Charge Bayonets!

On August 29, 1862, General John Pope arrived on the battlefield expecting to defeat Stonewall Jackson and directed General Fitz John Porter's Fifth Corps toward Gainesille in anticipation of a move against the Confederate flank, while ordering diversionary attacks on the Unfinished Railroad to distract the enemy. About mid-afternoon, Pope ordered General Joseph Hooker's division to advance through the woods beside the railroad grade and attack, but Hooker, reluctant to make a direct frontal assault, sought support from other Federal troops near Sudley Church before proceeding. After receiving assurances of help, Hooker chose General Cuvier Grover's five-regiment brigade to lead the attack. Grover, a thirty-four-year-old West Point graduate, formed his 1,500 men in line and ordered them to fix bayonets. The charge, unusual in the Civil War because of advances in rifled weaponry, initially surprised the Confederates and won striking success, but the promised support did not arrive in time, the Confederates rallied, and the attack failed.

Virginia · United States