Chantilly
Ox Hill
Fairfax County, VA | Sep 1, 1862
Confederate Maj. Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson hoped to cut off the Union retreat from Manassas the day after the Confederate victory at the second battle fought there. Jackson's wing of Lee's army made a wide, flanking march, screened by Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry, north and then east, to take the strategically important village of Germantown. There, Maj. Gen. John Pope's only two retreat routes to Washington - the Warrenton Pike and the Little River Turnpike - converged. On September 1st, beyond Chantilly Plantation on the Little River Turnpike near Ox Hill, two Union divisions under Maj. Gen. Phillip Kearny and Brig. Gen. Isaac Stevens met Jackson's men. Despite being outnumbered, Stevens attacked across a grassy field against Brig. Gen. Alexander Lawton's division in the Confederate center, and was beaten back by a counterattack from Maj. Gen. Jubal Early's brigades, during which Stevens was killed. Kearny's division arrived and engaged Maj. Gen. A. P. Hill's men in fierce fighting during a severe thunderstorm, during which Kearny was killed. Recognizing that his army was still in danger, Pope ordered the retreat to continue to Washington. With Pope no longer a threat, Lee turned his army west and north to invade Maryland, initiating the Maryland Campaign. Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan assumed command of Union forces around Washington on September 5th.
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