Second Bull Run Staff Ride: Briefing Book [Illustrated Edition]

By Ted Ballard

Contains more than 20 maps, diagrams and illustrations
Jackson’s march into the rear of Pope’s army opened the Battle of Second Manassas. a battle which has many lessons worthy of study; the deep strike, unity of command, intelligence, logistics and importance of terrain, just to name a few.
Accordingly, the purpose of the Manassas staff ride is to learn lessons of the past by analyzing this battle through the eyes of the men who were there, both leaders and rank and file soldiers. Hopefully, the actions or inactions of certain Civil War commanders and the reactions of their troops will allow us to gain insights into decision-making and the human condition during battle.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Golden Springs Publishing
• Release date: Aug 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781782898597

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Text originally published in 2000 under the same title.

© Pickle Partners Publishing 2014, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

SECOND BULL RUN STAFF RIDE

BRIEFING BOOK

U.S. ARMY CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

FOREWORD 5

SECOND BULL RUN CAMPAIGN 6

MAP 1 8

MAP 2 10

MAP 3 12

MAP 4 14

MAP 5 16

MAP 6 20

MAP 7 20

MAP 8 22

MAP 9 24

MAP 10 26

Order of Battle 28-30 August 1862 — Army of Virginia 27

I Corps, Army of Virginia (Maj Gen. Franz Sigel) 27

II Corps. Army of Virginia (Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P Banks) 28

III Corps, Army of Virginia (Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell) 29

Cavalry of the Army of Virginia 30

III Corps, Army of the Potomac (Maj. Gen. Samuel P. Heintzelman) 31

V Corps, Army of the Potomac (Maj. Gen. Fitz-John Porter) 32

IX Corps. Army of the Potomac (Brig. Gen. Jesse I. Reno) 33

Order of Battle 28-30 August 1862 — Army of Northern Virginia 34

Right Wing (Lt. Gen. James Longstreet) Infantry 34

Left Wing (Maj. Gen. Thomas J. Jackson) 36

Cavalry (Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart) 38

Artillery 38

UNION CASUALTIES: 28 AUG-1 SEP 1862 40

CONFEDERATE CASUALTIES: 28 AUG-1 SEP 1862 41

ORGANIZATION 41

LOGISTICS 44

SMALL ARMS 47

TYPICAL CIVIL WAR SMALL ARMS 47

ARTILLERY 49

CIVIL WAR FIELD ARTILLERY - STATISTICS 50

ARTILLERY PROJECTILES 51

TACTICS 54

SELECTED BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF UNION LEADERS 57

LINCOLN, Abraham. 57

STANTON, Edwin McMasters 58

HALLECK, Henry W. 59

POPE, John 60

BANKS, Nathaniel P. 62

HEINTZELMAN, Samuel P. 63

McDOWELL, Irvin 64

PORTER, Fitz-John 65

RENO, Jesse L. 66

SIGEL, Franz 67

SELECTED BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF CONFEDERATE LEADERS 69

DAVIS, Jefferson 1808-1889, 69

LEE, Robert E. 70

JACKSON, Thomas Jonathan (Stonewall) 71

LONGSTREET, James (Pete) 72

STUART, James Ewell Brown (Jeb) 73

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 75

FOREWORD

If you act promptly and rapidly, we shall bag the whole crowd.

MG John Pope, ordering MG McDowell to pursue Jackson

The success of the present movement and the result of the battle soon to be fought depends on the full and exact execution of orders. I fear liquor more than General Pope’s army.

MG Thomas J. Jackson, as his men sacked Manassas Junction

Jackson’s march into the rear of Pope’s army opened the Battle of Second Manassas. a battle which has many lessons worthy of study; the deep strike, unity of command, intelligence, logistics and importance of terrain, just to name a few.

Accordingly, the purpose of the Manassas staff ride is to learn lessons of the past by analyzing this battle through the eyes of the men who were there, both leaders and rank and file soldiers. Hopefully, the actions or inactions of certain Civil War commanders and the reactions of their troops will allow us to gain insights into decision-making and the human condition during battle.

In 1906, Major Eben Swift took twelve officer-students from Fort Leavenworth’s General Service and Staff School on the Army’s first staff ride to the Chickamauga Battlefield. Since then staff rides have been used to varying degrees in the education of Army officers to narrow the gap between peacetime training and war. That gap is of special concern in today’s Army in which few leaders have experienced the stresses of combat. The staff ride, therefore, not only assists participants to understand the realities of war, it teaches warfighting, and in turn enhances unit readiness. It is a training method which commanders can use for the professional development of their subordinates and to enliven the unit’s esprit de corps — constant objectives of all commanders in peacetime.

At some time in their careers most officers have memorized many well-known maxims of the military art, probably without fully understanding or analyzing them. Now, whether you think of yourself as a tactician, operational artist, strategist, or just a soldier as you walk this battlefield, you should search for those operational principles and human characteristics which do not change over time. Place yourself in the minds of the leaders in the battle and analyze the factors involved in their decisions and determine if they could have done better. Only in this way can you fix in your mind the thought processes that must be second nature to you in the crisis of combat.

We are convinced that the staff ride is one of the best ways to do this.

Billy Arthur

Ted Ballard

SECOND BULL RUN CAMPAIGN

(Extracted from the West Point Atlas of American Wars, Volume I, 1698-1900, and printed with the permission of the Department of History, U.S. Military Academy).

The Union failures in the Valley campaign, (Jackson’s Valley Campaign, June 1862) caused by the impossibility of coordinating the different Union commands from Washington, probably convinced President Lincoln that the departmental organization he had set up was not sound. On 26