Missed Opportunity

Missed Opportunity. A Confederate Plan Misfires. , From the heights above Kettle Run behind you, Confederate Gen. John B. Gordon's hungry and tired soldiers watched a Union wagon train pass as daylight faded on October 14, 1863. The teamsters were in a hurry to get across Kettle Run to join the main body of the Army of the Potomac., Gordon received orders from his division commander, Gen. Jubal Early, to hold his position. The rest of Early's men were to form with Gordon and attack the vulnerable Federal Second Corps at Bristoe Station, hoping to deal them a crippling defeat., Gordon's skirmishers drove back a line of enemy soldiers. The Federals' large knapsacks proved tempting, but the Georgians could not resist the bounty that the enemy wagons in the distance might provide. Gordon's men advanced to Kettle Run and beyond. On their way toward Brentsville, they ran into a large body of Federal horsemen., Meanwhile, Early arrived at Gordon's former position. Early searched for his wayward brigade, one-third of his division's strength. By the time the rest of Early's men were ready to assault the Federals along the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, darkness descended on the Bristoe Station battlefield., That night, the 10,000 men of the Union Second Corps slipped away from 40,000 Confederate adversaries. Robert E. Lee's best chance of defeating a portion of the Army of the Potomac in the fall of 1863 ended in failure., The blue box in the lower right reads: , THE FIGHT AT KETTLE RUN , The Battle of Kettle Run began near here on August 27, 1862. Union soldiers advanced along the Orange and Alexandria Railroad from the south and engaged the advanced line of Richard Ewell's Confederate division at the Kettle Run bridge. The 6th Louisiana Infantry burned the bridge and fell back toward Bristoe Station. The two sides clashed the rest of the day one mile northeast of here.