The Battle of Unison: George McClellan Sent Packing...

5fish

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2019
Messages
10,626
Reaction score
4,544
The Battle of Unison was an engagement by Stuart screening Lee's retreat from Maryland. It's a battle where Stuart was driven from the field but succeeded in allowing Lee to move and regroup his army. The battle signaled Lincoln that McClellan was not the man to defeat Lee... Stuart was greatly outnumbered in the engagement... You read about you may agree it was one of Stuart's finest moments of the war out of his many...


The Battle of Unison or Battle of Union refers to a series of American Civil War cavalry skirmishes in Loudoun County, Virginia, between October 31 – November 2, 1862, between the Confederate forces of J.E.B. Stuart and various units of the Union Army of the Potomac. Although driven from the field in individual engagements, Stuart accomplished his mission to delay the enemy and screen the movements of the retreating Army of Northern Virginia.

The Federals were able to force Stuart to leave his wounded behind when was driven from Loudoun County, but it took the weight of nearly the entire army to do so and the Federals still were unable to prevent Stuart from killing and capturing more men and seizing more horses. Furthermore, Stuart was able to drive a portion of the Federal army before him. Ultimately, Stuart succeeded in slowing down and harassing the already slow and beleaguered Federals, contributing to the War Department's decision to remove General McClellan from his command.

Stuart's actions helped give the Confederate army more time to reposition and regather itself for a renewed Union campaign in Virginia
. Riding with Stuart during the fighting around Unison was a young scout and staff officer who was seeing the Loudoun Valley for the first time. This scout, John S. Mosby, would become widely celebrated in that region for his daring exploits as a partisan ranger.


Here is an article about the battle in more detail. Lincoln had given McClellan a plan to capture Lee's army but McClellan did not follow it.


But, it took another week before the details could be worked out and McClellan finally agreed to Lincoln’s blueprint. On October 22 he telegraphed to Washington DC that he “had decided to move upon the line indicated by the Presid’t ”. On October 24, McClellan began to move his huge army across the Potomac River and into Loudoun County on the east side of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Because of the time gained by Stuart’s delaying tactics at Unison, a major portion of Lee’s force had crossed the Blue Ridge, reached Culpeper and now had time to regroup and prepare for the next major encounter between the two sides at Fredricksburg. Lee’s army and his capital were saved. On November 5, 1862, the New York Times correspondent aptly reported “Stuart . . . baulked what might have been a splendid success”.

A greatly disappointed Lincoln quickly followed on November 5th by signing an order relieving McClellan of his command and replacing him with General Ambrose Burnside. McClellan received the news in Rectortown on November 7th.
 
Last edited:

5fish

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2019
Messages
10,626
Reaction score
4,544
Only a few minutes to drive... It sounds like the place is still like it was...


To make the eight-mile drive south from the village of Philomont in Western Loudoun County through Unison to the small town of Upperville you travel on unpaved roads lined with stone walls and ford streams and pass beautiful rolling fields and old antebellum houses. There are periodic glimpses through the trees of the Blue Ridge just to the west. The drive takes only a few minutes today, but 146 years ago it took Federal cavalry and infantry forces a critical three days to cover this same short distance on these same roads.

Lee, sensing the trap set for him, started moving his own army southward and sent J.E.B. Stuart and a small band of cavalry and horse artillery to delay McClellan long enough to escape the President’s trap.
 
Top