ranks, men and officers behaving admirably and moving in perfect
order.
We now came to a ravine,
the declivity of which was so steep that many of the men fell in descending, and in ascending the opposite side we received
a destructive fire from the enemy's artillery at short range. Fatigue of incessant marching over bad roads and continuous
fire of the enemy had thinned my ranks and many men had fallen out unable to march. The retreat being continued across the
bridge, these stragglers were captured by the enemy.
I was then placed with
part of my regiment on a hill to the left of the road to protect the bridge, the other portion having moved down the railroad.
Here I was reinforced by the Twelfth Ohio, the Eleventh Ohio being somewhere to my left and rear. General Taylor was now wounded
and carried to the rear and Colonel Scammon of the Eleventh Ohio, assumed command. The difficulty of the ground prevented
the further pursuit of (by) the enemy's artillery, but they occupied the rifle pits on the opposite hill and commenced a heavy
fire on our troops, which was vigorously replied to and continued nearly an hour.
The enemy now having crossed the creek on our right in force, for the purpose of outflanking us, I was
ordered in concert with the Twelfth Ohio to fall back along the brow of the hill and opposite the force trying to get in my
rear. The bridge being now abandoned the enemy crossed with his infantry, the cavalry having previously passed by a ford above,
and he being now on our left flank and pressing our front, we retreated slowly and in good order down the railroad, the enemy
following about a half a mile.
The firing during the
engagement was incessant and sometimes heavy. The casualties, so far as known, are comparatively few, the troops having been
pretty well screened by the hill on the left of the railroad, covered with dense woods. My chief loss was in prisoners taken
by the enemy's cavalry who were captured in attempting to cross the bridge. I append a list of killed, wounded and missing
so far as ascertained.
My officers and men,
almost without exception, behaved with the utmost gallantry, and showed the best qualities of soldiers by the quietude and
steadiness of their retreat under galling fire.
I have the honor to
be, sir, your most obedient servant,
H.W.
BROWN,
Colonel
Commanding
Capt. Robt. T. Dunham,
Assistant Adjutant-General
Source:
History of the First Brigade, New
Jersey Volunteers from 1861 to 1865
By Camille Baquet, Second Lieutenant,
Co."A", 1st Regiment NJ Volunteers
Stonewall's Manassas Return
By L. VanLaon Naisawald, America's Civil War, November 2002
