The Battle of Thoroughfare Gap- August 28, 1862

After Longstreet blocked Irvin McDowell’s attempt to cross the Rappahannock River on the 26th at Waterloo Bridge, Lee decided it was time for he and Longstreet to join Jackson. They would travel via the same route as Jackson. The marker below is in Orlean, VA.

This would be the route to Thoroughfare Gap.

While headed from Orlean to Salem (modern day Marshall) on the morning of the 27th between Vernon Mills and Ada, Lee and his party ran into the 9th NY Cavalry.

On August 28th two armies were as shown in the map below.

Lee spent the night of the 28th east of The Plains at Avenel, a private home. It is located at 5722 John Marshall Highway and cannot be seen from the road.

On the morning of the 28th Irvin McDowell received an order to head to Manassas with his men. McDowell had learned from his cavalry that Longstreet was near, so he decided to deviate from Pope’s order by leaving Brigadier General James Rickets’ Division behind at Gainesville to keep an eye on Thoroughfare Gap and headed to Manassas with the rest of his Corps. Early on the morning of the 28th Colonel Sir Percy Wyndham’s 1st NJ Cavalry headed toward Thoroughfare Gap. His commander George Bayard followed a short time later with the rest of the brigade.

The gap can be seen in the map above. It ran through a series of ridges- Mother Leathercoat to the north and Pond Mountain to the south. The gap was narrow and through it ran a small road, the Manassas Gap Railroad and Broad Run. Along Broad Run was Chapman’s Mill. The Chapman family had two homes Tanglewood south of the road and Meadowlands north of the road. When Wyndham arrived at the extreme eastern part of the pass, he mistook it for the gap, which was actually further west. This left the commanding ridges unoccupied. His men quickly began felling trees to block the pass and he sent word back to Ricketts who marched his men there. Because of Wyndham’s error Ricketts would not be defending the gap but he would not need to take the gap. The battle unfolded as shown in the maps from an article in Blue and Gray magazine.

Bayard’s Cavalry was at the eastern end of the gap with the 1st NJ in the lead followed by the 2nd NY under Lieutenant Colonel Judson Kilpatrick and the 1st PA led by Colonel Owen Jones. Lee’s Cavalry was with Jackson so Longstreet had to use part of his infantry to screen his advance. Colonel George Anderson deployed Colonel Benjamin Beck’s 9th GA in the lead. The column stopped to rest in mid-afternoon 300-400 yards short of the gap at a hotel. A few Confederates went forward to the village of Georgetown when then ran into the 1st NJ Cavalry and were captured.

Longstreet ordered Brigadier General David R. Jones to reconnoiter the gap. Jones sent the 9th GA forward which encountered Wyndham’s dismounted Cavalry. The Georgians drove them about a quarter mile east of the gap where they ran into the lead elements of Ricketts’ division about 3:00 PM. By the time Ricketts got there the gap was already in the possession of the Confederates and he would attempt to take it back. Colonel John Stiles brigade led the Union troops with the 11th PA supported by the 83rd NY to the north of the road and the 13th and 12th MA south of the road. The 9th GA advanced about 3/4 of a mile east of the gap when they ran into Stiles’ skirmishers. Stiles’ men pushed the Rebels back to the middle ridge. They managed to clear the Rebels from the mill but had still not entered the main gap.

Anderson brought the rest of his division forward and D.R. Jones’ Division advanced to support the Georgians. Longstreet sent Cadmus Wilcox’s Division on a flanking march to Hopewell Gap three miles to the north. He also sent John Bell Hood with two brigades to turn Ricketts’ right flank via a footpath over Mother Leathercoat Mountain. Jones sent the 20th and 2nd GA to the right to secure the high ground of Pond Mountain. At the same time on the eastern side of the mountain the 12th MA had the same goal. The Georgians got there first and their sharpshooters fired on the Union artillery. The Rebels now held the southern end of the gap. The focus of the fighting now would shift to the northern end of the gap on Mother Leathercoat Mountain.

On the northern side Union sharpshooters were firing on the Confederates from the upper floors of the five-story mill. There was a ridge north of the mill that Anderson sent the 1st GA to occupy which the 11th PA was also trying to take. There was a quarry trench on top of the ridge. The Confederates extended their line to the left with the 7th, 8th and 11th GA. By this time Law’s Brigade of Hood’s Division had scaled Mother Leathercoat Mountain and were flanking Ricketts’ right. Realizing this Ricketts made the decision to withdraw his division to Gainesville. Longstreet moved through the gap and camped on the eastern side. Wilcox moved unopposed through Hopewell Gap and camped at Antioch Church. Longstreet spent the night in a cottage on the mountain. General Lee stayed west of the gap at Avenel, the home of William Beverly. After a night’s rest they would be only about 10 miles from Stonewall Jackson.

Many of these sites are located along walking trails of the Bull Run Mountains Conservacy (Link) located at 17405 Beverly Mill Drive in Broad Run, VA. A map of the walking trails is shown below. Sites of interest with respect to the battle are: #3- the quarry trench; #4 the Meadowlands; and #5 the upper mill. I plan to take a future there when the leaves have fallen and visibility is better. Below the trail maps are pictures of sites on that trail from the Historical Marker Database and Mapquest along with the link to a marker I need to visit.