This weekend I went down to Charlottesville, Virginia from my Long Island home to hear some nationally recognized experts talk about the Second Bull Run, or, if you are Gary Gallagher, Second Manassas. I will discuss what Gary Gallagher said today on the impact of the battle on the Confederacy. During the week I will tell what the other speakers said.
Second Manassas took place from August 28 to 30, 1862 after General Robert E. Lee had stopped George McClellan’s advance on Richmond during the Seven Days Battles in June. With the Union Army of the Potomac almost immobile for nearly two months, Lee struck north.
University of Virginia Professor Gary Gallagher said in his lecture on Second Manassas in Confederate Perspective:
“I believe it should be the second of three acts in a strong drama extending from June through September 1862. It’s typically relegated to a supporting role. Second Manassas garners less attention than the Seven Days which brought Lee to the fore and ended McClellan’s advance, or Antietam, which marks Lee’s first advance on United States soil and allowed Lincoln to issue his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.”
Gallagher said that while many historians treat Second Manassas as a “bridge” connecting two more important campaigns, in fact it is part of a protracted offensive offensive constructed by Lee from the gates of Richmond, to the plains of Manassas, to Antietam Creek. Lee’s actions reoriented the war in the East and Second Manassas deserves significant attention.
Second Manassas provided a testing ground for a new leadership and command structure for the Confederate army in Virginia. It made Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia preeminent in the minds of Confederates. Lee was also able to take the fight to the enemy, in striking contrast to his predecessor Joseph E. Johnston. Confederates saw that he presided over an army where the principal subordinates, Jackson, Longstreet, and Stuart, could exercise discretion to strike at the enemy.
The actions of the Union commander, John Pope, also had an effect on Confederate culture. Pope was trying to reign in rebel guerrilla activity behind his lines and his pronouncements convinced Confederates that the Union general would make war on civilians and incite African Americans to rise up against their enslavers. This ended, said Gallagher, any hope for a negotiated settlement from the perspective of the Confederates. The battle changed how Southern civilians saw the war.
Before Lee assumed command of what became the Army of Northern Virginia in 1862, Confederate morale had been in decline after Shiloh and Fort Donelson, and the loss of New Orleans and Nashville. While the summer after Lee took command ended with the defeat at Antietam, many Confederates saw the three month campaign as an achievement with victories outside of Richmond, the victory at Manassas, and a close run thing at Antietam.
More on the Conference.
Note: Photo taken by Pat Young April 20, 2024
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