REBEL THUNDER

Southern fortunes turned on a dime in mid-1862. The first full year of the war had begun badly with several setbacks out West, and by June the Confederates faced a double threat in the Eastern Theater, with Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac threatening Richmond and Maj. Gen. John Pope’s newly formed Army of Virginia taking the field. The situation would change in August, however, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee seized the offensive with his daring Virginia Campaign. Sending Maj. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s command—nearly half his army—north, Lee determined to interpose between Pope’s army and Washington, forcing a decisive battle to advance Southern independence by pressuring Abraham Lincoln to negotiate a separation or inducing Britain and France to intervene.

The Confederates’ August 9 victory at Cedar Mountain, near Culpeper, enabled Jackson to push east and strike the rich Federal supply depot at Manassas Junction. Resupplied, Jackson then moved north to await the arrival of Maj. Gen. James Longstreet’s half of the army, only to be drawn into battle before that could occur. The ensuing Second Battle of Manassas on August 28-30 would yield another victory that Lee wasted no time trying to exploit.

On August 31, a dawn cavalry probe by Confederate Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart revealed that Pope’s retreating army had stopped behind works at Centreville, Va., and was beginning to receive reinforcements from McClellan’s fresh 2nd and 4th Corps. Although Lee knew a direct attack was ill advised, he was determined to provoke another major fight by again trying to place Jackson’s command between Pope and Washington, to be joined in the effort by Longstreet. By midday that Sunday, Lee had Jackson moving north from Manassas along a thoroughfare known as Gum Springs Road before turning east and heading down the Little River Turnpike toward the intersection of Jermantown.

Though shaken, Pope remained committed to attacking Lee’s army from his position in Centreville until Union cavalry revealed witnessing a large Rebel infantry column already in the army’s rear—Jackson’s command. Now resigned to a general retreat, Pope knew he needed to find and block that force, assigning the small 9th