Major General Joseph Hooker’s division of Heintzelman’s corps struck Jackson’s trail on the afternoon of the 27th when it collided with Ewell’s division at Bristoe Station. A skirmish ignited and flared before Ewell retired to Manassas Junction. Late that night, Pope directed his units toward Manassas Junction. On the following morning, when Pope reached the burning supply base, he found no Confederates and redirected his troops toward Centreville. Reports of Hill’s march misled Pope into believing that Jackson’s entire command was there. By nightfall he was at Centreville, but still with no Confederates in sight.

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Meanwhile, on the 28th, McDowell led his corps, Sigel’s and Reno’s, along with Maj. Gen. Philip Kearny’s division of Heintzelman’s corps, on the Warrenton Turnpike toward Centreville. About sunset, Brig. Gen. John Gibbon’s brigade approached Jackson’s concealed veterans.

Jackson ordered an attack, and Taliaferro’s division plunged down a hillside on the Brawner farm. Gibbon’s men, who had never been in battle before, withstood the test. Each side lost about 1,300 men. On the Confederate side, the wounded included Taliaferro and Ewell. Jackson’s attack revealed his location, but as Confederate artillerist E. Porter Alexander later argued, Jackson had wanted to prod Pope into battle before additional troops from McClellan’s army reached the battlefield.

“Old Jack” also knew that Lee and Longstreet were en route with the army’s other wing; in fact, during the action at the Brawner farm, Jackson’s men saw puffs of white smoke in Thoroughfare Gap that indicated the approach of Longstreet’s 32,000 men. Jackson’s troops slept where they were.

Pope learned of the fight at the Brawner farm before 10 p.m. At that time, the bulk of his army was in striking distance of Jackson. Sigel was on Henry House Hill, on the ground of the First Manassas; McDowell was in the vicinity of Groveton; Reno and Heintzelman were near Manassas Junction; and Porter held Bristoe Station.

Pope believed that he had Jackson trapped between the major components of his army. He told his staff that night, “The game is in our own hands, and I do not see how it is possible for Jackson to escape without very heavy loss, if at all.” Orders went forth from headquarters to corps commanders for simultaneous attacks the next morning.

A crucial piece of intelligence, however, had not been relayed to Pope’s headquarters. The fighting in Thoroughfare Gap noticed by Jackson’s men was between the Union division of Brig. Gen. James B. Ricketts and the van of Longstreet’s four divisions. Lee and Longstreet had followed Jackson on the afternoon of the 26th. “Old Pete” Longstreet pushed his columns as hard as Jackson had, and by 3 p.m. on the 28th his leading division had ascended the western slope of Thoroughfare Gap. Ricketts’ men fought stubbornly until Brig. Gen. John B. Hood’s brigades outflanked the Union position. Longstreet’s command bivouacked for the night on the eastern side of the mountains. Somehow, Ricketts failed to notify McDowell of these developments.

Early on the morning of August 29, Jackson began shifting his units northeastward to a wooded position behind an abandoned railroad embankment. Hill manned the left; Ewell’s division under Brig. Gen. Alexander R. Lawton held the center; and the Stonewall Division, Brig. Gen. William E. Starke now commanding, covered the right. Jackson’s front stretched for nearly 3,000 yards from Sudley Springs on Bull Run creek to the Warrenton Turnpike.

Pope’s grand scheme, as he learned soon after daylight, had already come unhinged. When he reached Centreville, he learned that King’s and Ricketts’ divisions had withdrawn during the night from the Groveton area to Manassas Junction. This was done without the knowledge of McDowell, who had lost his way during the night and could not locate his command. Pope believed he had to retake Gainesville and hold the Warrenton Turnpike to bar Jackson from escaping in that direction; he rerouted Porter’s corps to Gainesville.

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