CHAP. LVII.] POPE AND JACKSON. 437 thousand, but it came without artillery wagons, or horses for the field and general officers. Porter's division ar rived broken down with fatigue. Under such circumstances, it was not possible for Pope to maintain his front after a suitable body had been detached to defeat Jack son on his flank. In his report he says: "The movement of General Jackson in the direction of Thoroughfare Gap, while the main body of the enemy confronted me at Sulphur Springs and Waterloo Bridge, was well known to Is still expecting re. me, but I had relied confidently upon the forces which I had been assured would be sent from Alexandria, and one strong division of which I had ordered to take post on the works at Manassas Junction. I was entirely under the belief that these would be there, and it was not until I found my communication intercepted that I was undeceived. I knew that this movement was no raid, and that it was made by not less than 25,000 men.' enforcements. Hooker defeats Of Pope's retreating columns, that under Hooker encountered the Confederates, under Ewell, on the 27th, driving him from the field with considerable loss. Hooker's division went into this action with only forty rounds of ammunition, and when the work was done had only five rounds to each man left. It was this defeat of Ewell that compelled Jackson to evacuate Manassas. His position had become perilous. If Pope could have blocked Thoroughfare Gap, and prevented the passage of Longstreet, he might have fallen with an overwhelming force on Jackson. To aid in this movement, Pope sent explicit orders to Porter, but they were not executed. Jackson retires from Manassas, Jackson, seeing his danger, fell back from Manassas, not by the route through which he had come, which would have brought him upon McDowell and Sigel, who were west of him, but across 438 Pope. in POPE AND JACKSON. [SECT. XI. Bull Run by Centreville. Pope reached Mapassas about midday on the 28th, in less than an hour after Jackson and is followed by person had left it. He pushed forward Hooker, Kearny, and Reno upon Centreville, ordering Porter to come to the Junction, and McDowell to move upon Centreville. McDowell had detached Ricketts's division toward Thoroughfare Gap, so that it was no longer available in this movement. Expectation that In the evening of the 28th Kearny drove the enemy's rear-guard out of Centreville. One portion of it took the road to Sudley's Spring, the other the Warrenton Turnpike toward Gainesville, destroying the bridges over Bull Run and Cub Run. The corps of McDowell and Sigel, with Reynolds's division, now marching toward Centreville, encountered the advance of Jackson's force, retreating toward Thoroughfare Gap, about six o'clock that evening. An action took place which was indecisive, and was ter minated by the darkness. On learning this, Pope, who was now at Centreville, felt that there was Jackson would be no escape for Jackson. Accordingly, he sent orders to McDowell to hold his ground. at all hazards, and prevent the retreat of Jackson to the West. He intended that at daylight the entire national forces from Centreville and Manassas should attack the enemy, who must be crushed between them. He sent orders to Kearny to move cautiously, after midnight, from Centreville along the Warrenton Turnpike, to keep close to the enemy, and at daylight to assault him vigor ously with his right advance. Hooker and Reno would support him very soon after dawn. He ordered Porter, who he supposed was at Manassas Junction, to move upon Centreville as soon as it was light. enveloped. Pope's forces were therefore so disposed that McDowell, Pope's arrangements Sigel, and Reynolds, whose conjoint strength was 25,000, were immediately west of Jack for that purpose. CHAP. LVII.] THE BATTLE OF GAINESVILLE. 439 son, between him and Thoroughfare Gap, while Kearny, Hooker, Reno, and Porter, of the same strength, were to fall on him from the east at daylight. Longstreet was so far off that, by using the whole force vigorously, Pope could crush Jackson before Longstreet could possibly arrive. Before daylight, however, Pope learned that King's Longstreet passes division, which had been attempting to bar Thoroughfare Gap. Longstreet's way, had fallen back from Thoroughfare Gap toward Manassas Junction. The passage through the Gap was now open. New dispositions had become necessary. dispositions. Pope therefore at once sent orders to Sigel, supported Pope adopts new by Reynolds, to attack the enemy vigorously as soon as it was light enough to see, and bring him to a stand. He ordered Heintzelman to push forward from Centreville toward Gainesville at the same time with the divisions of Hooker and Kearny. Reno was directed to follow them closely. As soon as they came up with Jackson, they were to attack him with the utmost vigor. Pope also ordered Porter, then at Manassas, to move with the greatest rapidity on Gainesville, and turn Jackson's flank at the point where the Warrenton Turnpike is intersected by the road from Manassas Junction to Gainesville. Battle of Gaines Run. Accordingly, Sigel attacked Jackson at daylight on the 29th, a mile or two east of Groveton. ville, or Second Bull Hooker and Kearny quickly coming up, Jackson fell back some distance, but he was so closely pressed that at length he was compelled to make a stand. He accordingly took up a position with his left in the neighborhood of Sudley's Spring, his right a little to the south of Warrenton Turnpike, and his line covered by an old railroad grade which leads from Gainesville in the direction of Leesburg. His batteries, which Pope's report of the battle. THE BATTLE OF GAINESVILLE. were numerous, and some of them of heavy calibre, were posted behind ridges in the open ground on both sides of Warrenton Turnpike, while the mass of his troops was sheltered in dense woods behind the railroad embankment. Pope arrived from Centreville about noon, and found both armies much cut up by the action in which they had been already engaged. Heintzelman was on the right of the line; Sigel on his left, extending a short distance south of the Warrenton Turnpike. The extreme left was occupied by Reynolds. Of Reno's corps, part had gone into action, and part was in reserve in the rear of the centre. Pope now informed the different commanders that Porter and McDowell were coming up from Manassas Junction, and would soon be in position to fall upon Jackson's right flank, and probably upon his rear. From twelve till four o'clock very severe skirmishes constantly occurred whenever Jackson showed a disposition to retreat. About two o'clock firing was heard in the direction of Jackson's [SECT. XI. CHAP. LVII.] THE BATTLE OF GAINESVILLE. 441 right. Pope now supposed that Porter and McDowell had reached their position, and were coming into action. The firing, however, soon ceased. Information then came that McDowell would be up in a couple of hours. Pope then sent peremptory orders to Porter to attack the enemy's right, and, if possible, turn his rear. When a sufficient time had elapsed for this to be done, he ordered Heintzelman and Reno to attack in front. Accordingly, they did so, forcing back Jackson's left toward his centre, and driving it from that part of the field. In this attack, Grover's brigade, of Hooker's division, was particularly distinguished by a bayonet charge it made, breaking two of the enemy's lines, and penetrating to the third before it could be checked. McDowell had now arrived on the field and joined in the battle, but Porter never came. At sunset Longstreet's troops from the Gap were fast Arrival of Long coming up to the re-enforcement of Jackson, street on the field. and at night both armies rested on the field, each having lost about 7000 men. In his report Pope says: "About 8 P.M. the greater Pope's accusations portion of the field of battle was occupied against Porter. by our army. Nothing was heard of General Porter up to that time, and his forces took no part whatever in the action, but were suffered by him to lie idle on their arms, within sight and sound of the battle, during the whole day. So far as I know, he made no ef fort whatever to comply with my orders or to take any part in the action. I do not hesitate to say that, if he had discharged his duty as became a soldier under the circumstances, and had made a vigorous attack on the enemy, as he was expected and directed to do, at any any time up eight o'clock that night, we should have utterly crushed and captured the larger portion of Jackson's force before he could have been by any possibility sufficiently re-enforced to have made an effective resistance. I did not to |