Battle of Rock Creek (Pierce’s Mill)
With the resumption of the campaigning season in March 1864, both sides began to look for a knock-out punch. For the Confederates, this meant a strike at the capital, Washington DC, with the goal of scaring US President Simon Cameron into, at last, recognizing the Confederacy as an independent nation. For the Union, this meant defeating the Confederates on the field of battle, destroying their sense of invincibility, and thereby negating any proposals by France and Britain for intervention. In the end, while the aims of both sides were never quite realized, the final disposition greatly favored the Confederacy and allowed for their independence to be all but assured.
Beauregard’s Army of Virginia struck first, departing its base at Centreville on March 15th. Sending Magruder’s Division to feint at Alexandria, Beauregard crossed the Potomac at White’s Ford near Leesburg on March 21st. Johnston, operating in the Shenandoah Valley, was ordered by President Davis to join Beauregard, and he departed with the Army of the Shenandoah from Harper’s Ferry soon after word reached him of Beauregard’s successful crossing. While Beauregard would sorely need the troops from Johnston’s army during the campaign, Johnston himself would prove to be a mistake, for the frequent quarrels between the two men threatened imminent destruction upon their combined armies. On the Union side, Secretary of War Cameron, the de facto commander of the entire Union war effort and also the commander of the Army of the Tiber, had originally meticulously planned for an offensive towards Centreville, a movement he began in response to Magruder’s feint. But with Beauregard’s crossing, the threat to Washington became all too real, forcing Cameron to withdraw from Alexandria and take up position in Georgetown. Beauregard’s intentions at first were unknown to the Union, for he sent cavalry squadrons to tear up the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, signalling a possibility that Baltimore could be under threat. As such, Cameron put Reynolds’ Army of the Susquehanna, stationed in Baltimore, at high alert, and moved Garland’s Army of the Potomac from where it had been gathering opposite of Aquia Landing back towards the capital.
Beauregard scattered a Union picket force led by John Gibbon at Gaithersburg, careful to make it seem to the retreating Federals that his overall movements were towards Baltimore. Instead, Beauregard swung to Rockville and advanced down Rock Creek, bee-lining to Washington. It is by this point, March 28th, that Cameron came to his senses (thanks to fortuitous reports from Gibbon who was not fooled by Beauregard) and requested Reynolds to put his army on a train for Washington. As well, it is by this point that Johnston’s army, tired from several forced marches, reached Beauregard, and planning began for the assault into Washington.
Standing in the way of the Confederates was Fort Pennsylvania, built on the highest natural point in the entire District. Despite being one of the largest forts in the entire Fort Circle, Cameron had moved much of his forces to a newly built strongpoint centered on St. Alban’s Church closer to Georgetown, essentially ceding the fort to the Confederates. Had Cameron held on to Fort Pennsylvania, it is likely that the decisive battle he and his brother were hoping for would have happened there. Upon taking the fort, Beauregard sent Johnston south to Fort Gaines in order to trick Cameron into thinking he intended to attack Georgetown, and marched the rest of his army east, planning to cross Rock Creek and approach Washington from the north. Beauregard had no idea that Reynolds and Garland were streaming into the area, with advance forces taking positions near Fort Massachusetts. The Army of Virginia arrived at Rock Creek near the crossing of Pierce’s Mill as night fell on April 1st, pitching their tents on the west bank despite Beauregard’s insistence to Theophilus Holmes that the east bank be claimed before the army went to sleep. This delay allowed for the 6th Division (Hooker) to march forth from Columbia College and claim the east bank before sunrise on April 2nd.
Beauregard’s crossing of Rock Creek, undertaken at dawn on the 2nd with the promise of a hot breakfast after (presumably roasted on the charred timbers of the White House) immediately was contested by Hooker’s men, who themselves had barely had time to rest. At this point, Reynolds roused his tired divisions and ordered them to march to the aid of Hooker, telling his commanders to “march to the sound of guns”. Cameron, still thinking that the main attack would be aimed at Georgetown, fell back from his position at St. Alban’s Church under fears that the attack at Pierce’s Mill was instead Beauregard crossing the Creek from the east side, when in reality it was the opposite. Johnston, still holding Fort Gaines, noticed Cameron’s maneuver and petitioned Beauregard to move to Georgetown to take advantage of Cameron’s flight. However, Beauregard, who by this point had become quite irritated by Hooker’s resistance, instead ordered Johnston to join him and help him force the Creek.
By this point the fighting had reached such an intensity that the water of Rock Creek had become nearly entirely filled with blood, and the tired soldiers of Hooker could no longer withstand Beauregard’s attacks, and when Garland himself was shot (after uttering a famous last line calling for his men to take back the east bank) the Union lines began to crack. Thanks to an impromptu bayonet charge led by Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Chamberlain of the 3rd Maine, the first of Reynolds’ troops to arrive on the scene, the Federals did not break, and were able to in fact push the Confederates back across the Creek in an attack that shocked Beauregard in its intensity. Reynolds, taking overall command after Garland’s death and Cameron’s inability to do anything, ordered his soldiers to continue the momentum and cross the Creek themselves, an action that his tired troops were unable to fulfill. For much of this second phase of the battle (the first phase being the initial attack to Chamberlain’s rescue) the battle seesawed back and forth across the Creek, as charges and counter-charges proved unable to dislodge either side. It is said that by the end of this second phase, one could walk across the Creek without getting their feet wet, for such was the number of dead and wounded strewn across the battlefield. It can be astonishing to military students that such attacks continued to be launched despite the relative closeness of another crossing of the Creek just to the north of the battlefield and near to the Union base of Fort Massachusetts. It should be noted that Philip Kearny, the highly aggressive Union general, had in effect assumed command of Garland’s army and, despite Reynolds being in nominal command, was the true commander of this second phase (until his death around noon). Additionally, with Cameron’s army stuck in Georgetown, the Union was technically outnumbered, and any flanking maneuver would have weakened their lines below any acceptable margin.
At long last, following hours of pleading, Cameron moved his army up Rockville Road, reclaiming his position at St. Alban’s Church and beginning a march to Tennallytown. This maneuver threatened to encircle the Confederates, and it was only the stout resistance of Bee’s Division (which saw the death of Bee) that Beauregard was able to withdraw from the battlefield. The third phase of the battle occurred as night fell, with the 2nd Division (Porter) launching numerous attacks on hastily devised earthworks along the intersection of Rockville Road and Pierce’s Mill Road to no avail. With their position now untenable due to Cameron’s movements to the south and Reynolds approaching from the east, Beauregard and Johnston agreed to withdraw completely, setting fire to Tennallytown and Fort Pennsylvania as they left. After a rearguard action at Old Stone Tavern that saw the 1st Division (Sumner) trashed and Sumner and Cameron both slain, the Union gave up on the pursuit and allowed Beauregard and Johnston to cross the Potomac back into Virginia uncontested.
While the actions at Pierce’s Mill was an undeniable Union victory, it left a foul taste in President Cameron’s mouth. Close to two-fifths of all the dead from the First Civil War came from this one battle, and while Beauregard slugged it out with Kearny, Magruder had taken Alexandria and the heights at Arlington and began a bombardment of Washington itself. What the French and British ambassadors took from the overall campaign was less of the bloodbath along Rock Creek and more the image of downtown Washington in flames, especially after a lucky shot destroyed the ironclad USS Minotaur in one spectacular moment. As well, the death of President Cameron’s brother deeply impacted the President, who fell deeply into grief. His impeachment and removal a month later stems entirely from his reaction to Rock Creek, as he ordered the ceasing of all military activity (an order ignored by Nathaniel Lyon who was deep into the Second Missouri Campaign) and effectively recognized the independence of the Confederacy. Crittenden, when he assumed the presidency, found his hands tied as a result of this and was forced to go along with the peace negotiations (though how forced Crittenden actually felt is hotly debated), leading to the (albeit ultimately temporary) disunion of the Union.
The Battle of Rock Creek has many options for speculative historians to indulge with. Had the Army of the Tiber marched north soon after the battle began then it is possible Beauregard’s command could have been entirely encircled, allowing for the destruction of Johnston’s army as well. Had Hooker granted his men some hours of sleep then Beauregard could have crossed Rock Creek and forced battle elsewhere. Had Cameron kept Reynolds in Baltimore, then Beauregard could have likely marched into Washington, captured President Cameron, and dictated Confederate independence on the steps of the US Capitol itself. Had Chamberlain been slain in battle would have prevented his rise to the presidency, his selection of Ely S Parker as his vice, and quite possibly American intervention in the Confederate Civil War, making it possible for the Confederacy to survive long beyond its apparent expiration date, to the profound detriment of all.
ORDER OF BATTLE FOR ROCK CREEK
UNION:
ARMY OF THE TIBER (James Cameron)
- 1st Division (Edwin Sumner)
- 2nd Division (Fitz John Porter)
- 3rd Division (Irvin McDowell)
- 4th Division (Samuel Heintzelman)
ARMY OF THE POTOMAC (John Garland)
- 5th Division (Philip Kearny)
- 6th Division (Joseph Hooker)
- 7th Division (William Franklin)
ARMY OF THE SUSQUEHANNA (John F Reynolds)
- 8th Division (George Meade)
- 9th Division (John Sedgwick)
- 10th Division (Erasmus Keyes)
CONFEDERATE:
ARMY OF VIRGINIA (PGT Beauregard)
- 1st Corps (Nathan Evans)
- 1st Division (James Longstreet)
- 2nd Division (John Magruder) [detached and operating in Alexandria/Arlington]
- 2nd Corps (Theophilus Holmes)
- 1st Division (John G Walker)
- 2nd Division (Cadmus Wilcox)
- 3rd Corps (GW Smith)
- 1st Division (Robert Rodes)
- 2nd Division (DH Hill)
ARMY OF THE SHENANDOAH (Joseph E Johnston)
- 1st Division (Barnard Bee)
- 2nd Division (Richard Garnett)
- 3rd Division (Edward Johnson)