Battlefield of
Cedar Mountain, August 9, 1862.
Here the Confederate army in its second advance on
Washington first felt out the strength massed against it. After
Lee's brilliant tactics had turned McClellan's Peninsula Campaign into a fiasco, the Confederate Government resolved to again take the offensive.
Plans were formed for a general invasion of the
North, the objective points ranging from
Cincinnati eastward to the
Federal capital and
Philadelphia.
Immediately after
Washington got wind of this,
Lincoln (on August 4th) issued a call for three hundred thousand men; and all haste was made to rush the forces of
McClellan from the
Peninsula and of
Cox from
West Virginia to the aid of the recently consolidated army under
Pope.
On August 9, 1862, the vanguards of “
Stonewall”
Jackson's army and of
Pope's intercepting forces met at
Cedar Mountain.
Banks, with the Second Corps of the
Federal army, about eight thousand strong, attacked
Jackson's forces of some sixteen thousand.
The charge was so furious that
Jackson's left flank was broken and rolled up, the rear of the center fired upon, and the whole line thereby thrown into confusion.
Banks, however, received no reenforcements, while
Jackson received strong support.
The Federal troops were driven back across the ground which they had swept clear earlier in the afternoon.
The
Battle of Cedar Mountain, August 9, 1862.
The lower picture was taken the day after the battle that had raged for a brief two hours on the previous evening.
After an artillery fire that filled half the afternoon, the advanced Federal cavalry was pressed back on the infantry supporting the batteries.
Banks underestimated the strength of the
Confederates.
Instead of sending to
Pope for reenforcements, he ordered a charge on the approaching troops.
The Confederates, still feeling their way, were unprepared for this movement and were thrown into confusion.
But at the moment when the
Federal charge was about to end in success, three brigades of
A. P. Hill in reserve were called up. They forced the
Federals to retrace their steps to the point where the fighting began.
Here the
Federal retreat, in turn, was halted by
General Pope with reenforcements.
The Confederates moving up their batteries, a short-range artillery fight was kept up until midnight. At daylight it was found that
Ewell and
Jackson had fallen back two miles farther up the mountain.
Pope advanced to the former Confederate ground and rested, after burying the dead.
The following morning the
Confederates had disappeared.
The loss to both armies was almost three thousand in killed, wounded and missing.
The battle had accomplished nothing.
