Military
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On the afternoon of August 26, 1862, freight trains carrying Federal infantrymen of Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker’s division, III Corps, Army of the Potomac, passed through Bristoe from the marshalling yards of Alexandria on their way to camps at Warrenton Junction as reinforcements for Maj. Gen. Pope’s Army of Virginia, which faced Gen. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia across the Rappahannock River. A few hours later at dusk, the lead elements of Maj. Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson’s Left Wing of the Army of Northern Virginia arrived after a two-day march of more than 50 miles intended to cut the Federal supply line and force Pope from his river line of defense. After overwhelming the Federal guards, Col. Thomas Munford’s 2nd Virginia Cavalry and Col. Henry Forno’s Louisiana Tiger Brigade captured Bristoe Station. When the empty Federal freight trains began returning from Warrenton Junction, the first escaped with only a few bullet holes, but the locomotive of the next train, the President, plunged over the embankment and lodged in the soft ground below, and a third train crashed into the rear of the stalled second train, sending three cars off the track, while a fourth train reversed and escaped to Catlett Station with news of the Confederate presence on the railroad. Pope did not know that Jackson’s full force of 23,000 Confederate soldiers had reached the rear of his army.
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Linton Hall, Virginia · United States
