Battle of Cedar Mountain

Battle of Cedar Mountain. A Narrow Victory. , "My command did not want to back out. We had backed out enough." , Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks, USA, "Banks is in our front and he is generally willing to fight. And he generally gets whipped." , Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, CSA, Following Gen. Robert E. Lee's violent repulse of the Army of the Potomac on the Virginia Peninsula early in the summer of 1862, Union Gen. John Pope's Army of Virginia began to organize for its own offensive from Washington, D.C. Pope's first objective was the railroad hub at Gordonsville, Virginia, an ideal location for staging a new assault on Richmond. Unwilling to allow such a movement, Lee tasked Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson and 24,000 men with the defensive of the city., Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks, in the vanguard of Pope's army, led his corps into Culpeper County on August 6. Jackson moved quickly to attack Banks before the rest of the Union force could organize and concentrate against him. On August 9, after a hard march, Jackson encountered Banks's men in position nearly half a mile up the road in front of you, then known as the Culpeper Road., Banks ordered an attack of his own as Jackson's exhausted column approached his lines. The fury of the Union assault nearly routed the Confederates, but Jackson rode to the front and rallied his men under heavy fire. His stand bough time for Gen. A.P. Hill's division to arrive and deliver a crushing counterattack that won the battle. The Battle of Cedar Mountain halted the Union advance on Gordonville and set the stage for the Southern victory at the Battle of Second Manassas three weeks later., (captions) , Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks overwhelmed Jackson's hastily-formed line before being driven back by Confederate reinforcements., Stonewall Jackson (left) defeated Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks at the Battle of Winchester on May 25, 1862. Three weeks after the Battle of Cedar Mountain, Banks's brother was killed while fighting Jackson's men at the Second Battle of Manassas. Courtesy Library of Congress, This seven-stop, 1.25-mile walking trail will guide you through the Battle of Cedar Mountain. Please follow the posted arrows to find your way around the battlefield.