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Chapter 12: the affair at Groveton.
It having become evident that
Pope had found it necessary to look after his “lines of retreat,” and was moving his whole army back for the purpose of falling upon
General Jackson's comparatively small force, the latter determined to move to the left so as to be in a position to unite with the right wing of
General Lee's army under
Longstreet.
Jackson's division, under
Brigadier General W. S. Taliaferro, had therefore been moved on the night of the 27th to the vicinity of the battlefield of the 21st of July, 1861, and
A. P. Hill's to
Centreville, with orders to
Ewell to move up, by the northern bank of
Bull Run, to the same locality with
Taliaferro early on the morning of the 28th.
At dawn on that morning, my brigade resumed the march, moving across
Bull Run at Blackburn's Ford and then up the north bank to
Stone Bridge, followed by
Trimble's brigade.
We crossed at a ford just below
Stone Bridge, and moved across the
Warrenton Pike and through the fields between the
Carter house and the
Stone Tavern, where the battle of the 21st of July had begun, to the
Sudley road, near where
Jackson's division was already in position.
Lawton's and
Hays' brigades had by mistake taken the road to
Centreville, but had now rejoined the rest of the division, and the whole of the brigades were placed under cover in the woods, north of the
Warrenton Pike, through which the
Sudley road ran.
Hill's division came up from
Centreville subsequently.
In the meantime
Pope's whole army had been moving by various roads upon
Manassas Junction, with the expectation of finding
Jackson's force there, but in the afternoon the corps of
McDowell's en route for
Manassas had been ordered to move to
Centreville, and a portion of it marched along
