3pm: Battle for Thoroughfare Gap

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Thoroughfare Gap

Robert E. Lee and James "Pete" Longstreet arrived at Thoroughfare Gap to receive word that it was clear. Delighted, Lee dashed off a message to Jackson that he should prepare for the two wings of the army to be united in the morning and should initiate a battle. The delay would be needed so that Longstreet’s Wing could pass through the Gap well-rested and as one, since elements trailed all the way back to White Plains [The Plains].

Longstreet ordered D.R. “Neighbor” Jones to post his division in the Gap to keep it clear. Jones sent his lead brigade, whose brigadier gave a vivid account:

I ordered Colonel Beck with his regiment (Ninth Georgia), in advance and to send forward two companies as skirmishers. Moving in this order, the brigade was halted by order of General Longstreet some half mile from the Gap and Colonel Beck ordered to proceed through the Gap on reconnaissance. Proceeding cautiously, he drove a mounted picket before him, killing 3 of them, and cleared the pass, moving some quarter of a mile beyond, and held his position until attacked and driven back by a whole brigade and a battery.

The brigade was one of the four of James Ricketts, who had arrived in the nick of time and sent them in to relieve Percy Wyndham and the New Jersey horsemen. But Ricketts was still laboring to get into position, thanks in a large part to Percy Wyndham

The road was entirely obstructed by felled timber, which delayed bringing the batteries into position; the Third Brigade in advance, then commanded by Colonel Stiles…supported by the First and Fourth Brigades, the Second Brigade being held in reserve. The men moved forward gallantly, but owing to the nature of the ground, the strongest positions being already held by the enemy, we were subjected to severe loss, without any prospect of gaining the Gap…

South of Gainesville

Ricketts’ superior, Irvin McDowell, meanwhile, had called another halt for King’s division. This time it was because he had finally received John Pope’s order of midday to advance directly on Centreville. Frustrated, McDowell ordered King’s senior brigadier to march the division back to the Warrenton Turnpike [US 29], the direct road to Centreville, and sent off an aide to intercept Reynolds en route to Manassas Junction and put him on a course to Centreville too. Then McDowell set off on his own with his staff to find Pope, who he assumed must be near Manassas Junction.