AEMY OPEBATION8. 



batteries of the enemy. It was apparently 

 withdrawn, when the enemy began to cross. 

 The batteries of Gen. Sigel's command again 

 opened upon their approach, and they were 

 here also driven back. It was on this occasion 

 that Gen. Henry Bohlen lost his life. Attempts 

 to cross were also made at other fords. On 

 Friday afternoon and night of the22d, rain fell 

 so heavily as to swell the river and make it 

 unfordable between the mountains and a few 

 miles back of Warrenton Springs, which check- 

 ed the efforts of the enemy. The firing of 

 artillery at nearly all the fords was kept up on 

 the 23d and 24th with more or less spirit, but 

 with no special results. On the 23d the bridge 

 at the Eappahannock station was burned by 

 Gen. Kicketts. While this was going on during 

 the 24th, Gen. Lee made a flank movement, ad- 

 vanced higher up, and attempted to throw a 

 portion of his force over at Waterloo bridge, 

 about twelve miles above the Eappahannock 

 bridge, which was burned. This attempt was 

 defeated. The strategy of the movements of 

 Gen. Pope consisted in the hope that by his fall- 

 ing back across and holding the fords of the 

 North Fork, sufficient time would be gained for 

 the Army of the Potomac to come to his aid. 



On Friday evening, the 22d, while the Feder- 

 al force was thus in possession of the fords of 

 the Eappahannock, a body of Confederate caval- 

 ry under Gen. Stuart, consisting of detachments 

 of the 1st, 4th, and 9th Virginia cavalry, made 

 a dash upon Catlett's Station on the Orange 

 and Alexandria railroad, thirty-five miles from 

 Washington, and thirteen miles in the rear of 

 the Eappahannock station. They met with only 

 slight resistance. There were a great number 

 of trains in a circle round the station at the 

 time, which first occupied their attention ; but a 

 terrible storm of rain setting in a few moments 

 after their arrival, the wagons could not be de- 

 stroyed by fire, and only few were injured. 

 They remained some hours, and left at four 

 o'clock in the morning, their pickets having 

 been driven in. They took away over two 

 hundred horses of Gen. Pope's train, and twen- 

 ty from Gen. McDowell's. They took all Gen. 

 Pope's baggage and everything belonging to his 

 staff officers. All the sick were taken from the 

 hospitals, and most of them put on the captured 

 horses to ride. A few were killed on both sides, 

 and the number of prisoners taken was about 

 two hundred. This force had crossed the North 

 Fork at Porter'd Ford, two miles above White 

 Sulphur.Springs. The Federal force at Catlett's 

 consisted of a small guard from the Pennsylva- 

 nia regiment under Col. Kane, and the Purnell 

 Legion of Maryland. In the neighborhood 

 were other trains likewise having small guards, 

 upon some of which an attack was made. 



After a body of the Confederate force had 

 crossed at Waterloo bridge on the 24th, as above 

 stated, an attack was made upon them by order 

 of Gen. Pope, with the hope of cutting them 

 off. This was unsuccessful, but the enemy was 

 compelled to retire, move farther up the river, 



and enter the valley which lies between the Blue 

 Eidge and the Bull Eun mountains. The object 

 of this movement was to get in the rear of Gen. 

 Pope and cut off his supplies from Washington. 



It put the Confederate army in such a posi- 

 tion that it could move either upon Washington 

 or upon Leesburg, for the purpose of crossing 

 into Maryland. Nevertheless, Gen. Pope was 

 successful in preventing the enemy from cross- 

 ing at any of the fords of the North Fork, and 

 compelling him to move still higher up on the 

 west side of the Bull Eun mountains. Thus, 

 during eight days, Gen. Lee had advanced no 

 nearer to Washington. It now remained for 

 Gen. Pope to guard the passes of these moun- 

 tains in order to prevent the approach of the 

 enemy any nearer to Washington, or to meet 

 him after crossing the mountains and defeat him. 

 On the other hand it was the object of Gen. 

 Lee to pass the mountains and take Gen. Pope 

 in the rear if possible. At all events it was 

 necessary for him to get rid of the army of Gen. 

 Pope if he intended to cross over the Potomac 

 into Maryland. 



When it appeared doubtful if the North Fork 

 river could be held long enough to effect a junc- 

 tion of the forces of Gen. McClellan with those 

 of Gen. Pope, a part of the former were order- 

 ed to land at Alexandria and move out by rail- 

 road as rapidly as possible. After this move- 

 ment of Gen. Lee, the remainder of Gen. Mc- 

 Clellan's forces were ordered to land at Alexan- 

 dria, and Gen. Burnside was ordered to evacu- 

 ate Fredericksburg and Aquia Creek. 



As soon as Gen. Pope discovered that a large 

 force of the enemy was turning his right to- 

 ward Manassas, and that the divisions which 

 he expected to be there from Alexandria had 

 not arrived, he broke up his camps at Warren- 

 ton and Warrenton Junction and marched rap- 

 idly back in three columns. At this time the 

 corps of Gen. Heintzelman from Gen. McClel- 

 lan's army had reached Warrenton Junction, 

 although without artillery, wagons, or horses 

 for the field and general officers. One division 

 of the corps of Gen. Porter from Gen. McClel- 

 lan's army coming by the way of Fredericks- 

 burg, arrived at Bealston's Station, eleven miles 

 south of Warrenton Junction in advance of 

 Gen. Heintze'lman, about four thousand five 

 hundred strong. The other division was at Kel- 

 ly's Ford. This corps had marched night and 

 day to join the army under Gen. Pope, and was 

 broken down with excessive labor. Both these 

 divisions were immediately concentrated at War- 

 renton Junction. When Gen. Pope determined 

 to fall back he had no other course to pursue, ex- 

 cept to detach a sufficient force to defeat the Con- 

 federate troops attempting to turn his flank, and 

 still preserve his front before the main body of 

 the Confederate army. The reason assigned by 

 Gen. Pope for not pursuing the latter course 

 was the lack of a sufficient force to maintain 

 his front after a suitable body had been detach- 

 ed to defeat Gen. Jackson on his flank. He 

 estimates the number of his troops at forty 



