Historian Rick Britton talks about one of the biggest August events in Virginia history: The Battle of Second Manassas (or Second Bull Run) fought August 28–30, 1862.
Pitting Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia against Union Gen. John Pope’s Army of Virginia, Second Manassas was a Confederate victory much like First Manassas fought 13 months earlier on the same ground.
First Lee sent Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson on a wide flank march into northern Virginia that resulted in the capture of a massive Union supply depot at Manassas Junction.
Taking up a defensive position nearby, Jackson attacked a Union column on August 28, thus instigating Second Manassas. On August 29, Jackson held off a series of attacks launched by Pope, while the other wing of Lee’s army under Gen. James Longstreet reached the battlefield and deployed on Jackson’s right.
On August 30, when Pope renewed his attacks against Jackson, Longstreet’s 25,000 men counterattacked, crushing Pope’s left flank and driving his force from the field. With losses totaling almost 20,000 killed, wounded, and captured Second Manassas became one of the war’s bloodiest battles.

Rick hosts a free talk about WWI pilot James Rogers McConnell at Senior Center Wed 8/12/15 at 6pm.