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- Feb 23, 2013
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- East Texas
Jackson is With You by Don Troiani captures the moment Jackson rallied the members of the 21st Virginia at the critical part of the battle as told by a Civil War Trails marker on the site: Stonewall Jackson could no longer restrain himself when he saw his panicked men streaming rearward. He spurred his horse forward and tried to unsheathe his sword, which had rusted into its scabbard from disuse. Jackson raised the sheathed sword over his head, seized a flag from a nearby color bearer, and skidded to a halt... crying "Jackson is with you!"
The Battle of Cedar Mountain (also known as Cedar Run or Slaughter Mountain) had its origin in the aftermath of Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's failed Peninsula Campaign with his army sweltering on the banks of the James River following its "change of base." A new Federal army called pretentiously the Army of Virginia had been created under Maj. Gen. John Pope who had been brought from the Western Theater of the war to take command of the forces of Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell, Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks, and Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel, all of which had formerly been trounced separately by Confederate Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson in his legendary Shenandoah Valley Campaign only a few weeks previously.
Jackson presented a plan to his commander, Gen. Robert E. Lee, to attack and hopefully destroy the elements of Pope's army before they could concentrate or be reenforced by elements of McClellan's army near Richmond. Lee agreed to allow Jackson to move north with his own division, now led by Brig. Gen. Charles S. Winder and that of Maj. Gen. Richard Ewell, the force Jackson had led to victory in the Valley. He was soon joined by the over-sized "Light Division" composed of seven brigades commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose P. Hill which doubled his numbers to over 20,000 men.
Map by Hal Jespersen, www.posix.com/CW
Jackson planned a swift march north from Gordonsville where his troops had been transported largely by train through Orange Court House and on to Culpeper Court House, held by the first of Pope's corps to arrive in the area, that of Banks, of whom Jackson observed, "He is always ready to fight and he generally gets whipped." Indeed, Banks was even more agressive than expected, smarting as he was from his rough handling at Winchester the previous May. The morning of August 9, 1862, one of the hottest days on record during the entire war with temperatures in the upper 90's, found Banks' two divisions on a ridge north of a branch of Cedar Run astride the main road to Culpeper. Jackson's leading division, Ewell's, was quickly sent to seize the highest ground around, the large hill known as Cedar Mountain on the farm owned by a man named Slaughter. The area below is near where a farm lane opened into the road, now the wide green path; this was known as The Gate, at extreme right.
Jackson's artillery went into position here and on the lower slopes of Cedar Mountain itself from which the guns dueled with those of Banks back on his ridge. Charles Winder was ill that day and had left the ambulance in which he had been riding; he issued orders that none of his officers or men were to assist anyone wounded during this artillery duel or the ensuing battle. At some point, his left arm was shattered and his side torn by a shell fragment which led to his death that evening; he was replaced in divisional command by senior Brig. Gen. William B. Taliferro, who was not a favorite of Jackson's. This was to prove unfortunate in another way, because in Jackson's notorious secrecy he had informed only his most trusted subordinates, Winder and Ewell, of his intentions for the fight.
Left to right above, Confederate generals Charles S. Winder; William B. Taliferro; Ambrose Powell Hill; and Jubal A. Early.
The right center of Jackson's line was held by Brig. Gen. Jubal Early's brigade of Ewell's Division which stretched from the base of Cedar Mountain west to the Gate as seen in the photo above looking north toward the Federal position; modern Route 15 here replaces the Culpeper Road and crosses what at the time was a wide cornfield which stood between the lines. It was across this field late in the day around 5 pm that the unthinkable happened: although he would eventually be outnumbered by over two-to-one, Banks suddenly and without warning attacked Jackson before all his force was up and assembled.
Banks' left-hand division was led by Brig. Gen. Christopher Augur who sent his brigades south across the field above toward Early's line. Pummeled by Confederate artillery at the Gate and on Cedar Mountain, the large knoll seen in the left background, Augur's men made repeated assaults though they never quite reached Early's line but nevertheless did the service of attracting all attention in his direction. Ewell's other brigades, those of Brig. Gen. Issac Trimble and Col. Henry Forno, remained on the slopes of Cedar Mountain supporting the artillery and played little part in the battle until later during the pursuit.
The climax of the battle came here in a patch of woods on the Confederate left front which screened that part of the battlefield from Jackson's view; with all attention focused on Augur's attack, the brigade of Brig. Gen. Samuel W. Crawford from the division of Brig. Gen. Alpheus S. Williams was undetected as it approached from out of a dense wood and through a large wheatfield on the west side of the road. It struck the poorly-deployed brigade led by Col. Thomas S. Garnett, two regiments of which were actually facing to the right at a ninety-degree angle from Crawford's attack. Jackson's old Stonewall Brigade was in support but not deployed in line-of-battle to receive the assault; both brigades were sent reeling to the rear where they fortunately met Jackson here as depicted in Troiani's painting at top.
Fortunately for the secretive Jackson, A. P. Hill had just arrived at the head of his Light Division; Hill's leading brigade under Brig. Gen. Edward Thomas had already gone to support Early but Jackson discovered that of North Carolina politician Brig, Gen. Lawrence O'B. Branch standing by and listening as Branch delivered to them a speech! Jackson soon got Branch moving to support Garnett and sent Hill's other brigades to flank Crawford on his exposed right. The unit marker above, the only one on the battlefield, commemorates the 3rd Wisconsin of Williams' second brigade led by Col. George H. Gordon which moved from its reserve position to Crawford's aid. Confederate numbers began to be decisive as Jackson ordered his entire line forward and Banks ordered a retreat which soon degenerated into a semi-rout.
Above, left-to-right: Nathaniel P. Banks; his division commanders Alpheus S. Williams and Christopher C. Augur; and army commander John Pope, who showed up at Banks' headquarters a mile in the rear almost in time to be captured in the Union rout by the pursuing 7th Virginia Cavalry of Col. William "Grumble" Jones.
The battle and Jackson's pursuit of the fleeing Federals was largely stopped by nightfall and the exhaustion of both sides. Only the tiny two-regiment brigade of between 300 - 400 men of Brig. Gen. George S. Greene supporting Banks' artillery had been unengaged and drew off in good order. Jackson soon discovered the fresh division of Brig. Gen. James B. Ricketts of McDowell's corps on a ridge north of Cedar Run and realized his hopes of destroying Banks before he could be reenforced had passed. Soon, the corps of Franz Sigel likewise appeared.
Jackson withdrew his three divisions southward to Gordonsville hoping to lure Banks or Pope into a position where they might be attacked successfully, but they wisely resisted, returning only as far as the Cedar Mountain battlefield where they spent several days "tidying up." Banks had lost 2,381 killed, wounded, and missing/prisoners out of about 9,000 committed; Jackson's losses were 229 killed and 1,047 wounded. Because this bloody little affair was soon followed by the arrival of Lee with James Longstreet's half of the Confederate army as well as reenforcements for Pope from McClellan and Ambrose Burnside, Cedar Mountain is usually thought of as only a preliminary to Second Manassas. Oddly enough, though Jackson's handling of the battle reflected little credit on his tactical ability, he regarded this as one of his finest victories!
Looking south across the Wheatfield towards Cedar Mountain from the last position of Christopher Augur, who had been badly wounded in the battle. The line of odd stones barely visible past the Civil War Trails marker were originally placed over a century ago by Daniel A. Grimsley, Confederate veteran and then-owner of the land who went to great lengths to mark the positions of units in the battle. Unfortunately, subsequent owners have moved them to the sides of their fields to allow machinery to operate and where they now perform no useful function and are actually confusing to anyone trying to make sense of them!
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