Reynolds, although greatly impeded by Sigel’s troops and wagons, forced his way past them, passed Gainesville, and moved down the pike towards Groveton, in order to gain his required position upon Sigel’s left. Approaching Groveton about ten A.M., he flushed Jackson’s advanced brigade,—Bradley Johnson’s,—and deployed and pushed forward his leading brigade, under General George G. Meade. But Johnson drew back into the woods on the west, concealing his troops; and Reynolds supposed that the enemy was a mere scouting party, and sheered off in turn from the pike to the right in order to follow Sigel as ordered. After a laborious march across country on the left of the Manassas Gap Railroad, he came out in sight of Manassas, and thence, moving by the Sudley Road, he reached the vicinity of the pike and bivouacked near the Chinn House, still on the left of Sigel. Thus these commands spent the whole day in laboriously marching clear around the circle from a point just west of Groveton to a point on the same pike a mile east of it, marching fifteen miles to gain two!
General Buford, with his cavalry, by a bold reconnoissance developed Longstreet’s column at Salem on the 27th. McDowell, therefore, wisely modified the order to move his whole force on Manassas by directing his rear division under Ricketts, starting at one A.M., to move across from New Baltimore to Haymarket, thence to Thoroughfare Gap, and hold Longstreet in check. Ricketts was greatly delayed by the wagons and troops blocking the road ahead of him, but reached the vicinity of the Gap at three P.M. to find the enemy already in possession of it. But deploying in position, and opening with artillery, he maintained a resolute stand, holding him in check until dark, when he retreated to Gainesville.
King, next to Reynolds in the column, was so long delayed that he was five hours later in reaching the point near Groveton, where the former caught a glimpse of Bradley Johnson’s brigade. He was ordered to march down the pike to Centreville. The leading brigade under Hatch had passed this point, and the next brigade under Gibbon had just reached it, when his column was subjected to artillery fire from batteries which suddenly appeared north of the road. Deploying and advancing to drive them off, Gibbon came face to face with extended lines of infantry advancing upon him in battle order, and one of the most stubborn fights of the war took place.
It was Jackson who, after lurking in his wooded lair all the afternoon, watching the heavy masses of Union troops passing down the pike, and successively sheering off near Groveton and marching away in the direction of Manassas, now pushed forward the divisions of Ewell and Taliaferro and attacked King’s column. The field was a high, level, open plain, without any cover except a small patch of woods and an orchard and some farm buildings. Reports Taliaferro:—
“Here one of the most terrific conflicts that can be conceived of occurred. Our troops held the farmhouse and one edge of the orchard, while the enemy held the orchard and inclosure next the turnpike. For two hours and a half, without an instant’s cessation of the most deadly discharges of musketry, roundshot, and shell, both lines stood unmoved, neither advancing and neither broken or yielding, until at last, about nine o’clock at night, the enemy slowly and sullenly fell back, and yielded the field to our victorious troops.”
This fierce conflict was sustained by Gibbon’s brigade of four regiments, two regiments of Doubleday’s brigade, and Campbell’s battery, alone and without help from the remainder of King’s division. General Gibbon, after an hour and a half of this terrible struggle, finding himself far outnumbered and outflanked on the left, ordered his line to fall back, which was done in good order. His pickets occupied the ground and collected the wounded. The enemy seems to have also drawn back to care for the wounded and reorganize, for Jackson’s report contains this significant statement: “The next morning (29th) I found he had abandoned the ground occupied as the battlefield the evening before.”
It is incontestable that Gibbon’s small force—six regiments and one battery—thus gloriously sustained the attack of five brigades of infantry and three batteries of artillery under Jackson’s own direction. The loss was about eight hundred on each side. Ewell and Taliaferro were both severely wounded, the former losing a leg. During the battle General Reynolds rode to the field from his bivouac, and aided Gibbon in calling for support.
General Ricketts reached Gainesville with his division just as the fight was over, having retreated from holding Longstreet in check. Thus at nine o’clock that night, Thursday, August 28, Ricketts and King held the pike from Gainesville to Groveton. Reynolds was in touch with King, being a short distance east of Groveton, Sigel next to him; while Pope’s right wing was in the positions already stated, the ninth and Heintzelman’s corps between Blackburn’s Ford and Centreville, Porter east of, Banks at Bristoe.
Thus Pope’s army was well positioned for a determined attack upon Jackson the first thing the next morning by McDowell and Sigel, with the right coming up early to support. Such an attack should have beaten Jackson, if he accepted battle, but he could readily decline an unequal struggle by drawing back to Haymarket and uniting with Longstreet’s columns. And it is clear that Pope’s only chance of “bagging” or beating Jackson was lost on the 28th by the dilatory, disconnected, and purposeless marches of McDowell’s wing.