The Battle of Chantilly (Ox Hill)- September 1, 1862

A small park but very well interpreted. The final action of Second Manassas.

The next series of markers are on three kiosks in the parking lot. The kiosk below summarizes the battle with the following text- 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).

The nine stops along the loop trail are shown below.

A more detailed description of the battle appears on the kiosk below- The Confederate victory at Second Manassas (August 28-30, 1862) forced Union General John Pope’s Army of Virginia to retreat to the heights of Centreville. To dislodge Pope from his strong Centreville positions, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, commanding the Army of Northern Virginia, ordered General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s 17,000 troops on a flank march to cut off Pope’s army from Washington. The marker below is along the path that Jackson took.

Heavy rains hindered Jackson’s march on August 31, but by the afternoon of September 1 his column was advancing toward Fairfax Court House on the Little River Turnpike. Alerted to this threat, Pope assembled a force at Jermantown to block Jackson’s path and directed the IX Corps, some 4,000 troops, toward Jackson’s right flank. Sharp fighting erupted as General Isaac Stevens’ division made contact with Jackson’s column at Ox Hill. Storm clouds darkened the sky as Stevens launched an attack on the Confederates in the woods. The general was killed while gallantly leading this assault. As Stevens fell, a violent thunderstorm struck with gale force winds. With rain falling in torrents, the lead brigade of General Philip Kearny’s division, III Corps, arrived with 2,000 more troops and resumed Stevens’ attack. Scouting the ground in his front amid the downpour, Kearny accidentally rode into Confederate lines and was killed while trying to escape. Despite wet ammunition, the bloodshed continued until darkness brought an indecisive end to the struggle. There was no tactical resolution—only exhaustion, the wounded and the dead. During the night, Union forces withdrew and eventually reached the safety of Washington’s defenses. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia marched toward Leesburg and, on September 4, began fording the Potomac River, initiating the Maryland Campaign.

A close up view of Jackson’s route.

The text from the marker below shows an overlay of the battle on the modern city of Fairfax- 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.

The next two kiosks in the parking lot describe medical aspects of the battle. Click on the links to the Historical Marker Database for the detailed text.

The next series of pictures show the individual walking tour stops, again with links to the HMDB entries.

Tour Stop #1

Tour Stop #2

Tour Stop #3

Tour Stop #4

Tour Stop #5

**The quartz stone marks the spot of General Stevens death**

**The Kearny and Stevens Monument area**

**The restored cornfield pasture rail fence can be seen in the upper part of the picture**

Tour Stop #6

Tour Stop #7

Tour Stop #8

Tour Stop #9

The text from the marker below describes what lies ahead- 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).