Battles of Manassas • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments • Facts • The Armies
The Retreat from Chinn Ridge wayside marker is about 0.5 mile north of the parking area, the last stop along the Chinn Ridge trail. The Chinn Ridge trailhead is at Stop 10 on the Manassas Battlefield Driving Tour.
From the wayside marker:
Retreat from Chinn Ridge
Expecting to outflank the Rebels, Col. Oliver O. Howard’s Maine and Vermont regiments reached the top of this rise in two lines of battle. Suddenly the air exploded with shell fragments. A Confederate battery had opened fire from the Chinn House yard. Masses of Confederate infantry came charging out of the woods below.
There was no training for this moment, the New Englanders’ first time under fire. They managed to get off a few ragged volleys, then the parade-style battle lines began to break.
First
Battle of Manassas
From the caption next to the map:
The retreat gathered momentum, and soon the Union Army was headed back past Stone House and across Bull Run.
“I don’t wish to say anything of what I saw on the field. God grant that I may never see the same again. Our retreat was all confusion and turmoil.”
-Pvt. George S. Rollins, 3rd Maine Infantry
