Sept. 1, 1862 - Chantilly

Sept. 1, 1863

The Battle of Chantilly; or Ox Hill

Fairfax County, VA

Union John Pope (Maj. Gen. Phillip Kearny and Brig. Gen. Isaac Stevens - both killed!)

vs.

Confederate Stonewall Jackson > Jubal Early/A.P Hill (Brig. Gen. Alexander Lawton)

* Confederate attempt to cut-off Union retreat after Second Bull Run

* Fierce, inconclusive fighting during a thunderstorm; Kearny killed here (* my car died in Chantilly once, and that's why my cat is named Kearny, who's adoption date is also Sept. 1) 

* Pope manages a retreat, but Lee is free to invade Maryland

Although most of the battlefield has been lost to NOVA development, there's a small urban park with a bunch of historical markers and wayside signs. It's an absolute delight. It starts with the marker below, which is one of the most interesting I've ever seen. Northern Virginia is a petty diverse community, so it makes sense to share this history with as many people as possible. Plus, as the sign makes clear, even during the Civil War not everyone spoke English.  

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=182222

La Batalla de Ox Hill (Chantilly)

옥스힐 전투 (챈틀리)

Sendero Interpretativo  

해석적 자취 

Senderos de la Guerra Civil en Virginia.

El 1 de Septiembre de 1862, una intensa tormenta agregada a los violentos sonidos de la batalla que ocurría aquí. El intento del ejército de la Unión, que estaba retirándose luego de perder la batalla de Manassas hace pocos días. Dos de los generales más importantes de La Unión fueron asesinados aquí, Isaac Stevens y Philip Kearney. Fueron más de 2,100 soldados muertos y heridos pero la batalla no cambió el resultado de la guerra.

En 1860 el 13% de la población en Estados Unidos eran inmigrantes. Uno de cada cuatro soldados de La Unión eran inmigrantes. El ejército confederado también tenía inmigrantes de varias nacionalidades pero no se sabe mucho de ellos. Como muchos de los soldados nacidos en Alemania que lucharon aquí, un gran número de soldados de la Guerra Civil no podían leer o hablar inglés.

버지니아 남북 전쟁 트레일.
1862년 9월 1일 이곳에서 벌어진 전투의 폭발음에 맞춰 엄청난 천둥 소리가 울려퍼졌습니다. 몇 일전 매 나세스의 두번째 전트에서 패배한 후에 후퇴하고 있었던 “스톤월” 잭 슨의 남부연합군은 북부연방군을 패배시키려고자 사력을 다하고 있 었습니다. 북부연밤군은 이곳에서 두 명의 중요한 장군이었던 아이작 스티븐스(Isaac Stevens) 와 필립 커어니(Philip Kearny)가 전사하였 습니다. 이천백명의 군 사상자가 있 었으나 이 전트로 인해 전쟁의 성 과를 바꾸지는 못하였습니다.

1860년대 미국 전체인구의 13%는 이민자였으며, 북부연방군의 4명중에 1 명이 이민자였습니다. 남부연합군도 역시 다양한 국가 출신의 이민자들이 포함되어 있었으나, 알려진 바가 거의 없습니다. 이곳에서 싸웠던 독일 출생의 군인처렁, 많은 남북전쟁 군인들은 영어로 읽거나 말하지 못했습니다.

[English translation from the Spanish:]
Virginia Civil War Trails.
On September 1, 1862, an intense storm added to the violent sounds of the battle that was taking place here. The attempt of the Union army, which was retreating after losing the Battle of Manassas a few days ago. Two of the most important generals in The Union were assassinated here, Isaac Stevens and Philip Kearney. More than 2,100 soldiers were killed and wounded but the battle did not change the outcome of the war.

In 1860, 13% of the population in the United States were immigrants. One in four Union soldiers were immigrants. The Confederate Army also had immigrants of various nationalities but not much is known about them. Like many of the German-born soldiers who fought here, large numbers of Civil War soldiers could not read or speak English."

An interpretative trail on a loop in an urban park? Nothing could be finer....

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=182229

"This small park is the last remnant of Fairfax County’s only major Civil War battlefield. The Battle of Ox Hill, also known as the “Battle of Chantilly,” lasted but a few hours on the afternoon of September 1, 1862. Here, some 6,000 Union troops encountered and attacked about 17,000 Confederates of General Stonewall Jackson. It was a “beastly, comfortless conflict” fought during a ferocious thunderstorm.

As darkness fell and the fighting ceased, hundreds of soldiers lay dead and more than a thousand were wounded or missing. Two of the most promising generals in the Union army, Isaac Stevens and Philip Kearny, were among the slain. The bloody stalemate frustrated the Confederate attempt to intercept and destroy General John Pope’s Union army as it retreated toward Washington following the Battle of Second Manassas (Bull Run).

Interpretive Trail
Follow the loop trail through this surviving portion of the battlefield. Visit the wayside markers labeled 1-9 and learn how the battle progressed and its aftermath. Read soldiers’ descriptions of the action, discover how generals Stevens and Kearny fell, view the monuments and learn the fate of the wounded."

If I lived here I'd probably want to him them all. 

I missed getting a picture of the sign, but here's the information. Two of my favorites are here: Jesse Reno, who dies shortly at South Mountain, and the Marylander I love to hate, Trimble.

"While General Stevens’ division attacked the Confederates on this side of Ox Road, part of General Jesse Reno’s division entered the woods east of the road to protect Stevens’ flank and probe the Confederate line. Reno’s two leading regiments received vague orders to “find the enemy.”

Just before 5 p.m., the 21st Massachusetts stumbled through the darkened woods, their line of battle broken by fallen trees and underbrush. As the thunderstorm erupted, the regiment halted to reform their lines. There was some firing off to their right and a body of troops in dark uniforms stood 25 yards ahead, barely visible.

Some of the men exclaimed, “Those are rebels!” while some thought otherwise. According to Captain Charles Walcott: “While most of our poor fellows stood with their guns at the shoulder, one of the deadliest volleys ever fired rolled upon us from our right and front…the whole regiment seemed to be lying bleeding on the ground…nearly a hundred of our men, dead and wounded, lay there with their officers.”

The Confederates who delivered the fatal volley were probably on the left of Trimble’s brigade of Georgia, North Carolina and Alabama troops, though some shots may have come from Stafford’s Louisiana brigade.

Farther east, near today’s Fair Oaks Mall, the 51st New York encountered part of Starke’s division, probably the Stonewall Brigade, but suffered only minor losses. The 2nd Maryland and 48th Pennsylvania remained in reserve near the unfinished railroad.

Two of Reno’s regiments, the 6th New Hampshire and 51st Pennsylvania, joined the fight west of Ox Road and supported Stevens’ division."

The price of getting to follow a loop for all the signs is that the signs do not necessarily reveal what happened at the battle in the exact order that it happened, but that's OK. (We can't all be the Hanover, PA walking tour.) 

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=15165

"As a rainy darkness enveloped the battlefield, Major General Philip Kearny rode eastward to investigate the reported gap in the Union line. Reigning up in the pasture, Kearny became alarmed that Stevens’ division had abandoned that part of the field after being repulsed.

Finding remnants of the 21st Massachusetts, Kearny immediately ordered them into the cornfield to protect Birney’s flank. They protested that their ammunition was wet and the cornfield was full of rebels. Kearny vehemently disagreed. Under threats and denouncements, the regiment advanced as ordered but soon halted under fire after capturing two skirmishers from the 49th Georgia.

Incensed at this delay, Kearny prodded the regiment forward, saying they were firing on their own men and that no rebels were in the cornfield. When shown the two captives, Kearny responded impetuously, “Damn you and your prisoners!” Putting spurs to his horse, he galloped forward in the rain to reconnoiter. Entirely alone and wearing an India rubber cloak over his uniform, the one-armed general rode into the cornfield. Within 60 yards he encountered the line of the 49th Georgia. Realizing his mistake, Kearny wheeled around to flee.

In an instant there were cries of “That’s a Yankee officer!” “Surrender!” “Halt!” “Shoot him!” Kearny threw himself forward and dug in his spurs, but a dozen muskets flashed in the growing darkness. Kearny was shot from his horse and died instantly in the muddy cornfield."

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=115

"Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's wing of the Army of Northern Virginia reached here 1 Sept. 1862. Jackson's march from the battlefield of Second Manassas turned the position of Maj. Gen. John Pope's army at Centreville and threatened the Union line of retreat near Fairfax Court House. Here at Ox Hill, the Confederates encountered Federal troops of the IX and III Corps and a fierce battle was fought amid storm and darkness. Union generals Isaac Stevens and Philip Kearny were killed. Pope retreated to Alexandria and the defenses of Washington. Thus ended the Second Manassas campaign."

This one is going here. Deal with it.

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=111

"Following the Battle of Ox Hill (Chantilly) on 1 Sept. 1862, Gen. Robert E. Lee pondered his options and strategy. Encouraged by Confederate victories and Federal disorganization, Lee acted quickly to continue the offensive. On 3 Sept., Lee's Army of Northern Virginia marched north towards Leesburg, from where it could cross into Maryland, flank the Washington fortifications, and draw the Union army out of Virginia. The troops of Maj. Gens. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson and James Longstreet moved north on Ox Road past Frying Pan and Herndon Station to Dranesville. The army concentrated around Leesburg and forded the Potomac into Maryland Sept, 4-7."

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=15168

"The boulders and quartz stone beside this fence mark the location where Union General Isaac Stevens fell with the flag of the 79th New York “Highlanders” during the initial Union assault. Here, Stevens’ troops threw down the fence and drove Hay’s Louisiana brigade back through the woods.

In 1883, Hazard Stevens, the general’s son and adjutant, and Charles Walcott of the 21st Massachusetts, returned to this field and identified the places where generals Stevens and Kearny were killed. The farm was then owned by Confederate veteran John Ballard, who marked the spot where General Stevens fell with a mound of boulders and later added a white quartz stone.

In 1915, Ballard’s son would say of his father and this stone,

"…an ex-Confederate maimed in that great struggle, with weak hands but with a heart strong in respect for a brave fallen foeman, planted that stone to mark that spot… with no services other than the reverence one brave man has for another."

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=182224

Major General Phillip Kearny

Killed on this spot September 1, 1862

Erected 1915 by The Tribute of Kearny's First New Jersey Brigade and Friends.

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=167071

"In July 1915, John and Mary Ballard deeded a 50x100-foot lot on their farm to six trustees, three from Virginia and three from New Jersey, General Kearny’s home state. The small lot was reserved for monuments to any Confederate or Federal soldier who fell in the Battle of Ox Hill (Chantilly).

Subsequently, these monuments to generals Isaac Stevens and Philip Kearny were dedicated on October 2, 1915. Captain Hazard Stevens, John Watts Kearny, Lieutenant John N. Ballard and Colonel Edmund Berkeley unveiled the monuments before a gathering of families, friends and dignitaries, including Union and Confederate veterans.

Among the prayers and oratory delivered that day, James W. Ballard, mayor of Fairfax, eloquently remarked:

"On this field as on many other, foes of one flesh and blood faced each other, each fighting for that side that seemed right in his own mind, each following the cause that he deemed just.""

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=15172

"The history of this small granite monument, marked simply “Kearny’s Stump,” is a mystery. According to tradition, a tree stood here at the time of the Ox Hill battle that subsequently became known as the “Kearny Tree.” It was said to be either the place where General Kearny was killed, or where his body lay after the battle ended. Both of these scenarios are doubtful.

Kearny was definitely killed in the cornfield west of here. The Confederates recovered his body and took it to Stonewall Jackson’s headquarters near Chantilly. It is known, however, that General Stevens was killed in this immediate vicinity, and his death may be the actual basis for the legend. The only certainty is, in 1915, the rotting tree stump, known then as “Kearny’s Stump,” became the focal point for the deed description of the 50 x 100 foot monument lot donated by John and Mary Ballard. The stump was then replaced by this permanent monument."

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=167070

"The clash at Ox Hill ended the Second Manassas Campaign. A small force of 6,000 Union soldiers had battled to a stalemate a much larger Confederate force of 17,000 of whom about 10,000 were engaged. In little more than two hours, the Confederates lost 516 men killed, wounded and missing. Union forces lost at least 1,000 casualties and withdrew during the night to Jermantown and Fairfax Court House, leaving behind nearly 250 severely wounded. The next day Pope’s army escaped to the safety of Washington’s fortifications.

After the battle, Major General James Longstreet’s wing arrived at Chantilly. With Lee’s army now united, the Confederates held their position and rested on September 2, their camps sprawling from Ox Hill to Chantilly and beyond.

On September 3, Lee marched his army to Dranesville, then to Leesburg and the Potomac River fords. There, on September 4, the Army of Northern Virginia began crossing into Maryland.

The invasion of Maryland would draw the Union army out of Virginia and move the war to Union territory, where fertile fields could be foraged and where promise of further victories might bring European recognition and support for the Confederacy. The opposing armies would soon clash again in the bloody battles of South Mountain and Antietam (Sharpsburg)."

Lot of information from the signs at the start/end of the interpretative trail loop

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=182223

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=182217

The Wounded Left Behind

During the Ox Hill battle, the Confederates established temporary hospitals at locations along the Little River Turnpike. Afterward, they moved most of their wounded 2.5 miles west to a field hospital at the Chantilly House and plantation.

The Union forces collected their wounded at the Millan House, just south of here, which served as the Federal hospital. There, surgeons worked until late at night doing amputations. Around 3 a.m., the Union army withdrew toward Jermantown and Fairfax Court House. The most seriously wounded were left behind and became prisoners by dawn. Sgt. Daniel Fletcher of the 40th New York Volunteers had a bullet extracted from his knee. He recorded his week-long ordeal thus: "A rebel colonel came into the building where we were and took all our names, to be exchanged. He said he could do nothing for us, the commissary stores not having arrived. Two surgeons were left to take charge of us, but we did not have our wounds dressed till the fourth day after the fight. There were about 150 wounded men in the buildings where we were; five or six died of their wounds every twenty-four hours. [Corporal] Flynn and other well men buried them.

When we had been prisoners a few days, our rations gave out. Flynn dug the garden over two or three times, and cooked for us all the potatoes, beets, turnips or other eatables he could find. The last few days we had very little to eat except coffee. The agents of the Sanitary Commission were the first to find us; and then we had bread in abundance.”

Their release finally arranged, transportation arrived: There were some thirty ambulances in the train, each drawn by two horses. There were two wounded men in each lying on beds. We started from [Ox Hill] about four o’clock in the afternoon, and arrived in Washington about dawn the next day.”"

Who Fought Here

Brig. Gen. Isaac I. Stevens, USA:
• Born North Andover, Massachusetts, 1818 • West Point 1839 • Corps of Engineers
• Mexican War, wounded, 1847 • Post war, US Coast Survey • Resigned US Army, 1853
• Appointed first governor of Washington Territory by President Franklin Pierce, 1853
• Director, Northern Pacific Railroad survey, 1853
• US Commissioner for Indian Treaties, 1853-56
• Washington congressional delegate, 1856-60 • Colonel, 79th New York Volunteers, 1861
•Brigadier general, Port Royal expedition, South Carolina coast, 1861-62
• Commanded 1st Division, IX Corps at Second Manassas, 1862
• Killed at Chantilly (Ox Hill), 1862
• Buried, Newport, Rhode Island
Life of General Isaac I. Stevens, Hazard Stevens, 1900

Brig. Gen. Alexander R. Lawton, CSA:
• Born Beaufort District, South Carolina, 1818 • West Point 1839 • Resigned US Army, 1841
• Graduated Harvard Law School, 1842 • Practiced law at Savannah, Georgia

• President, Augusta & Savannah Railroad • Served in both houses of Georgia legislature • At outbreak of Civil War, seized Fort Pulaski

the Georgia coast for the Confederacy

• Appointed brigadier general, Confederate Army, 1861

• Commanded Georgia brigade in the Seven Days Battles and at Second Manassas, 1862

• Commanded division at Ox Hill, 1862 • Badly wounded at Sharpsburg (Antietam), 1862

• Commanded Quartermaster General’s department, 1863, until end of war

• Returned to Savannah and law practice • Member, Georgia legislature, 1870-75

• Led Georgia delegation to Democratic National Convention, 1880 and 1884

• Appointed Minister to Austria by President Grover Cleveland, 1887

• Died 1896, buried in Savannah, Georgia

Generals in Gray, Ezra J. Warner, 1964

Maj. Gen. Philip Kearny, USA:

• Born into wealth and status, New York City, 1815 • Law degree, Columbia College, 1833

• Commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, 1st Dragoons, US Army, 1836

• Attended French Cavalry School at Saumur, 1839 • Fought with Chasseur’s d’Afrique, Algeria, 1840

• Resigned US Army, 1846, but returned to fight in Mexico, 1847

• Lost left arm at Battle of Churubusco, 1847 • Brevetted major for gallantry

• Duty in California, 1851 • Resigned US Army 1851, traveled the world, lived in Paris

• Served in the Army of France, an ally of Italy in its war with Austria, 1859

• Fought at Magenta and Solferino, Italy, 1859

• Received France’s highest decoration, The Cross of the Legion of Honor, 1860

• Brigadier general, New Jersey Brigade, Army of the Potomac, 1861

• Commanded 1st Division, III Corps in the Peninsula Campaign, 1862

• Major general at Second Manassas, 1862 • Killed at Chantilly (Ox Hill), 1862

• Buried in New York City, re-interred at Arlington National Cemetery, 1912

The Civil War Letters of General Philip Kearny, William B. Styple, 1988

Maj. Gen. Ambrose Powell (A.P.) Hill, CSA:

• Born Culpeper, Virginia, 1825 • West Point, 1847 • Served in Mexico, 1847

• Resigned US Army and entered Confederate service as colonel, 13th Virginia Infantry, 1861

• Major general, Seven Days Battles before Richmond, 1862

• Commanded “Light” division under Stonewall Jackson at Cedar Mountain and Second Manassas, 1862

• At Ox Hill, held Confederate right flank, 1862

• Timely arrival at Sharpsburg (Antietam) repelled Burnside’s attack and saved Lee’s army, 1862

• Fought at Fredericksburg, 1862 • Wounded at Chancellorsville, 1863

• As lieutenant general, led Confederate Third Corps at Gettysburg, 1863

• At Bristoe Station, impetuous assault cost his corps thirteen hundred casualties, 1863

• Fought in Wilderness Campaign, 1864, and at Petersburg, 1864-65

• Killed at Petersburg, 1865

 • Buried in Richmond, Virginia

 

Photographed By Devry Becker Jones (CC0), September 19, 2021

"The Battle of Ox Hill (Chantilly) was fought across 500 acres of Fairfax County farm fields and woods. Today, the 4.9-acre Ox Hill Battlefield Park preserves the last remaining ground of the historic battlefield. Examine this photograph and see where the battle was fought. Compare the deployment areas, troop positions and battle lines with the highways and urban development on the site today."

And in the shopping center across the street from the park...

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=110

"On September 1, 1862, Confederate forces under the command of Major General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson moved across and to the southwestern edge of this site to engage Union forces determined to prevent a glancing movement on demoralized Union troops fleeing the field at Second Manassas.

The ensuing battle raged on for a little less than three hours terminating in ferocious hand-to-hand combat in a violent late afternoon thunderstorm.

Tactically the battle ended in a stalemate leaving approximately 610 dead or wounded Union and 501 Confederate troops on the field. Union forces, however, suffered the greater loss when Major General Issac I. Stevens was shot and fatally wounded while leading the 79th New York against Hay's Louisiana and Thomas' 49th Georgia Brigades. Major General Philip Kearny, in an attempt to fill a suspected void in Stevens' line, moved out in front of the 21st Massachusetts Brigade and into the eastern edge of a cornfield where he encountered troops, presumably the 49th Georgia, who took issue with his presence within their line and killed Kearny as he attempted to escape. 

The battle ended the hostilities 

of Second Manassas and set into motion General Robert E. Lee's excursion into Maryland and the bloody Battle of Antietam."

Kearny

Suggested Reading/Sources:

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/chantilly

Not enough details? Read this lengthy excerpt from The Army Under Pope (1881)-

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/battle-chantilly

More on Kearny- 

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/philip-kearny