About 300 yards south of the present Sudley Church, the old grade of an independent line of the Manassas Gap Railroad crosses the Manassas-Sudley Road (Virginia Route 234). Stretching southwestward from this point for a distance of nearly 2 miles is the section of the grade occupied by Jackson’s troops during the second battle. From this protecting screen he first revealed his position in the attack on King’s column on August 28. Here, in the next 2 days, he successfully repelled repeated Federal assaults. Though brush and trees have grown up along much of it, the grade is still clearly defined.
7. SUDLEY CHURCH.
Just west of the Manassas-Sudley Road, near its intersection with the Groveton-Sudley Road (Virginia Route 622), stands Sudley Church on the approximate site of the wartime structure that twice served as a hospital. In the first battle, the Federal wounded overflowed the church into a number of neighboring houses.
Wartime photograph of the Sudley Church. Courtesy Library of Congress.
8. “DEEP CUT.”
Approximately three-quarters of a mile northwest of Groveton and immediately in front of the old railroad grade is “Deep Cut,” scene of the bitterest fighting of the second battle. Here the troops of Fitz-John Porter suffered terrific losses in gallant but vain attempts to penetrate Jackson’s defenses. Heavy woods have now grown up in what was then open land largely obscuring the shaft of reddish brown stone erected to the memory of the Union troops who fell there. Most of the land of the “Deep Cut” area is not at present owned by the park.
9. THE DOGAN HOUSE.
Here at Groveton, at the intersection of the Groveton-Sudley Road and Lee Highway, is located the Dogan House, one of the main landmarks of the second battle. It was across this area, on August 29, that Hood’s division drove back the Union division of Hatch before it retired to the west of Groveton. The next day the area was involved in heavy artillery and infantry fire.
The small, one-story house of weather-boarded logs originally served as the overseer’s house of the Dogan farm. Later, it was occupied by the Dogan family after their main house had burned. Like the Stone House, it now stands as one of the two remaining original structures in the park.