Existing comment:
Texas
Remembers the valor and devotion of her soldiers who participated in the battle of Second Manassas, Virginia - August 28-30, 1862.
On this field Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia won the decisive battle of the Northern Virginia Campaign against Union Maj. Gen. John Pope's Army of Virginia. Arriving on the second day, August 29th, Confederate Maj. Gen. James Longstreet's wing took position opposite Pope's left-flank late that afternoon. Brig. Gen. John Bell Hood's Texas Brigade saw its first combat of the engagement advancing into the Union line at Groveton. Their position untenable, the Brigade withdrew the following morning. Misinterpreting Confederate maneuvers as a retreat, Gen. Pope ordered another attack on Gen. Stonewall Jackson's position on August 30th. With the help of Gen. Longstreet's artillery the Union attack was repulsed. Gen. Longstreet's five divisions then counterattacked in one of the largest simultaneous mass assaults of the war. Hood's Texas Brigade led the advance with the entire wing pivoting on the brigade. In the ensuing combat Hood's Texas Brigade overwhelmed the 5th and 10th New York Zouaves at Groveton and drove off a brigade of Pennsylvania reserves, their efforts climaxed with the capture of Kern's Pennsylvania Battery. Although the terrain and stubborn Union resistance on Chinn Ridge ultimately broke the tactical integrity of the unit, the Texas Brigade contributed significantly to the collapse of the Union left flank which forced Pope's retreat that night and opened the way for Lee's invasion of Maryland. |