Manassas Station Operations | |||||||
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Part of the American Civil War | |||||||
Train derailed by Confederate cavalry on August 26, 1862, during the Manassas Station Operations. |
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Belligerents | |||||||
United States (Union) | CSA (Confederacy) | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
George W. Taylor | Stonewall Jackson | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Divisions | Divisions | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
1,100 |
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The Manassas Station Operations included the operations known as Bristoe Station, Kettle Run, Bull Run Bridge, or Union Mills. It took place August 25–27, 1862, in Prince William County, Virginia, as part of the Northern Virginia Campaign of the American Civil War.
On the evening of August 26, after passing around Union Maj. Gen. John Pope's right flank via Thoroughfare Gap, Confederate Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's wing of the army struck the Orange & Alexandria Railroad at Bristoe Station and before daybreak August 27 marched to capture and destroy the massive Union supply depot at Manassas Junction. This surprise movement forced Pope's Army of Virginia into an abrupt retreat from his defensive line along the Rappahannock River.
On August 27, Jackson routed a Union brigade near Union Mills (Bull Run Bridge), inflicting several hundred casualties and mortally wounding Union Brig. Gen. George W. Taylor. Maj. Gen. Richard S. Ewell's Confederate division fought a brisk rearguard action against Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's Union division at Kettle Run, resulting in about 600 casualties. Ewell held back Union forces until dark. That night, Jackson marched his divisions north to the Bull Run battlefield, where he took position behind an unfinished railroad grade.