The Battle of Payne’s Farm

The Battle of Payne’s Farm. A Fruitless Campaign. “In the fight of Johnson’s Division on last Friday I was under as warm a musketry fire as I have experienced for a good while, certainly worse than I have been in since Sharpsburg.” , Lt. Col. Alexander S. “Sandie” Pendleton, CSA, “One of the sharpest and best fought affairs of the war. The musketry was the most terrific any of us had ever heard, and the chances of getting off without a decent wound was about as poor as it possibly could have been.” , Col. Charles T. Collis, 114th Pennsylvania Infantry, USA, A few days after the Battle of Payne’s Farm, Union and Confederate forces were poised to fight on a larger scale west of Locust Grove. Both sides planned assaults, but Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee posted his troops in such a strong position along Mine Run that Union Gen. George G. Meade decided to withdraw. This robbed Lee of his opportunity to strike his adversary’s left flank. Both sides returned close to their former positions and made camp for the winter., Although the battle here was relatively small, the soldiers who fought at Payne’s Farm did not view this as an unimportant engagement. They wrote of a fight equal in ferocity with better-known eastern battles like Antietam, Chancellorsville, and the Wilderness. Dwarfed in total losses by Gettysburg and dimmed in retrospect by the apparent uselessness of the entire movement, Mine Run remains a little-known campaign. This very obscurity, however, contributed significantly to the almost unparalleled preservation of this battlefield., (captions) , Union II Corps commander, Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren successfully maneuvered his troops around the Confederate right flank, but before he could launch his assault, Gen Robert E. Lee countered with a corps of his own and hastily erected entrenchments. In this image, II Corps batteries go into action. , Courtesy Library of Congress, Although the Mine Run Campaign was a failed Union effort, at least the Federal high command came to know the terrain south of the Rapidan River. While Meade’s Army of the Potomac camped for the winter around Brandy Station in Culpeper County (above), his new commander arrived, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. When Grant ordered Meade forward the following spring, he advanced into the Wilderness with a far better knowledge of the country that lay ahead. , Courtesy Library of Congress, Gen. Meade planned an all-out assault for November 30, while Gen. Lee planned to strike the Union left with a strong force. The very strength of the Confederate position, however, precipitated the Union withdrawal and an end to the campaign.