2:00 am: Army of NE Va (US) delayed at Centreville

Warrenton Turnpike, East of Centreville

Burnside’s brigade was formed up and waiting in the dark on the Warrenton Turnpike [VA 29] outside Centreville. The Second Division commander, Colonel David Hunter, was waiting with him near the front of the men.

Behind the brigade, was the other Second Division brigade, under Colonel Andrew Porter, lead by the West Point Artillery under Captain Charles Griffin. Two of the guns from the battery had helped Colonel Charles P. Stone drench a Confederate officer in the Potomac during the Rockville Expedition. Today would be much more difficult.

Behind Porter’s brigade was the Third Division, under Colonel Sam Heintzelman, McDowell’s other trusted subordinate. They were three brigades strong, their last one still sprawled out to the east of Centreville.

In front of this column was not the three brigades of the First Division, but an accumulated mish-mash of that command. Daniel Tyler, responsible for Blackburn Ford two days earlier, was late and it was holding up the entire army.
 

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