First Manassas- Part 2- the Union on the Verge of Victory

Union forces crossed Sudley Ford on Bull Run and Sudley Springs Ford on Catharpin Run more than three hours behind schedule. This is interpreted at Manassas Battlefield Driving Tour Stop #5 Sudley, shown below.

**This stone rubble is all that remains of Christian Hill the Benson house**

**Side view of the Thornberry house** **one of only three Civil War era structures surviving on the battlefield**

**The Thornberry house** **the** **inside is not open to the public**

**Used as a Union field hospital during the battle**

**Note the stone structure to the left of the Union Cavalry**

**The stone structure in the picture above has collapsed. All that is left is the stone rubble on the far shore seen through the trees.**

**The site of the town of Sudley Springs there was once a mill, hotel, church and a few homes here. Now only the rebuilt church remains**

They next pass the Sudley Methodist Church on the Sudley Road on the way to Matthews Hill. The Sudley Methodist Church and markers near it are shown below.

**The church was used as a field hospital during the battle**

**The Sudley Methodist Church- the third structure built on the site**

Colonel Ambrose Burnside’s brigade is leading the way. They soon encounter Wheat’s skirmish line at the crest of Matthew’s Hill. Over the next two hours a severe fight for the hill would take place shown in the maps below from Blue and Gray magazine.

Wheat controlled the crest for about 15 minutes until he was driven off by the 2nd RI. Wheat tried to retake the crest but was repulsed. He then crossed Sudley Road to the area of the John Dogan house where his 1st LA became engaged with the 2nd NH. Wheat was shot in the chest and was thought to have a fatal wound. He survived, however, only to be killed 11 months later at Gaines Mill. On the Union side Colonel Hunter was wounded, shot in the neck. Colonel Slocum of the 2nd RI was mortally wounded, as was its Major Sullivan Ballou, who died back at Sudley Church after losing a leg to Rebel artillery.

Shortly before the battle and his death Ballou wrote a letter to his wife Sarah. It is perhaps the most famous letter ever written by a soldier in the Civil War. It appears below copied from the National Park Service website.

My Very Dear Wife:

Indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days, perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write a few lines, that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more. Our movement may be one of a few days duration and full of pleasure and it may be one of severe conflict and death to me. Not my will, but thine, O God be done. If it is necessary that I should fall on the battlefield for any country, I am ready. I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in, the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American civilization now leans upon the triumph of government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution, and I am willing, perfectly willing to lay down all my joys in this life to help maintain this government, and to pay that debt. But, my dear wife, when I know, that with my own joys, I lay down nearly all of yours, and replace them in this life with care and sorrows, when, after having eaten for long years the bitter fruit of orphanage myself, I must offer it, as their only sustenance, to my dear little children, is it weak or dishonorable, while the banner of my purpose floats calmly and proudly in the breeze, that my unbounded love for you, my darling wife and children, should struggle in fierce, though useless, contest with my love of country. I cannot describe to you my feelings on this calm summer night, when two thousand men are sleeping around me, many of them enjoying the last, perhaps, before that of death, and I, suspicious that Death is creeping behind me with his fatal dart, am communing with God, my country and thee. I have sought most closely and diligently, and often in my breast, for a wrong motive in this hazarding the happiness of those I loved, and I could not find one. A pure love of my country, and of the principles I have often advocated before the people, and “the name of honor, that I love more than I fear death,” have called upon me, and I have obeyed. Sarah, my love for you is deathless. It seems to bind me with mighty cables, that nothing but Omnipotence can break; and yet, my love of country comes over me like a strong wind, and bears me irresistibly on with all those chains, to the battlefield. The memories of all the blissful moments I have spent with you come crowding over me, and I feel most deeply grateful to God and you, that I have enjoyed them so long. And how hard it is for me to give them up, and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together, and seen our boys grow up to honorable manhood around us. I know I have but few claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me, perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar, that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, nor that, when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name.

Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless, how foolish I have oftentimes been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears, every little spot upon your happiness, and struggle with all the misfortune of this world, to shield you and my children from harm. But I cannot, I must watch you from the spirit land and hover near you, while you buffet the storms with your precious little freight, and wait with sad patience till we meet to part no more. But, O Sarah, if the dead can come back to this earth, and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you in the garish day, and the darkest night amidst your happiest scenes and gloomiest hours always, always, and, if the soft breeze fans your cheek, it shall be my breath; or the cool air cools your throbbing temples, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah, do not mourn me dear; think I am gone, and wait for me, for we shall meet again. As for my little boys, they will grow as I have done, and never know a father’s love and care. Little Willie is too young to remember me long, and my blue-eyed Edgar will keep my frolics with him among the dimmest memories of his childhood. Sarah, I have unlimited confidence in your maternal care, and your development of their characters. Tell my two mothers, I call God’s blessing upon them. O Sarah, I wait for you there! Come to me, and lead thither my children.

– Sullivan

With Hunter wounded Fitz John Porter assumed command of the division. Union reinforcements continued to arrive including the 8th and 14th NY State militia, and the 27th NY. As Confederate forces were about to collapse reinforcements arrived. Captain John Imboden’s Staunton Artillery and Brigadier General Bernard Bee’s brigade (4th AL, 2nd and 11th MS) and Francis Barton’s 7th and 8th GA were now within supporting distance of Evans on Henry Hill, a total of about 2,500 men. Evans rode back to enlist their support in what would now be a delaying action until a new line could be created on the other side of the Warrenton Pike on Henry Hill. Additional Union forces arrived from Heintzelman’s division, as McDowell sent orders back to Tyler to cross at the Stone Bridge and join the action on Matthew’s Hill, which they did at a farm ford under Sherman and Keyes. This is interpreted at the marker shown below.

**Hard to see through all the vegetation is Bull Run in the area of the farm ford**

With the arrival of new Union forces on their right flank, Evans, Bee and Bartow would need to withdraw up Henry Hill. Colonel Jones of the 4th AL was mortally wounded during this time. Colonel Wade Hampton’s Legion covered the retreat, however, the Confederate forces were in disarray. A quick lunge at Henry Hill and its high ground before Confederate reinforcements could arrive might have ended the battle completely. Unfortunately, McDowell chose to consolidate his forces over the next two hours. Evans had bought Beauregard about 90 minutes with his stand on Matthew’s Hill. McDowell gave Beauregard and Johnston an additional 2 hours to rush massive numbers of men to Henry Hill and attempt to turn the morning defeat into an afternoon victory.

The battle on Matthew’s Hill is interpreted at Driving Tour Stop #4 and its loop trail. Pictures from that stop are shown below.