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Updated: June 8, 2025
General Lee continued to press forward, but the golden moment for intercepting Meade had fled. He had not been cut off in Culpeper; he had not been cut off at Warrenton; he was not going to be cut off at Bristoe, near Manassas.
Thus, on the morning of the 14th he was as far from intercepting General Meade as before; and all now depended upon the movements of Hill, who, while Ewell moved toward Greenwich, had been sent by way of New Baltimore to come in on the Federal line of retreat at Bristoe Station, near Manassas. In spite, however, of his excellent soldiership and habitual promptness, Hill did not arrive in time.
He had one method with McClellan, another with Pope, another with Hooker, another with Meade, and yet another with Grant." Nor was the dangerous period of the Manassas campaign so protracted as might be thought. Jackson marched north from Jefferson on August 25. On the 26th he reached Bristoe Station. Pope, during these two days, might have thrown himself either on Longstreet or on Jackson.
I'll take Bristoe and you two 'Bar X' men along with me, and when we turn loose with our shooting irons you can all reckon the fight is on. Any of you got questions to ask?" No one said anything, the silence accented by the desert wind howling mournfully in the branches of a near-by cottonwood. "All right then, boys, don't get excited and go off half cocked; be easy on your trigger fingers.
I did not know his name, but had heard his voice among the worshipers in the church-tent at Bristoe Station, and knew that he was a man of God. After a brief examination, the surgeon announced that amputation would be necessary. "Very well, doctor; get around to it as quick as you can. I suffer terribly." Another was shot in the thigh, the bone shattered to the hip.
Pope made no movement from Bristoe Station until Hooker had been reinforced by Kearney and Reno; McDowell, before he turned east from Gainesville, was delayed by Sigel's trains, which crossed his line of march, and it was not till noon that Hooker's advanced guard halted amid the still smouldering ruins on the Manassas plateau. The march had been undisturbed. The redoubts were untenanted.
The trail led directly across, and with only the slightest possible delay they forded the shallow water, and mounted the opposite bank. A hundred yards farther on, Bristoe reined up suddenly, pointing down at the trail. "One hoss left the bunch here," he declared positively. Keith swung himself out of the saddle, and bent over to study the tracks.
Thoroughfare Gap was reached, and found undefended, and after thirty miles' marching the exhausted troops reached the neighborhood of Manassas. The men were faint from want of food, and many limped along barefooted; but they were full of enthusiasm. Just at sunset, Stuart, riding on ahead, captured Bristoe, a station on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, four miles from Manassas.
The Federal garrison, warned by the fugitives from Bristoe Station, were on the alert; but so harmless was their fire that Trimble's men swept on without a check. The two regiments, one on either side of the railroad, halted within a hundred yards of the Federal guns. The countersign was passed down the ranks, and the bugles sounded the charge.
All through the afternoon, while the sharp-set Confederates were sweeping away the profits which the Northern sutlers had wrung from Northern soldiers, Stuart's vigilant patrols sent in report on report of the Federal movements. From Warrenton heavy columns were hurrying over the great highroad to Gainesville, and from Warrenton Junction a large force of all arms was marching direct on Bristoe.
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