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3. Manassas to Centreville, Virginia: July 22–September 21, 1861
- The University of Alabama Press
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3 Manassas to Centreville,Virginia July 22–September 21, 1861 The great battle has benn fought. I am sorry to inform you that I was not in it. —William Cowan McClellan In late July, rumors and newspaper reports circulated in Limestone County of a great battle in Virginia,and everyone wondered if the 9th Alabama was involved in the action and in the other engagements that followed. Letters from William’s family at home inquired about the status of friends in the regiments from Limestone County and Lincoln County, Tennessee, where the McClellans used to live. With the ¤rst units of volunteers already in Virginia,more were forming at home that would include William’s brothers John and Robert. The romance of war was still in the air, as was the hope for a quick and successful war. While no signi¤cant battles or invasions had occurred in the Tennessee Valley, they were anticipated shortly, and the call was going out for more volunteers to meet this threat. Life at home for the McClellans remained relatively normal:relatives from Tennessee were coming for extended visits, marriages were taking place, school was in session for the younger McClellan children, and the crops were growing well in the¤elds. The 9th Alabama was sent from Richmond to Winchester, Virginia, on July 14 to help reinforce the troops in the northern Shenandoah Valley.They took the trains from Richmond to Manassas Junction, stopping there brie®y before continuing on to Strasburg in the Shenandoah Valley.While en route, Captain Hobbs noticed that a number of the men in the company were breaking out with measles; more would come down with them later when they returned to Manassas Junction. William and his company arrived at Strasburg on July 16 in time for breakfast and then had a hard march along the Valley Turnpike, where the 9th went into camp a mile and a half north of Winchester in an open wheat ¤eld. It was raining steadily, and the men were forced to use wheat stacks for shelter since they had no tents. On July 18, after Union forces began moving from Washington, D.C., toward Manassas, Virginia, the regiment marched from Winchester, crossed the Shenandoah River, and proceeded to Piedmont Station to catch the trains for Manassas Junction.They marched over land because no direct railroad line ran from Winchester to Manassas Junction; the Manassas Gap Railroad ended at Strasburg,and the Winchester and Potomac Railroad line went from Harpers Ferry to Winchester.1 Although the Manassas Gap Railroad ran from Manassas Junction to Strasburg, it was faster to march twenty-¤ve miles across country to Piedmont Station (modern Delaplane) than it was to march to Strasburg and take the trains from there (they had just made the long march from Strasburg to Winchester two days before).The 9th was last in the order of march from Winchester,and on July 21,while the sounds of the First Battle of Manassas carried in the distance and the news of the Confederate victory ¤ltered back, the 9th Alabama was on picket duty on a high hill just west of Piedmont Station. After waiting the entire night, they took the last train to Manassas Junction and arrived around 7 a.m. on July 22. William wrote that they would have made it to the junction sooner if saboteurs hadn’t torn up the railroad tracks. On more than one occasion, the movement of Confederate troops to the battle¤eld were delayed by sabotage, by trains that traveled at slow speeds, or by trains that stopped altogether while the crews “rested.” In the event reported by William, a section of track had been torn up, halting the trains. The saboteurs were captured and dealt with on the spot. The delay probably would not have made any difference in the participation of the 9th Alabama in the battle.2 It was raining as the train pulled into Manassas Junction early on the morning of July 22 with many of the men riding on top of the cars. They marched north from the station through the rain and mud to Young’s Branch, where they went into camp without tents not far from the Stone Bridge on Bull Run. Other Alabama regiments participated in the First Battle of Manassas. The 4th Alabama Regiment with two companies from Madison County, Alabama,included many of William’s friends from home.The 4th was a part of Gen. Bernard Bee’s brigade...