The Battle of Cedar Mountain, also known as Slaughter's Mountain or Cedar Run, took place on August 9, 1862, in Culpeper County, Virginia, as part of the American Civil War. Union forces under Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks attacked Confederate forces under Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson near Cedar Mountain as the Confederates marched on Culpeper Court House to forestall a Union advance into central Virginia. After nearly being driven from the field in the early part of the battle, a Confederate counterattack broke the Union lines resulting in a Confederate victory. The battle was the first combat of the Northern Virginia campaign.
On June 26, Maj. Gen. John Pope was placed in command of the newly constituted Union Army of Virginia. Pope deployed his army in an arc across Northern Virginia. Its right flank, under Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel, was positioned at Sperryville on the Blue Ridge Mountains, its center, under Maj. Gen Nathaniel P. Banks, was located at Little Washington and its left flank under Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell was at Falmouth on the Rappahannock River. Part of Banks's corps, Brig. Gen. Samuel W. Crawford's brigade and Brig. Gen John P. Hatch's cavalry, were stationed 20 miles (32 km) beyond the Union line, at Culpeper Court House.
General Robert E. Lee responded to Pope's dispositions by dispatching Major General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson with 14,000 men to Gordonsville on July 13. Jackson was later reinforced with another 10,000 men by Maj. Gen. A.P. Hill's division on July 27. Lee intended to have Jackson strike Pope's Army of Virginia before the Army of the Potomac could reinforce them. On August 6, Pope marched his forces south into Culpeper County with the objective of capturing the rail junction at Gordonsville, in an attempt to draw Confederate attention away from Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's withdrawal from the Virginia Peninsula.
In response to this threat, Jackson chose to go on the offensive, attacking Pope's vanguard under Banks, before the entire Army of Virginia could be brought to bear on his position at Gordonsville. After defeating Banks, he then hoped to move on Culpeper Court House, 26 miles (42 km) north of Gordonsville and the focal point of the Union arc about Northern Virginia, to keep Pope's army from uniting. This would allow Jackson to fight and hopefully defeat each of the Union Corps separately, as he had done during the Valley Campaign. Accordingly, Jackson set out on August 7 for Culpeper. As in his campaign in the Shenandoah in the spring, Jackson would maneuver nimbly enough to gain local numerical superiority in the coming action. The cavalry under Brig. Gen. Beverly Robertson was sent ahead to dispatch the Federal cavalry guarding the fords of the Rapidan River and occupying Madison Court House, threatening the Confederates' left flank as they marched northward. This task was easily accomplished by Robertson on August 8.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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