M.A. Kleen

Twenty days after the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s exhausted Army of Northern Virginia was marching up the Shenandoah Valley, trying to find a safe route into central Virginia. Union Maj. Gen. George G. Meade pursued with the remainder of his Army of the Potomac. The Blue Ridge Mountains separated both armies. Sensing an opportunity, Meade ordered the III Corps, now commanded by William. H. French, to cross the Manassas Gap towards Front Royal. There he hoped to cut off Lee’s escape. Light skirmishing occurred July 21-22, and then on July 23, 1863, French assailed a ridge called Wapping Heights with his entire corps. The ridge was defended by a single brigade of Georgia infantry.

The Georgians fought tenaciously, but they were outnumbered. French’s men captured the ridge and pressed on. Growing darkness, and Confederate reinforcements, checked his advance, however, and the opportunity slipped away. Lee’s army eventually crossed into central Virginia farther south, and the Gettysburg Campaign was officially over. It’s estimated that the belligerents suffered a combined total of over 60,000 casualties, and finished roughly in the same position where it all began. On August 8th, Lee wrote a letter to Confederate President Jefferson Davis offering to resign as commander of the army, but Davis refused to accept.