Here is the first study of the Battle of Second Manassas to show the importance of the landscape through which the opposing generals maneuvered. Stonewall Jackson's, James Longstreet's, and Robert E. Lee's understanding of those landforms decisively tilted the campaign's outcome in their favor. Their activities took place through four different geologic formations. But this started with John Pope's use of the Rappahannock and Rapidan Rivers as defensive positions. At the same time the Blue Ridge and the Bull Run Mountain shielded most of the Confederates.

Longstreet and Lee had to move through Thoroughfare Gap to join Jackson and attack Pope. That gap, carved through the resistant quartzite of Bull Run Mountain by Broad Run's waters, is a focal point of this account.

Jackson, after a daring raid on the large supply depot at Manassas Junction, went behind a railroad embankment below Stony Ridge to wait for the rest of Lee's Army. To reach Jackson, Longstreet had to pass through the gap. They were able to move through it easily because of Pope's failure to understand its strategic importance and to defend it. They then fought the climactic Battle of Second Manassas in an area of flat-topped, open ridges dissected by steep ravines known as the Culpeper Basin. Those same ravines slowed the Confederates and allowed the Federals to escape.

About: E-an Zen and Alta Walker

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