Second Manassas- Day 3 (August 30, 1862)- Part 1- Porter’s Attack

The Morning

John Pope was up early on the 30th writing dispatches to Major General Henry Halleck on his views of the battle to date. As he was doing so the last of Lee’s divisions arrived on the battlefield. When he came up Major General Richard H. Anderson had mistakenly placed his troops near Groveton far forward of the Confederate lines in open ground. Anderson had inadvertently put his men in a position where they would be easy targets for Federal artillerists when the sun came up. Confederate General John Bell Hood recognized this and quickly warned him of the danger. General Anderson then pulled his troops back accordingly. This would have been a small matter if not for the fact that a Federal Brigadier General, Marsena Patrick of McDowell’s Corps, had seen the withdrawal. This was reported back up the chain of command until it reached Pope’s headquarters. Pope then included in his dispatch to Halleck that the Confederates were retreating toward the mountains and Pope was going to go forward to observe for himself. The marker below interprets Pope’s headquarters on Buck Hill.

**Looking south from the marker toward Henry Hill. The house at the bottom of the hill is the Stone House. To the left of center at the top in front of the tree line is the Henry house.**

At 7:00 AM Pope met with his senior commanders Heintzelman, McDowell, Sigel and Porter on Buck Hill where it was decided that they would attack the “retreating” Confederate left flank with Heintzelman (III), McDowell (I) and Porter’s (V) Corps. However, there was clear evidence on the battlefield that Jackson was going nowhere. In the morning on the Union right flank McDowell had advanced two of Brigadier General James Rickett’s brigades to relieve two brigades of Major General Philip Kearny’s division. The 107th PA moved forward across an area of the unfinished railroad cut that was lightly guarded. Brigadier General Jubal Early reacted quickly and pushed the Federals back and in the process Union Brigadier General Abram Duryee was wounded, clear evidence that Jackson was still there. Major General Fitz John Porter was the last of the group to arrive at the meeting and he reported on the situation along the Union left flank. He described the presence of a large Rebel force south of the Warrenton Turnpike on his left flank. His description was corroborated by Brigadier General John Reynolds. However, since Porter and Reynolds were both part of the forces that had joined Pope from McClellan’s army, he did not trust them. Regardless, information continued to filter back to Pope’s headquarters throughout the morning of the continued presence of Jackson on the battlefield. Pope and McDowell spent the rest of the morning under a tree waiting for Jackson to retreat. When that didn’t happen at 12:00 noon Pope placed McDowell in charge of the “pursuit of the retreating Confederates.”

In the meantime, Longstreet remained concerned about the large Union force on his right flank (Porter’s Corps). On the morning of the 30th Lee, Longstreet, Jackson and Stuart met at Lee’s headquarters. Given Jackson’s ability to withstand multiple Union assaults the day before, Lee decided to remain on the defensive at least for the day. When Pope’s hoped for attack did not come to pass in the morning Lee began to start planning for another flanking movement by Jackson to try and get around Pope’s right flank. The marker below is on Stuart’s Hill the location of Lee’s Headquarters, it is a large kiosk of which one of the three panels is shown below.

The two pictures below were taken from Stuart’s Hill. During the Civil War none of the trees seen would have been present. The small white dot near the center of the first picture is the Brawner farmhouse. It is seen better in the second picture with the zoom lens.

**Picture taken from Stuart’s Hill towards Lee Highway (Warrenton Pike)**

**View of the Brawner farmhouse from Stuart’s Hill.**

Porter’s attack

The first phase of the battle this day was Porter’s attack. Battle maps and descriptions from Blue and Gray Magazine regarding Porter’s attack are shown below.

Pope was obsessed with defeating Jackson and his forces behind the railroad cut. So much so that he disregarded all reports of Longstreet’s wing of Lee’s army that would be sitting on the left flank of any Union attacking force, which is readily apparent from looking at the maps below (especially clear on map 3). Longstreet could enfilade any attacking force with his many cannons, which would have clear fire over open ground. He could then descend on their left flank with his seasoned veteran infantry, roll it up, and send the Army of Virginia fleeing back to Washington in panic. Union Generals Porter and Reynolds knew this. That is exactly what Longstreet did, he enfiladed Porter’s attacking force. Once Porter was defeated Longstreet launched the infantry attack on his own without waiting for orders from Lee. If Jackson could somehow get around Pope’s right flank and block his retreat to Washington the Union Army of Virginia would be destroyed.

Pope’s orders were for Porter to lead the attack followed by the divisions of King, commanded by Hatch, and Reynolds. Ricketts and and Heintzelman were to pursue along the Hay Market Road. One of Porter’s division commanders General Charles Morell following old orders had marched away from the battlefield with one of his brigades and the brigade of Brigadier General Abram Piatt. Brigadier General Dan Butterfield commanded Porter’s first division and would be in the lead in two lines of battle. Brigadier General George Sykes’ division was behind Butterfield. Hatch’s division with four brigades would be on Porter’s right. Brigadier General Isaac Stevens, acting on his own initiative with his three IX Corps brigades, would be to the right of Hatch. Porter’s attack would emerge from the Groveton woods, cross an open field and then move up a hill to the unfinished part of the railroad called the Deep Cut. He would be heading toward Brigadier General William Starke’s division supported by Major L. M. Shumaker’s artillery. Porter’s skirmishers would be the elite 1st U.S. Sharpshooters, known as Berdan’s Sharpshooters. The sharpshooters took shelter in a dry stream, Schoolhouse Branch, firing their Sharps breech-loading rifles. As soon as the Union troops emerged from the woods Colonel Stephen Lee’s 18 guns on the Brawner Farm opened fire.

Hatch’s troops made it to a part of the Deep Cut occupied by Colonel Leroy Stafford’s Louisianans. Stafford’s men eventually ran out of ammunition and when they did, began throwing rocks at Union soldiers that had taken shelter on the slope of the hill before the railroad cut.

On the left Butterfield’s men were being hit hard by Stephen Lee’s artillery on their left flank as they tried to make headway against Colonel Bradley Johnson’s Virginians. As Butterfield’s men reached the top of the slope and broke through the Rebel line General Jackson brought up the Stonewall brigade under Colonel Baylor. Baylor grabbed the colors of the 33rd VA and led his men forward only to be shot down. Jackson further reinforced the Stonewall brigade with men from A. P. Hill. Jackson also sent word to General Lee requesting reinforcements from Longstreet. When he got the message Longstreet seeing that time was of the essence decided it would take too long to send infantry and quickly set up the Dixie Artillery on Battery Heights and opened fire into Porter’s rear.

Hill sent two brigades to reinforce Stafford and Johnson putting an end to Porter’s advance. Two hundred and ninety five Union soldiers surrendered on the upslope while taking fire from the front, left and rear. On the right Hatch’s first line, the 24th and 30th NY, slammed into Stafford’s men. Before his second line (22nd and 84th NY) could come to their aid the 15th AL had already launched an attack on their right flank neutralizing them. Hatch then moved his third line (21st and 35th NY) forward and were stopped by the 15th AL. The 80th NY’s commander Colonel George Pratt was killed and Hatch was wounded.

The main stop on the National Park Service battlefield auto tour that cover’s Porter’s attack is the Deep Cut stop (stop #7). Other relevant stops are one area of the Brawner farmhouse loop trail (stop #1) and Battery Heights (stop #2).

The Deep Cut NPS battlefield tour auto stop #7

**The parking lot- 38.8208241, -77.5495448**

The Attack at the Deep Cut marker is near the parking lot on the path to the Deep Cut.

**The upslope to the railroad cut is apparent here. Confederate reinforcements were in the tree line in the far distance at the top of the picture** **behind the cut.**

The On the Skirmish Line marker is also on the path to the Deep Cut from the parking lot. The famed Berdan Sharpshooters (1st U.S. Sharpshooters) were sent out as skirmishers in front of the Union lines of attack.

The pole marker to the 1st U.S. Sharpshooters was is next to the tablet.

At this point I headed toward the area of the Deep Cut. I walked up the hill to the 17th NY and First Brigade markers which are the furthest southwest markers of the Deep Cut. From there I walked northeast along the entire length of the trail to where it ends near the Unfinished Railroad driving tour parking lot further north on Featherbed Lane from the Deep Cut parking lot.

**Confederate forces were in this field and the woods**

The 13th NY Infantry Marker is near the Groveton Monument memorializing Union soldiers that fought here.

The Groveton Monument marker- note the cannonballs on the monument in the picture stolen long ago by relic hunters.

The 83rd Pennsylvania marker is near the Groveton Monument

The next series of markers are encountered sequentially when headed northeast from the Groveton Monument toward the Unfinished Railroad Cut parking lot.

**View** **looking toward the 24th NY Infantry marker**, **you can see all the rocks along the path in this part of the battlefield**

The 24th NY part of Hatch’s first line.

Not hard to see where Stafford’s men got the rocks there is a lot of tall grass here because it can’t be cut due to the large number of rocks. During the Civil War grazing farm animals kept it low. This whole area was owned by Lucinda Dolan at the time of the war.

The ground here begins to descend toward an area known as “The Dump” where railroad engineers dumped excess materials. Bricks taken from here were used to construct the Groveton Monument.