Army of Virginia | |
---|---|
Active | June 26, 1862 – September 12, 1862 |
Country | ![]() |
Branch | ![]() |
Type | Field Army |
Engagements | Battle of Cedar Mountain Second Battle of Bull Run |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Maj. Gen. John Pope |
The Army of Virginia was organized as a major unit of the Union Army and operated briefly and unsuccessfully in 1862 in the American Civil War. It should not be confused with its principal opponent, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by Robert E. Lee.
The Army of Virginia was constituted on June 26, 1862, by General Orders Number 103, from four existing departments operating around Virginia: Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont's Mountain Department, Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell's Department of the Rappahannock, Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks's Department of the Shenandoah, and Brig. Gen. Samuel D. Sturgis's brigade from the Military District of Washington. Maj. Gen. John Pope commanded the new organization, which was divided into three corps of over 50,000 men. Three corps of Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac later were added for combat operations.
Radical Republicans in Congress and the Cabinet saw the Army of Virginia as taking the lead in widening the goals of the war. The senior officers of the Army were stronger advocates of the abolition of slavery and the southern way of life and had a smaller proportion of West Point graduates than the contemporary Army of the Potomac. [1]
Banks's corps of the Army of Virginia fought against Stonewall Jackson at the Battle of Cedar Mountain, gaining initial advantage, but was defeated by a Confederate counterattack led by A.P. Hill.
The entire army was soundly defeated at the Second Battle of Bull Run by Jackson, Longstreet, and Lee, and withdrew to the defensive lines of Washington, D.C. On September 12, 1862, the units of the Army of Virginia were merged into the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Virginia was never reconstituted.
The first three corps were given numeric designations that overlapped with those in the Army of the Potomac. They were redesignated as shown for the Maryland Campaign and later.
The following corps were attached for operations during the Northern Virginia Campaign:
The Second Battle of Bull Run or Battle of Second Manassas was fought August 28–30, 1862, in Prince William County, Virginia, as part of the American Civil War. It was the culmination of the Northern Virginia Campaign waged by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia against Union Maj. Gen. John Pope's Army of Virginia, and a battle of much larger scale and numbers than the First Battle of Bull Run fought on July 21, 1861, on the same ground.
The Army of the Potomac was the primary field army of the Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was created in July 1861 shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run and was disbanded in June 1865 following the surrender of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in April.
Irvin McDowell was an American army officer. He is best known for his defeat in the First Battle of Bull Run, the first large-scale battle of the American Civil War. In 1862, he was given command of the I Corps of the Army of the Potomac. He fought unsuccessfully against Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's troops during the Valley Campaign of 1862 and was blamed for contributing to the defeat of United States troops at the Second Battle of Bull Run in August.
Jackson's Valley campaign, also known as the Shenandoah Valley campaign of 1862, was Confederate Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's spring 1862 campaign through the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia during the American Civil War. Employing audacity and rapid, unpredictable movements on interior lines, Jackson's 17,000 men marched 646 miles (1,040 km) in 48 days and won several minor battles as they successfully engaged three Union armies, preventing them from reinforcing the Union offensive against Richmond.
The Army of the Shenandoah was a field army of the Union Army active during the American Civil War. First organized as the Department of the Shenandoah in 1861 and then disbanded in early 1862, the army became most effective after its recreation on August 1, 1864 under the command of Philip Sheridan. The army's actions during the Valley campaigns of 1864 rendered the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia unable to produce foodstuffs for the Confederate States Army, a condition which would hasten the conclusion of the American Civil War.
John Pope was a career United States Army officer and Union general in the American Civil War. He had a brief stint in the Western Theater, but he is best known for his defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run in the East.
The XI Corps was a corps of the U.S. Army during the American Civil War, best remembered for its involvement in the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg in 1863. The corps was composed primarily of German-American regiments.
The XII Corps was a corps of the Union Army during the American Civil War.
I Corps was the designation of three different corps-sized units in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Separate formation called the I Corps served in the Army of the Ohio/Army of the Cumberland under Alexander M. McCook from September 29, 1862 to November 5, 1862, in the Army of the Mississippi under George W. Morgan from January 4, 1863 to January 12, 1863, and in the Army of the Potomac and Army of Virginia. The first two were units of very limited life; the third was one of the most distinguished and veteran corps in the entire Union Army, commanded by very distinguished officers. The term "First Corps" is also used to describe the First Veteran Corps from 1864 to 1866.
The Northern Virginia Campaign, also known as the Second Bull Run Campaign or Second Manassas Campaign, was a series of battles fought in Virginia during August and September 1862 in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. Confederate General Robert E. Lee followed up his successes of the Seven Days Battles in the Peninsula campaign by moving north toward Washington, D.C., and defeating Maj. Gen. John Pope and his Army of Virginia.
The Maryland campaign occurred September 4–20, 1862, during the American Civil War. The campaign was Confederate General Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the North. It was repulsed by the Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, who moved to intercept Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia and eventually attacked it near Sharpsburg, Maryland. The resulting Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest day of battle in American history.
George Henry Gordon was an American lawyer and a Union general in the American Civil War.
The eastern theater of the American Civil War consisted of the major military and naval operations in the states of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, and the coastal fortifications and seaports of North Carolina.
Nathaniel Collins McLean, was a lawyer, farmer, and Union general during the American Civil War. He was appointed colonel of the 75th Ohio Infantry Regiment in 1861 and led the regiment in several battles before commanding a brigade. During the Second Battle of Bull Run, his brigade's determined defense of Chinn Ridge probably saved the Union Army from a disaster. He led a brigade at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863, for a month in the Atlanta campaign in 1864, and in the Carolina campaign in 1865. After the war, he returned to his law practice in Cincinnati, moved to Minnesota, and moved again to New York where he died.
Julius H. Stahel-Számwald was a Hungarian soldier who emigrated to the United States and became a Union general in the American Civil War. After the war, he served as a U.S. diplomat, a mining engineer, and a life insurance company executive. He received the Medal of Honor for gallantry in action at the Battle of Piedmont in 1864.
The 46th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was a Union Army regiment in the American Civil War. It served in both the Eastern and Western Theaters, most notably at the 1862 Battle of Cedar Mountain and during the 1864 Atlanta Campaign. During the war, the regiment lost 17% of its strength through combat losses and disease.
The 68th New York Infantry Regiment served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Also known as the Cameron Rifles or the Second German Rifle Regiment, the men were mostly German immigrants. Organized in July 1861, three months after the outbreak of war, the 68th saw service in the Eastern and Western theaters.
Samuel Breck was an officer in the United States Army who served as Adjutant General of the U.S. Army from 1897 to 1898.
The following Union Army units and commanders were the initial structure on April 4, 1862 of the Union Department of the Potomac during the Peninsula campaign of the American Civil War. This list includes units deployed to the Virginia Peninsula, and those that remained in the Washington area. The Confederate order of battle is listed separately.
The Department of the Rappahannock was a department of the Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War that existed from April 4, 1862 to September 12, 1862.