What happened at the Battle of Bull Run?

The Second Battle of Bull Run or Second Manassas was fought August 28-30, 1862,[1] as part of the American Civil War. It was the culmination of an offensive campaign waged by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia againstUnion Maj. Gen. John Pope's Army of Virginia, and a battle of much larger scale and numbers than the First Battle of Bull Run(First Manassas) fought in 1861 on the same ground.

Lee had sent Jackson's Corps on independent duty in the area, and Pope sought to end the threat of Jackson's raids. Trapping (he thought) Jackson's men in an abandondoned railroad cut, he sent wave after wave against Jackson's troops, and was repelled each time.

Jackson was running low on ammo, and some men resorted to throwing rocks at the attackers. At the peak of the battle, when it appeared that Pope's superior numbers would finally overwhelm Jackson, Lee sent James Longstreet's Corps in on an attack on Pope's flank. Longstreet hit Pope like a thunderbolt, and the Yankees fled the field.

This battle further added to the aura of Lee's invincibility.