A. P. Hill
10-14-2017, 03:37 PM
On October 14, 1863, Confederate Gen. A.P. Hill’s Corps collided with two corps of the retreating Union Army of the Potomac at Bristoe Station.
Hill attacked without proper reconnaissance, falling into —as one observer termed it— “as fine a trap as could have been devised by a month’s engineering.”
Outnumbered nearly 5-to-1, the Confederates were cut down in waves. It all lasted scarcely an hour, and the Army of Northern Virginia suffered its most one-sided defeat in more than two years.
On surveying the field strewn with nearly 1,400 killed or wounded Confederate soldiers he could ill afford to lose, Confederate chieftain Robert E. Lee angrily said, “Well, General, bury these poor men and let us say no more about it.”
Hill attacked without proper reconnaissance, falling into —as one observer termed it— “as fine a trap as could have been devised by a month’s engineering.”
Outnumbered nearly 5-to-1, the Confederates were cut down in waves. It all lasted scarcely an hour, and the Army of Northern Virginia suffered its most one-sided defeat in more than two years.
On surveying the field strewn with nearly 1,400 killed or wounded Confederate soldiers he could ill afford to lose, Confederate chieftain Robert E. Lee angrily said, “Well, General, bury these poor men and let us say no more about it.”