Brigadier General John D. Imboden: Confederate Commander in the Shenandoah

3. First Battle of Manassas

Chapter 3 First Batde of Manassas O n withdrawing from Harpers Ferry, Johnston's Confederates moved toward Winchester. Patterson's Federals then crossed the Potomac also headed for Winchester, with a force reported at twice that of Johnston's nine thousand men. Patterson moved at a glacial pace, but battle appeared imminent. Jackson had charge of the Confederate rear guard and, wary ofan attack, he drove his men hard to reach the Valley Pike and set up a blocking position there. Instead of seeking out battle, however, Johnston turned south after reaching the turnpike and proceeded to prepare defenses at Bunker Hill, a few miles north ofWinchester. The Confederates remained in position there for three days, but no attack materialized and Patterson's men soon recrossed the Potomac. Imboden and his men were part ofthis general operation and set up camp north of the city.! On June 30 Imboden's Battery had 107 officers and men. It had its four bronze, 6-pounder guns as well as the old-style heavy artillery sabers they had received when they had mustered in. Imboden reported that the men were clothed in "cadet grey uniforms" supplied by a firm in Augusta, consisting ofa grey cap, a flannel shirt, gray woolen pants, and woolen socks. He had spent $298 of his own money on tents for the men. Caissons for the artillery pieces were under construction. The state had yet to provide any assistance, and the battery had been utilizing twenty-six impressed horses.2 44 First Battle ofManassas 45 On July 2 Patterson recrossed the Potomac in force; Johnston at once ordered one of his four brigades, that commanded by Lt. Col. Barnard E. Bee, to march to support Jackson at Hainesville, Virginia. Imboden's Battery accompanied Bee. A native of Charleston, South Carolina, Bee had graduated from West Point in 1845 and fought with distinction in the Mexican War, being twice brevetted for gallantry under fire. In March 1861, as a U.S. Army captain, he had resigned to accept a commission as a lieutenant colonel in the 1st South Carolina Regulars, an artillery regiment. He received the brigade command in Johnston's force on June 17.3 Bee halted his brigade at Darkesville, and the men formed up in line of battle, remaining in position there for three days until July 5, waiting for the Federals to come up for what Imboden assumed would be his baptism by fire. However, on July 2 Jackson intercepted a Federal brigade of 3,000 men under Patterson's son-in-law, Brig. Gen. John J. Abercrombie, headed for Martinsburg. Jackson, 380 men of the 5th Virginia Regiment, and one 6-pounder gun took up defensive positions , and a skirmish occurred near FallingWaters, abend in the Potomac. Determining that the Federal column was much larger than his own force and obeying Johnston's orders to withdraw under such circumstances , Jackson staged a skillful retreat. He reported his losses at eleven wounded and nine missing. The Federals sustained six to ten killed, eighteen wounded, and fifty captured. Following this skirmish, the Federals again withdrew across the Potomac. Patterson claimed that he had been opposed by 3,500 men, about ten times the actual number.4 Historian Bruce Catton's characterization of the sixty-nine-year-old Patterson as "semi-moribund ... old and fragile and bewildered" is not off the mark.5 The crisis having passed, on July 5 Johnston recalled Bee's Brigade to Winchester, and Imboden's Battery resumed what its commander styled as "our arduous drilling." On July 12 the Staunton Artillery was officially assigned to Bee's Brigade.6 That same day, July 12, Imboden wrote home complaining about the difficulties of procuring clothing and shoes for his men. He stated that the military routine, daily drill, arrival of the caissons, new harnesses , and additional horses all improved the efficiency and appearance of the battery. In another letter, dated July 17, Imboden wrote that he 46 Brigadier GeneralJohn D. Imboden expected an advance by the Federals at any time and that, in order to be prepared, the men were sleeping by the guns. He expressed his own determination: "We are resolved to die rather than let these devils drive us back to our homes."7 Meanwhile, events were moving toward the first great battle of the Civil War, theJuly 21,1861, (First) Battle ofBull Run (Manassas). It was Imboden's first...