December 20, 1861: The Battle Of Dranesville
You are there: The Union gets its first good news of the war with a victory in a skirmish at Dranesville, Virginia.
The hamlet of Dranesville originates in 1810 as a two-story hotel and saloon combination located along the Leesburg & Alexandria Pike and the Chain Bridge Road. Its founder is Washington James Drane who recognizes that wagons and livestock departing on the 35 mile journey from Leesburg to DC will require two days to complete the journey. In turn he builds “Drover’s Rest” (or Dranesville Tavern) to provide a convenient stop-over for travelers and a 12 acre fenced-in field capable of holding some 300 head of cattle, sheep or pigs.
The village gradually grows up around the Tavern, adding Colman’s general store, a post office, church and several private homes. According to local records, it’s commonplace for 40-50 wagons to pass through on an average day.
But on December 20, 1861 the usual quiet is replaced by gunfire as the Union army spars again with the rebels after two humiliating defeats – first at Bull Run on July 21 and then at Ball’s Bluff on October 21.
The two sides bump into each other by accident while out foraging for supplies to carry them through the winter.
The Confederates are first to arrive, travelling north up the road from Centerville toward the Leesburg Pike. Their commander is 28 year old General James Ewell Brown (Jeb) Stuart who has 1,750 troops including 150 of his cavalrymen, a mixed infantry brigade (the 10th Alabama, 6th South Carolina and 1st Kentucky) and a four gun battery from Georgia known as the Sumter Artillery.
Meanwhile coming west up the Chain Bridge Road is a 4,000 man Pennsylvania brigade under General Edward Ord, lifelong friend of William Sherman at West Point and in California, and a veteran of the Seminole Wars.
Around noon, Ord’s men run into Stuart’s pickets guarding the intersection of the Centerville and Chain Bridge Roads. A two hour battle is about to begin.
The outnumbered Confederates deploy in a defensive posture protecting their wagons and their escape path back toward Centerville. Anchoring their line are the four cannon under Col. Allen Cutts, a veteran of the Mexican War.
They exchange rounds with Battery A of the Pennsylvania Light Artillery commanded by Captain Hazekiah Easton and fronting a forest 2 miles north of Cutts. Easton survives the battle, but is later killed in action during the 1862 Peninsula campaign.
The rest of Ord’s men (1st,6th,9th,10th,12th Pa) attack both flanks of Stuart’s interior lines along the Centerville Road, gradually driving them back.
After a series of sharp exchanges, Stuart abandons the field around 2:00pm.
His Confederates suffer 230 casualties against only 71 for the Union.
So Dranesville is simply a footnote relative to the other big battles of the war.
But it is a Union victory and the first piece of good news for the Union Army and Washington.
