Action at Bristoe Station

On 26 August 1862, Maj. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s command, led by Col. Thomas T. Munford’s 2d Virginia Cavalry and Maj. Gen. Richard S. Ewell’s division, arrived here at sunset after marching 54 miles in two days around Maj. Gen. John Pope’s Union army. They surprised and captured Pope’s infantry pickets, derailed two northbound trains, destroyed the Broad Run bridge, and cut telegraph wires to sever the Union lines of supply and communication with Washington. Jackson then captured Pope’s supply depot at Manassas Junction (present-day Manassas). Left as a rear guard, Ewell held off Union Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker’s division near Kettle Run the next day, just before the Second Battle of Manassas on 28-30 August.

Virginia · United States