/Ho1eo u ~ ilt="lrt;.& f/l.5Ttf/?Jt!.. J)1sne1er tticf}j)eretfi HI sTO RY PRINCEWIWAM PUBLIC LIBRARY SYSTEM ... RELIC/Bull Run Reg Lib, Manassas, VA The Battle of Thoroughfare Gap History was made 750 years ago in that 'rough pass in the Bull Run Mountains' AUGUST 28, 1862 The involvement of the Town of positions at Centreville in the spring of of the Battle of Thoroughfare Gap, Haymarket in the Civil War was basically 1862, the town was frequently occupied which took place on Aug. 28, 1862, the limited to the period after the First Battle by Union forces. day before the epic Second Battle of of Manassas in July 1861, and when the Thoroughfare Gap west of Haymarket Manassas. town was burned by federal troops on the was also a strategic site during the Civil It was not the number of combatants night of Nov. 3-4, 1862. War. The Manassas Gap Railroad passed involved, the number of casualties (total Due to its strategic position at the through the narrow gap, as well as the of about 100 killed on both sides), or even intersection of the Gap Road (Route 55) main road linking the Shenandoah Valley who controlled the gap once the firing and the Old Carolina Road, the residents with the cities to the east. It was also the stopped that was important. of Haymarket had to deal with a lot location of the Chapman's Mill industrial/ The most important issue was the during those 16 months. The casualties commercial complex on Broad Run. advantage gained when the armies of of both sides were brought to Haymarket In warfare, it is often the events leading Gen. Robert E. Lee and Gen. James after First Manassas, and after up to a major battle that predetermine Longstreet successfully fought their way Confederate forces left their defensive the final outcome; such was the case eastward through the Gap, and were able Photographed in the 1880s. Thoroughfare Gap had changed little from the Civil War days. Courtesy Manassas Battlefield National Park. 20 HAYMARKET LIFESTYLE to join forces with Gen. T. J. "Stonewall" Jackson at Manassas before the start of the Second Battle of Manassas on Aug. 29, 1862. If Union troops had been able to stop Lee and Longstreet at the Gap, and rout Jackson's forces, the outcome of the epic battle might have been a resounding Union victory instead of defeat, and hastening the ending of the war. This question and many other aspects of the Battle of Thoroughfare Gap will be examined during the Sesquicentennial Commemoration of the event, to be held Aug. 25-26, 2012, at the Chapman/ Beverley Mill and related sites on the GEN. JAMES LONGSTREET mountain. led his army into battle at Hosted by the Turn the Mill Around Thoroughfare Gap. Campaign and the Bull Run Mountain Conservancy Inc., the two-day event will feature presentations by expert speakers, site tours of the battlefield, and displays explaining Civil War soldier life, including weapons, equipment and . r- medicine. Also, living historians will interpret life on the mountain, and the Map on the Civil War Trails exhibit on Rt. 55 details the community perspective during the war. movements of Con{ederate and Union forces during the A BATTLE IN THE MAKING Battle of Thorough{are Gap. Courtesy of Terrence Haney, Thoroughfare Gap first figured in the cartographer. and Civil War, the magazine of the Civil War Civil War in July 1861, when Confederate Society, Berryville. Va. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, commander of the Department of Northern Virginia, GEN. 'STONEWALL' JACKSON raided a Federal supply moved soldiers from the Shenandoah depot at Manassas junction on Aug. 26, 1862. Valley eastward by rail through the gap to join troops under Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard hogs at Thoroughfare Gap were dealt supply depot at Manassas Junction. Deep at the First Battle of Manassas. with hastily," according to Frances Lillian in enemy territory, Jackson waited for the Later, Gen. Johnston signed an Jones in Beverley (Chapman's) Mill, Union forces to come after him. agreement with John Chapman, owner Thoroughfare Gap, Virginia: A History and "If the Federals could delay Longstreet's of the mill, to set up a slaughterhouse Preservation Plan. "Whatever could not passage long enough, Jackson's isolated and meat curing and storage facility be carried away by the evacuating army corps might be annihilated by the two on his property. The facility, managed was given away to civilians or destroyed. Union armies converging on the area," by the Confederate Army Subsistence Departing Confederate troops set fire wrote Noel G. Harrison in "The Battle at Department, provided beef and pork to the mill, burning the remaining meat Thoroughfare Gap," published in Issue 52 for the Confederate troops stationed in inside, to prevent its use or the use of the of Civil War magazine. Manassas over the winter of 1861-62. The mill, by the Union Army." On the night of Aug. 27, General Lee slaughterhouse was located over Broad It is estimated at between one and two and his staff stayed at "Avenel," the Run, and pens and sheds built around million pounds of meat was burned, along Beverley homeplace between The Plains the property. The mill was used for meat with the smaller buildings. Gutted by fire, and Thoroughfare Gap. William Beverley, storage. the mill still stood. then 12 years old, recalled"... General After Confederate forces withdrew from Military action in the area raged in Lee walked the floor until midnight, positions in Northern Virginia, it became August 1862, with fighting along the when a courier arrived with a dispatch apparent that the processing plant might Rappahannock River and at Fauquier from General Jackson, assuring Lee that fall into Union hands. Springs. On Aug. 26, 1862, Gen. T.J. Jackson was in no immediate danger, and "When the order came in March 1862 "Stonewall" Jackson led his corps of for the Confederate Army to evacuate 24,000 men through the undefended this part of Northern Virginia, the large Thoroughfare Gap, and sacked a Federal stores of meat and herds of cattle and thoroughfare continued on page 22 AUGUST 2012 21 thoroughfare continued from page 21 Confederates fired on Rickett's troops, informed me of his situation, remarking who began to pull back. with tears in his eyes that he could not "Both sides fed units into the pass, and fight a Division," according to Gen. could hold out until Lee's army could the engagement evolved into two separate Anderson's personal papers concerning reach him. actions: one north of Broad Run for the 20th Georgia Infantry. "By the time "The courier was Lt. Thomas Baynton control of Mother Leathercoat Mountain, the Brigade was up and appreciating Turner (son of Edward Carter Turner), including the Upper Mill and Chapman's the fact that the hill on my left (Mother who was reared at Kinloch ... he knew Mill - and one south of Broad Run, Leathercoat) was the key to the Gap... every inch of the ground, and reached waged for possession of Pond Mountain, the 1" Georgia Regulars changed "Avenel" from Manassas by making a Tanglewood and surrounding ground," direction and hurried up the step face of detour through Hopewell Gap," recalled wrote Noel Harrison. the hill. This hill was so steep that my William Beverley. North of Broad Run, the 13th men assisted themselves by grabbing hold AUGUST 28, 1862 Massachusetts engaged the 9'11 of the bushes on the hill." On the morning of Aug. 28, 1862, Lee Georgia, pushing them back down Anderson's men ran into Union forces at the railroad tracks and eventually the quarry, a long pit that started about l and Longstreet moved their armies eastward toward Thoroughfare Gap, reaching Chapman's Mill. There, Union 20 feet wide and 15 feet deep at the which Longstreet described as "... a rough sharpshooters took over the second floor bottom, and narrowing to five feet wide pass in the and fired on the Georgians. They were and five feet deep at the top. Bull Run Mountains, at some points not soon joined by the 11th Pennsylvania, A bitter fight ensued in extremely close more than a hundred yards wide." which formed a firing line up the eastern quarters. "I was near enough to the As they entered the Gap, the lead units of side of the quarry. federal line to have touched bayonets the 9th Georgia Infantry were confronted At that point, the main objective of the with the man in front of me,'' wrote W. by a cavalry regiment under Col. Sir Confederates was to keep the enemy H. Andrews, of the Georgia Regulars. Percy Wyndham, a Briton serving in the from gaining the high ground on Mother The fighting continued until after the U.S. Army. Wyndham's regiment was Leathercoat. Four regiments commanded third Confederate assault, at which point backed up by a Federal infantry division by Gen. G. T. "Tige" Anderson were the Union troops retreated. commanded by Brig. Gen. James Ricketts positioned on the railroad tracks west of On the other side of the Gap, Col. H. L. that was positioned east of the Gap. the Gap. He quickly became aware of the Benning's 20th Georgia regiment scaled Wyndham's men attempted to block deadly Union fire coming from the area the slopes of Pond Mountain, reaching the road with fallen trees, but were soon west of the mill that had already killed or the crest before the Union troops could pushed eastward out of the Gap by the wounded about 50 Georgians.