Roads to Bristoe Station

In June of 1862, fighting in Virginia centered on Richmond as Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee repelled Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s Federal Army of the Potomac in the Seven Days Campaign while a new Federal Army of Virginia under Maj. Gen. John Pope, numbering nearly 45,000 men, moved in July toward the railroad junction at Gordonsville to increase pressure on Richmond. Lee responded by detaching Maj. Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson with 25,000 men, and on August 9 Jackson attacked Pope’s 2nd Corps at Cedar Mountain near Culpeper before withdrawing when Union reinforcements arrived. After Lee learned that McClellan’s army had left the Peninsula to move north and join Pope, he marched his 55,000 men to unite with Jackson and concentrate against Pope before McClellan’s nearly 90,000 reinforcements could arrive. Following skirmishing along the Rappahannock River, Lee divided his army, sending Jackson’s wing around the western flank of Pope’s line to cut his communications along the Orange and Alexandria Railroad while Maj. Gen. James Longstreet’s wing remained in front of Pope, and in two days Jackson’s "foot cavalry" marched 56 miles through fields, streams, and mountains to strike the railroad at Bristoe Station.

Linton Hall, Virginia · United States