General Pope, appreciating the danger of this movement on the part of
the rebels, telegraphed to Washington, and, in reply, was assured that,
if he could hold out two days longer, he should be so strongly
reinforced as to enable him, not only to hold his position, but to take
the offensive.

It is needless to say that, with the exception of one or two small
divisions, no reinforcements reached him within that time; and although
General Porter reported to him by letter from Bealton on the 25th, it
had been better for General Pope had he not come at all. On the night of
the 26th, Jackson, coming through Thoroughfare Gap, got in the rear of
Pope's army and cut the railroad at Kettle Run, near Warrenton Junction.
Lee was still in front, in the vicinity of Sulphur Springs. General
Pope, desiring at the same time to fall back toward Centreville and
interpose his army between Jackson's and Lee's forces, ordered a
retrograde movement. His troops were by this time fairly exhausted. In
his report to the Secretary of War, he says: "From the 18th of August,
until the morning of the 27th, the troops under my command had been
continually marching and fighting night and day; and during the whole of
that time there was scarcely an interval of an hour without the roar of
artillery. The men had had little sleep, and were greatly worn down with
fatigue; had had little time to get proper food or to eat it; had been
engaged in constant battles and skirmishes, and had performed services,
laborious, dangerous and excessive, beyond any previous experience in
this country." Jackson had succeeded in burning fifty cars at Bristow
Station, and a hundred more at Manassas Junction, heavily laden with
ammunition and supplies. On the afternoon of the 27th, a severe
engagement occurred between Hooker's division of Heintzelman's corps,
which had arrived the evening before, and Ewell's division of
Longstreet's corps, near Bristow Station. Ewell was driven back; the
loss on each side being about three hundred. During the night, General
McDowell with his corps, and Generals Reno and Kearney with their
divisions, took such positions as effectually to interpose between
Jackson's forces and Lee's, and no alternative was left Jackson but to
turn upon Hooker and rout him, or to retreat by way of Centreville.
Hooker's men had exhausted their ammunition, so that there were but five
rounds per man left. General Pope, fearing that Hooker would be
attacked, dispat