Northern Virginia Campaign - Aftermath

Aftermath

The Northern Virginia Campaign had been expensive for both sides, although Lee's smaller army spent its resources more carefully. Union casualties were 16,054 (1,724 killed, 8,372 wounded, 5,958 missing/captured) out of about 75,000 engaged, roughly comparable to the losses two months earlier in the Seven Days Battles; Confederate losses were 9,197 (1,481 killed, 7,627 wounded, 89 missing/captured) of 48,500.

The acquired that magnificent morale which made them equal to twice their numbers, & which they never lost even to the surrender at Appomattox. And confidence in them, & theirs in him, were so equal that no man can yet say which was greatest.

The campaign was a triumph for Lee and his two principal subordinates. Military historian John J. Hennessy described it as Lee's greatest campaign, the "happiest marriage of strategy and tactics he would ever attain." He balanced audacious actions with proper caution and chose his subordinates' roles to best effect. Jackson's flank march—54 miles in 36 hours into the rear of the Union Army—was "the boldest maneuver of its kind during the war, and Jackson executed it flawlessly." Longstreet's attack on August 30, "timely, powerful, and swift, would come as close to destroying a Union army as any ever would."

Pope, outmaneuvered by Lee, was virtually besieged in Washington. If it were not for his close political and personal ties to President Lincoln, his military career might have been completely ruined. Instead, he was transferred to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and command of the Army's Department of the Northwest, where he fought the Dakota War of 1862. Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan assumed command of all Union forces around Washington, and his Army of the Potomac absorbed the forces of the Army of Virginia, which was disbanded on September 12, 1862.

With Pope no longer a threat and McClellan reorganizing his command, Lee turned his army north on September 4 to cross the Potomac River and invade Maryland, initiating the Maryland Campaign and the battles of Harpers Ferry, South Mountain, and Antietam.

The Bull Run battlefields are preserved by the National Park Service in Manassas National Battlefield Park.