Just Damage The Bridge

The First Battle of Pocotaligo was fought in Yemassee, South Carolina on May 29^th 1862, with the Union objective of disrupting the Charleston and Savannah Railroad.

A Union detachment commanded by Colonel Benjamin C Christ and made up of the 1^st Massachusetts Cavalry, 8^th Michigan Infantry, 79^th New York Infantry, and 50^th Pennsylvania moved out from Beaufort, South Carolina on May 29^th 1862, toward the Charleston and Savannah Railroad.  As they moved toward Pocotaligo, the Union troops began pushing in Confederate pickets.  Reaching Pocotaligo the Union troops, where they found the bridge destroyed, there was some heavy fighting.  About 300 of the Union troops got across the river, and drove the Confederates into the woods.

As the Union mission, which was to destroy the bridge; had been obtained, the Union force withdrew.  Union casualties were 2 killed and 9 wounded, while the Confederates reported losses of 2 killed, 6 wounded and 1 man missing. 

Cutting Through The Screen

In Loudoun County, Virginia on June 17^th 1863 the cavalry fight known as the Battle of Aldie took place.

Confederate Major General JEB Stuart’s cavalry was screening the march being made north by General Robert E Lee’s troops advancing into Pennsylvania.  On June 17^th 1863 the Union cavalry commander Brigadier General Alfred Pleasonton decided to cut through this screen, by sending Brigadier General David Gregg’s division west out of Manassas Junction on the Little River Turnpike toward the town of Aldie, Virginia.

In the early morning, Confederate Colonel Thomas Munford led the 2^nd and 3^rd Virginia Cavalry from Upperville on towards the Bull Run Mountains looking for forage and doing some reconnaissance.  When he reached Aldie he put out a line of pickets and then moved the rest of his men northwest on the Snicker’s Gap Turnpike.  Around 4 pm the Union’s 1^st Massachusetts Cavalry ran into Munford’s pickets and pushed them in.  The 1^st Massachusetts was then confronted by the 5^th Virginia Cavalry who pushed the Union back to their main line.  Then the 1^st joined by the 4^th New York Cavalry charged, but the Confederates with some help from some sharpshooters drove the Union Cavalry back and secured their lines and hold of Ashby’s Gap Turnpike.  The 1^st Massachusetts was trapped in a curve on the Snicker’s Gap Turnpike and lost 198 of their 294 men, one detachment almost eliminated in hand to hand fighting.

Somewhere around 8 pm the fighting died off.  Munford took his men and moved west towards Middleburg.  The Union lost about 305 men, dead and wounded, the Confederate side had losses of about 110.