Action at Brawner's Farm - Walk

A brief photo journal of a visit to the Second Manassas battlefield

The Battle of Second Manassas began with the action at Brawner's Farm where elements of Jackson's wing interrupted the redeployment of King's Division east along the Warrenton Pike.

A snapshot of the action is given in Figure 1 showing relative troop dispositions (map from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Bull_Run).

Figure 1 Battle map of Brawner's Farm

To put my battlefield walk in context, a handful of reference points were placed on a Google Earth map to help associate photos to the battlefield.  As the fight progressed both combatants kept extending their lines from Brawner's Farm to the east.

Both photos (1) and (2) show the Brawner house in its restored condition.  Vehicle access to the Brawner Farm is no longer available along the old Brawner lane from the Warrenton Pike.  Instead, the Park Service has cut in an access road from Pageland Lane and terminates just west of the Brawner Farm in a parking lot.  A trail heading nearly due east connects to the Brawner house.

(1) Brawner Farm

(2) Brawner Farm

North edge of Brawner Woods

    

From the Brawner Farm, head east to the artillery positions at (3).  Photo (3a) shows the gun positions looking towards the NE while (3b) is taken of the battery from the NE looking back towards the area of Brawner's Farm.

(3a) Artillery position from SW

(3b) Artillery position from NE

Continuing the walk to the NE, in (4) can be seen the artillery positions of S.D. Lee.  From this position, Lawton attacked the 7 WIS.  Lawton's attack would have approached from the left towards the right of the picture and almost directly towards the photographer.

(4) Lawton's counterattack

Two photos showing Confederate gun line atop the ridge at (5).  From this position, Lee disrupted Porter's attack at the Deep Cut on 30AUG1862.  Photo (5a) doesn't provide a sense for the dominating position of these guns but from (5b), the ground can be seen dropping off just beyond the guns.  With only a ribbon of trees and brush along the creek separating these heights from Porter's assault, Federal soldiers were raked under the guns along much of their advance.

(5a) S.D. Lee's artillery position

(5b) S.D. Lee's artillery position