Chantilly Main Page * About the Battle * Ox Hill Battlefield Park * The Armies
Prelude
On August 29-30 Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia defeated Union Major General John Pope’s Army of Virginia in two days of fighting near Manassas, known as the Second Battle of Bull Run by the North. Pope retreated in some disorder toward the safety of the defences of Washington. Lee’s Confederates, exhausted by two weeks of hard marching and three days of harder fighting, were allowed to rest on August 31 before beginning their pursuit the next day.
Early on September 1
Confederate forces under the command of Major General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson made a flank march around Pope’s retreating army, hoping to cut off the Union retreat at the strategic crossroads of Jermantown. A Union division from Ninth Corps under the command of Major General Issac I. Stevens moved forward to stop Jackson and shield the Union flank. Later that day a division from the Third Corps under Major General Philip Kearney followed.
Late afternoon
They met around 4 pm just beyond Chantilly Plantation on the Little River Turnpike near Ox Hill. The battle lasted a little less than three hours, ending in hand-to-hand combat in a violent thunderstorm.
Jackson had deployed his men south of the Turnpike. Stevens led his division across an open field to attack the center of the Confederate line, held by Lawton’s Division. Although outnumbered, Stevens was initially successful. But in a Confederate counterattack Stevens was shot in the head and fatally wounded, and his men were forced to fall back in confusion.
Major General Philip Kearny had moved his division up on Stevens’ left flank in support. As he arrived a very strong thunderstorm moved in, with high winds and heavy rains that soaked the men’s gunpowder and turned the firghting into brutal hand to hand combat with bayonets and clubbed muskets.
Kearney sent a brigade under Brigadier General David Birney forward to support Stevens. The attack stalled against the Confederate division of A.P. Hill. Trying to identify the Confederate’s positions and doubting reports from his front line unit, Kearney rode alone ahead of his men to reconnoiter. In the rain and darkness he rode into Confederate lines. As he realized his mistake and turned to ride away he was shot down and instantly killed.
General Birney was left in command of the field. Badly outnumber and in terrible weather conditions, he used his two fresh brigades to form a rear guard and withdrew to the south.
Results
The battle was a tactical stalemate. The Confederates lost about 500 casualties. The Union lost a little over 600, but added to this was the death of Major Generals Issac I. Stevens and Philip Kearny, two of the most promising division commanders in the army.
The Union troops continued their withdrawal into the Washington defenses unmolested. Major General George McClellan would assume command of all Union troops around Washington, and Pope would be sent far to the west in exile.
Lee’s men, free of the threat of Union troops on their flank, prepared to cross the Potomac River and move into Maryland on what would become Lee’s first invasion of the North. The road would lead to the Battles of South Mountain and finally to Antietam, the bloodiest single day in American history.