26 August 1862: Tuesday

Confederates - Military
Virginia
The Second Manassas Campaign is considered to have opened on this day. Confederate cavalry under Fitzhugh Lee enter Manassas Junction and capture the rail point.

Stonewall Jackson's troops hurry their march, begun August 25, from below the Rapahannock to the area of the Battle of First Bull Run/Manassas the year before.

There are skirmishes at Bristoe Station, Bull Run Bridge, Gainesville, Haymarket, Manassas Junction and Silver Springs.

By evening Jackson's main force which had pushed through Thoroughfare Gap in the Bull Run Mountains, arrives at Bristoe Station.

At Manassas the Confederates capture a few hundred prisoners and large amounts of quartermaster and commissary supplies.

Union - Military
Virginia
Pope's Federal Army of Virginia rests, as its leaders do not comprehend Jackson's movements.

McClellan's Federal Second Army Corps of the Army of the Potomac leaves Fort Monroe for the north, continuing evacuation of the James position.

Tennessee
There are skirmishes at the Cumberland Iron Works and Cumberland Gap.

Mississippi
There is a skirmish near Rienzi.

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Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971