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Battles of Manassas • Tour the Battlefield •  Monuments • Facts • The Armies

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The Attack at Deep Cut wayside marker is at the parking area at the beginning of the Deep Cut Loop Tour.

Attack at Deep Cut

Full-throated cheers greeted the order to attack. More than 6,000 Union soldiers under General Fitz John Porter poured across the road into the fields of Lucinda Dogan’s farm. As the blue-clad lines traversed the open ground, a massive concentration of Confederate artillery, posted on the neighboring Brawner Farm, unleashed a torrent of shot and shell. The bombardment shattered their formations and thinned the ranks. Still, the Federals pressed on and ascended the far ridge.

The attack culminated near the “Deep Cut” – the deepest portion of the unfinished railroad bed. Opposing troops, separated only by the width of the protective embankment, held their muskets horizontally above their heads and fired blindly. Many soldiers resorted to throwing rocks. Unable to endure the barrage from the front and flank, and with dwindling hope of reinforcement, the decimated Union regiments retreated. In less than an hour, the largest Federal attack of Second Manassas had failed.

The whole field was covered with a confused mass of struggling, running, routed Yankees.
-Colonel Bradley T. Johnson, CSA

Second Battle of Manassas
Day Three
August 30, 1862    3 p.m.