CHAPTER LVIII

THE BATTLE OF CHANTILLY

The enemy's troops thus struck and hurled back were Ewell's division of Jackson's corps. Hays's and Trimble's brigades were behind the fence, and were supported by Early's and Lawton's brigades in the woods in their rear. This was the centre division in Jackson's column. The leading one, under Starke, had already crossed the Ox Road, and the rear division, under A.P. Hill, was closed up on Ewell's.

Jackson, judging from the fury of the attack and the numbers of his men running in disorder out of the woods that he was assailed by a heavy force, and fearing for his artillery, which had taken position on Ox Hill, on the north side of the pike, when Ewell's division advanced into the woods on the south side, at once moved his batteries half a mile back up the pike to a long ridge, and planted them in position to rally his troops upon in case of need, while at the same time he hurried Hill's infantry division forward to maintain the battle. That officer advanced the brigades of Branch and Brockenbrough (Field's), and successively threw into the fight those of Gregg, Pander, Thomas, and Archer, all of which, except the last, became heavily engaged and suffered severely. General Stevens's division withstood the attack of these fresh troops stoutly. It had driven back everything in its immediate front, but the contest now raged over the cornfield on the left. It was impossible for its scanty numbers long to resist the pressure of Hill's brigades, successively rushing into the conflict.

But aid was at hand.

At the moment of ordering the fatal charge, General Stevens sent Lieutenant H.G. Belcher, of the 8th Michigan, back to the main turnpike with instructions to ask support, and to go from commander to commander until he secured it. Belcher applied to several generals, who declined to go without orders, until finally he met General Kearny. Scarcely had he made known his mission to him, and its urgency was startlingly emphasized by the rapid and fierce musketry of the battle, when Kearny exclaimed, "By God, I will support Stevens anywhere!" and at once broke the head of his column off the pike, and struck across the fields to the sound of the battle.

It was Birney's brigade that Kearny so promptly brought to the rescue. They arrived just in time. The 4th Maine, Colonel Elijah Walker, formed line in rear of the cornfield, considerably to the left of the farmhouse, and opened on the enemy swarming in the farther edge of the field. The remaining regiments as they came up, the 101st New York, 3d Maine, 4th New York, and 1st New York, extended the line to the right as far as the house, or the right border of the cornfield, and, as General Birney reports, "held the enemy and sustained unflinchingly the most murderous fire from a superior force." From this position they made a gallant advance well into the cornfield, driving back the enemy to the woods, and then withdrew to their former ground. Captain George E. Randolph planted his battery of four guns immediately in rear of the line, and fired over it into the farther side of the cornfield and into the woods. The 18th New York and 57th Pennsylvania were put in later, and helped sustain the contest.

General Stevens's troops maintained their unequal battle until after Birney's line opened. Jackson reports, "So severe was the fire in front and flank of Branch's brigade as to produce in it some disorder and falling back," and other Confederate officers mention the severe flank fire, showing conclusively that both Stevens's and Birney's smote this brigade, one in flank, the other in front, under which double fire it was broken and driven back. "This engagement is regarded by this brigade as one of our severest," says its commander in his report. After holding their ground for an hour in the unequal contest, and expending all their ammunition, General Stevens's troops fell back to the Reid house from the position they had so gallantly won. The enemy did not advance into the open ground on the right of the cornfield, and Birney's fight was continued over it until night ended the contest.

Ferrero's brigade, of only three regiments, reached the field immediately after Stevens's division, and was ordered by General Reno to cover his right. The 51st New York, the leading regiment, moved forward into the woods some distance on the right of Stevens's column until it encountered the line of Starke's division, became somewhat engaged, and retired with a loss of thirteen. The next regiment, the 21st Massachusetts, was not to escape so easily. Thrown forward on the left of the 51st New York, and disconnected from it, it advanced for a long distance in the woods, somewhat disordered by fallen trees, struck the enemy's line, and unexpectedly received a deadly volley, and nearly one hundred brave fellows, dead and wounded, lay prostrate at the blow. The gallant regiment returned the fire as well as it could, but in the drenching rain many guns became unserviceable, and it fell back from the woods, the enemy not pursuing. The third regiment, the 51st Pennsylvania, entered the woods on the right of the 51st New York, but were not engaged.

Meantime Starke withdrew his whole division from the woods back to the Little River pike, and moved to the rear. Whether his line, struck by an unaccountable panic, fell into disorder, or whether Jackson drew back the troops for the support of Hill, all of whose brigades were then going into the fight, is uncertain, but probably the latter. Early moved to the left and covered the front vacated by Starke, but with a contracted line, while Trimble's and Lawton's brigades were content to hold their ground in the woods considerably to the rear of the fence from which Hays and Trimble had been so roughly driven.

Longstreet deployed Toombs's and Anderson's brigades of his leading division (Jones's), and advanced them into the woods in support of Jackson's troops, but they were not called upon, as night soon closed the contest.

"As I rode up and met General Jackson," says Longstreet in his "Manassas to Appomattox," "I remarked upon the number of his men going to the rear.

"'General, your men don't appear to work well to-day?'

"'No,' he replied, 'but I hope it will prove a victory in the morning.'"

As the stricken 21st Massachusetts emerged from the woods, near where General Stevens formed his column, it was met by General Kearny, who was searching for troops to cover the right flank of Birney's line.

"In fierce haste," says General C.F. Walcott, the historian of the regiment, in a paper on this battle before the Massachusetts Military Historical Society, "he ordered the regiment to move on the run to take post on Birney's right, the position of whose line was indicated only by the flashes of their muskets. Luckily two of our companies, which had been detached in the woods to cover our flanks, had escaped the ambuscade into which the others had fallen, and now joined us with serviceable guns, and the regiment, about two hundred strong, moved across the open ground towards the cornfield and the front of Birney's right, deploying a thin skirmish line to cover our right and front as we advanced.

"As our skirmishers came up to the rail fence of the cornfield they were fired on by Thomas's skirmishers, whose brigade, with two of Pender's regiments, was in the cornfield, and coming from the woods well on Birney's right. Crossing the line of the fence we soon halted in the corn, under a dropping fire from the enemy. General Kearny was following us up closely, and as we came to a halt fiercely tried to force us forward, saying that we were firing on our own men, and that there were no rebels near us. We had the proof in two prisoners--an officer and private of a Georgia regiment--brought in by our skirmishers, besides the warning cries of 'Surrender,' coming both from our right and front; but, unfortunately, Kearny's judgment seemed unable to appreciate the existence of the peril which his military instinct had caused him to guard against. Lieutenant Walcott, of the brigade staff, took our prisoners to him, saying, 'General, if you don't believe there are rebels in the corn, here are two prisoners from the 49th Georgia, just taken in our front.' Crying out fiercely, '---- ---- you and your prisoners!' the general, entirely alone, apparently in ungovernable rage at our disregard of his peremptory orders to advance, forced his horse through the deep, sticky mud of the cornfield past the left of the regiment, passing within a few feet of where I was standing. I watched him moving in the murky twilight through the corn, and, when less than twenty yards away, saw his horse suddenly rear and turn, and half a dozen muskets flash around him: so died the intrepid soldier, General Philip Kearny!

"Diverted by our movement from their design upon Birney's brigade, the enemy surged up against our front and right flank, took what fire we could give them at a few paces distance (which they returned with interest), and in the dark, ignorant of our weakness, allowed us to withdraw from their front without pursuit, and in a few minutes also drew back themselves from the cornfield to the woods behind it. Except a few scattering shots on Birney's front, which soon ceased, the battle of Chantilly was now over."

Supposing from the non-return of General Kearny that he had fallen or been captured, General Birney assumed command of his division, and after the battle was over relieved his hard-fought troops with General Poe's brigade. Robinson's brigade was posted during the battle on the high ground near the main turnpike, and was not engaged. The Union troops held the ground upon which they fought until half past two in the morning, brought off their wounded, and then retreated to Fairfax Court House after the last of the troops from Centreville had passed.

Only sixteen Union regiments, viz., six of Stevens's division, three of Ferrero's brigade, and seven of Birney's brigade, with six guns, Benjamin's two 20-pounder rifles, and Randolph's four 12-pounders, fought this battle against Jackson's whole corps of seventy regiments, of which at least forty-eight were in the fight. The Union force numbered 5500 effective, the Confederate at least twice as many.

In this brief and fierce battle the losses on each side were from 800 to 1000. The following statement is made up from Confederate official reports and, on the Union side, from regimental histories, for there are no official reports of Union losses, except four in Poe's brigade, and from estimates based on all available data, but undoubtedly falls short of the actual losses.

How exactly General Stevens grasped the military situation when he caught sight of the rebel skirmish line, and instantly decided to stay Jackson's impending advance by an attack that would throw even him on the defensive, is clearly shown by the Confederate leader's objective, and the dispositions he had made of his troops to accomplish it.

Jackson had moved down the pike from Chantilly slowly and carefully, to give time for Longstreet to close up in support. His troops were well in hand, the infantry of one division, and probably of all three, marching in two columns, one on each side of the road, and the artillery on the road between them. Already he had thrown this solid column, prepared for battle rather than for the march, athwart the Ox Road, which led straight across to the coveted line of retreat. Already his skirmishers, supported by a regiment, had pushed southward half a mile, and were advancing across country to the other pike, and in another half mile--in ten minutes more--would come in plain sight of the wagons moving back upon it. His whole corps was in position,--Ewell's division (under Lawton) in the centre, Starke on the left, Hill on the right. It lay wholly in Jackson's will and power, advancing but little over a mile, to hurl this mighty mass, seventy regiments strong, upon Pope's only road and his retreating troops and trains. Who that knows Jackson's career can doubt his will and power to seize the golden opportunity?

At the very instant of launching the thunderbolt, Jackson learns that the enemy is advancing upon him, his skirmishers are driven in, his centre division is hurled headlong from its position, the fugitives pour out of the woods, he hurries his artillery to the rear, is forced to throw the whole of his right division into the fight, brigade after brigade, and to withdraw his left division for his last reserve. The possibility of striking his enemy is gone. He can only say, "I hope it will prove a victory to-morrow."

And the troops that General Stevens led to this desperate and victorious charge were the same who, but ten weeks since, suffered the slaughter on James Island, and had just lost half of their number in the bloody encounters on the plains of Bull Run. Can more be said for the gallantry and devotion of the soldiers, or the hold upon them of their heroic leader?

Had General Stevens remained on the defensive and given time--and time counted by minutes--for Jackson to advance, disaster were inevitable. How long could his scanty force of nine regiments, outflanked and overborne, have resisted the avalanche? True, Kearny was on the pike, and perhaps others would have joined in the defense, but where was the army or corps commander to put them in, and order and control battle against Jackson's onslaught, backed by Longstreet? Pope was at Centreville; Sumner, with his second corps, north of it; Sigel's, McDowell's, Franklin's troops scattered from Fairfax to Alexandria and Washington; Banks retreating down Braddock road,--all scattered and out of reach. The closest study of the situation strengthens the conviction that General Stevens that day saved the army and the country from an appalling disaster.

General McDowell, hurrying to Fairfax Court House as directed by General Pope, met Patrick's brigade near that point and posted it behind Difficult Run, just in front of Germantown,[21] where it was supported by Ricketts's division. General Stuart, who with his cavalry preceded Jackson's column down the pike, after passing the Ox Road some two miles found his advance arrested by these troops, and, after some skirmishing, moved off northward toward Flint Hill in a fruitless effort to flank the Union line. Patrick's brigade lost twenty wounded. Neither force took any part in the battle of Chantilly.

UNION LOSSES.

Stevens's division: Staff 2 First brigade: {100th Pennsylvania 36 Colonel Daniel Leasure {46th New York 50[A] Second brigade: {79th Highlanders 40 Colonel David Morrison {28th Massachusetts 99 Third brigade: {8th Michigan (7 killed) 50[A] Colonel B.C. Christ {50th Pennsylvania (7 killed) 50[A] --- 327

Reno's division: Ferrero's brigade 21st Massachusetts 130 51st New York 13 51st Pennsylvania (none) --- 143

Kearny's division: Staff 1 Birney's brigade 3d Maine 50 4th Maine 64 40th New York 163 1st New York 40[A] 38th New York 25[A] 101st New York 40[A] 57th Pennsylvania 25[A] Poe's brigade: Pickets 4 --- Total: 16 regiments 412 --- 882

[A] Estimated. No report in war records or histories.

CONFEDERATE LOSSES.

Jackson's corps: Stark's division 20 regiments 71[B] Ewell's division: Lawton's brigade 6 regiments 12 Early's brigade 7 regiments 32 Trimble's brigade 5 regiments 21 Hays's brigade 5 regiments 135 -- --- 43 200

Hill's division: Branch's brigade 5 regiments 108 Pender's brigade 4 regiments 58 Gregg's brigade 5 regiments 104 Archer's brigade 5 regiments (not engaged) Field's (or Brockenbrough's) 4 regiments (no report) 75[B] Thomas's brigade 4 regiments (loss not reported) 75[B] -- --- 27 420

Longstreet's corps: Jones's division 1

Total: 70 regiments--48 in action 692

[B] Estimated. General Hill reports his loss as 306. It is impossible to reconcile these small losses with the Confederate reports of the severity of the fighting.

NOTE.--The Confederate reports of the battle of Chantilly, or Ox Hill, show with tolerable clearness their troops engaged, and the positions and parts taken by them. Early's report definitely locates Hays's and Trimble's brigades "in line of battle on the right of Jackson's division, and occupying positions in the edge of a field beyond a piece of woods through which the Ox Road here runs." This is unmistakably the very position from which General Stevens's charge drove the enemy. The loss in Hays's brigade (135) was greater than that of any other. Early acknowledges that Hays's brigade "fell back in confusion, passing through these regiments (second line), followed by the enemy;" that the commander of Trimble's brigade was killed, and one or two regiments of it were thrown into some confusion. There are no reports from any officer of Jackson's (Starke's) division, except the bare mention by one brigade commander that they met the enemy at Ox Hill, September 1, and repulsed him; none from Hays's, Trimble's, or Lawton's brigades of Ewell's division; and none from Field's (Brockenbrough's) brigade of Hill's division. General Longstreet, in his book _Manassas to Appomattox_, pp. 193-195, says of this battle: "Two of Hill's brigades were thrown out to find the enemy, and were soon met by his advance in search of Jackson, which made a furious attack, driving back the Confederate brigades in some disorder. Stevens, appreciating the crisis as momentous, thought it necessary to follow the opportunity by aggressive battle in order to hold Jackson away from the Warrenton turnpike. Kearny, always ready to second any courageous move, joined in the daring battle. At the critical moment the rain and thunder storm burst with great violence upon the combatants, the high wind beating the storm in the faces of the Confederates. So firm was the unexpected battle that part of Jackson's line yielded to the onslaught. At one moment his artillery seemed in danger.... As I rode up and met General Jackson, I remarked upon the number of his men going to the rear:--

"'General, your men don't appear to work well to-day.'

"'No,' he replied, 'but I hope it will prove a victory in the morning.'

"As both Federal division commanders fell, the accounts fail to do justice to their fight. Stevens, in his short career, gave evidence of courage, judgment, skill, and genius not far below his illustrious antagonist."

Immediately after the close of the Civil War, in June, 1865, the author visited the battlefield of Chantilly. The ground and its incidents agreed precisely with his recollections. The remains of the fence at the edge of the woods from which General Stevens hurled the enemy were plainly visible, many of the rails as well as the trees showing marks of bullets. From a point near the corner of the cornfield, extending nearly perpendicularly into the woods for fifty yards, and facing to the left, were the vestiges of a hastily thrown up breastwork, or cover, of earth, rails, logs, and branches, which the Union troops had scraped together after driving back the enemy in order to meet the attack of Hill's troops on their left.

In May, 1883, the author, accompanied by the late General Charles F. Walcott, again visited the field, and by the hospitality of Lieutenant John N. Ballard, the present owner of the estate, himself a Confederate soldier, spent the night at the Reid house. Mr. Ballard exhibited a plan of the estate, made in 1858, accompanying a former deed, which comprised almost exactly the battlefield, and kindly permitted a tracing of it to be made. The distance between the fence where General Stevens fell and the Little River pike was found by pacing to be about four hundred yards. By this data a fairly accurate map of the battlefield was obtained. Mr. Charles Stewart, a very intelligent gentleman, whose house is on the Little River pike half a mile west of the field, who was at home at the time of the battle and an eye-witness of the movements of the Confederate troops, and who went over the field the third day after the engagement, pointed out to the visitors the localities of interest in connection with the fight near his house, and graphically narrated how Jackson hurried his artillery to the rear at the opening of the battle, and threw it into position half a mile back on a bare, commanding ridge near the Stewart house. This account was fully corroborated by Mr. Ballard. A full and interesting account of this visit, and also an account of the battle, by General Walcott, is given in volume ii., Military Historical Society of Massachusetts.

The author has been aided in preparing his account of the battle by written statements from Colonel David Morrison, Captain William T. Lusk, and Captain Robert Armour, of the 79th Highlanders; Lieutenant Samuel N. Benjamin and Captain George E. Randolph, who commanded the two batteries engaged; Colonel Elijah Walker, of the 4th Maine, and Colonel Moses B. Lakeman, of the 3d Maine; and by personal interviews with these officers and many others, including Lieutenant H.G. Belcher, who participated in the engagement.

_War Records_, series 1, vol. xii., "History of 79th Highlanders," by William Todd; _The One Hundredth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, Roundheads_; James C. Stevenson, _Michigan in the War_, _Maine in the War_; Bates's _History of Pennsylvania Volunteers_.

The only reports of the battle of Chantilly by Union officers who took part in it are those of General Birney and Captain Randolph, and they are very brief. There are actually no reports from any officers of General Stevens's or General Reno's division, owing to the death of the commanders--Reno fell at South Mountain a few days later--and the rapid changes in, and movements of, the troops in the Maryland campaign, which immediately followed.

FOOTNOTES:

[21] Statement of Colonel Charles McClure, of Patrick's staff.