Conclusion of Gibbon’s Fight.
Positions, nine P.M., August 28, 1862; excepting Jackson’s, which is that occupied by him during the 28th, 29th, and 30th.
But whatever advantage might have been gained from Gibbon’s stanch fight was speedily thrown away by King’s decision to abandon the ground, and that, too, after assuring General Ricketts, as that officer states, that he would hold on. At midnight he retreated to Manassas, and General Ricketts retreated to Bristoe. Both marched away from the enemy, and by daylight their troops, exhausted and discouraged by being marched day and night and made to shun the enemy, were strung out along the dusty roads ten miles from where they were needed, while Lee’s right wing was swiftly marching to join Jackson, which nothing could now prevent. Something may be said in palliation of this retreat. The enemy held the ground in front of King, and might be expected to renew the battle in the morning. The advance of Longstreet was through the Gap and in contact with Ricketts, and only five miles distant, the afternoon before. It was to be expected that the Confederate leader would lose no time in pushing on to join Jackson, and he might move up during the night, and fall upon the two Union divisions with his whole force—thirty thousand men—at daylight. “No superior general officer was in the vicinity with the requisite knowledge and authority to order up troops,” etc., says Gibbon.
But why they did not retreat down the pike, where were Reynolds and Sigel close at hand, and by which King was ordered to move, is indeed incomprehensible.
The chief responsibility for the series of blunders which rendered abortive the movements of the left wing clearly rests upon McDowell, its commander. His was the nerveless command that failed to make Sigel march when and whither ordered; his the sluggish movements that left his troops strung along the pike nearly to Warrenton, instead of concentrating them about Gainesville on the 27th; his the mistaken judgment that kept him from hastening in person that night to Gainesville, the key-point to his whole movement, and, worse yet, that led him to gallop off to consult with Pope the next day instead of remaining with his command, keeping his divisions in hand, and pushing them vigorously eastward along the railroad and the pike until he developed Jackson’s position. But McDowell was constantly conferred with and depended upon by Pope, and had too much upon his mind the task of manœuvring the whole army.
During the day (28th) Pope was in a state of great uncertainty as to Jackson’s movements, but late at night, learning of Gibbon’s battle, he concluded that Jackson, while retreating up the pike, had been headed off and stopped by McDowell’s troops, and his hopes revived. He issued his orders accordingly,—Kearny to move at one o’clock at night, even if he carries no more than two thousand men, and to advance up the turnpike; Hooker to march at three A.M., even if he shall have to do so with only half his men; the ninth corps, also, all up the pike; Sigel and Reynolds are to attack at earliest dawn; Porter to hasten forward to Centreville.
CHAPTER LVI
THE SECOND BATTLE OF BULL RUN
Early in the morning of Friday, the 28th, Jackson moved back behind the railroad grade, extended his lines, and took up his defensive position, extending from near Sudley Church along and in rear of the railroad to the high ground north of the pike, opposite to, or just north of, the battle-ground of the previous evening, curving his right to present a somewhat convex front towards the pike. Ewell’s division, now under General A.R. Lawton, held the right, Hill’s the left, and Jackson’s, under General William E. Starke, the centre; Hill and Starke were in the woods. A battery was placed on the high ground in front of the right, and between it and the pike, and two regiments of infantry, 13th and 35th Virginia, were thrown across the pike into the woods on the south side of it. Other batteries were planted on the high “stony ridge” in rear of the main line. Secure in this position he calmly awaits events, knowing that a few hours will bring Longstreet on his right.