Following its defeat at the 2nd Battle of Manassas on August 28-30, 1862, Union General John Pope’s Army of Virginia retreated to the Centreville fortifications. Confederate General R.E. Lee, wanting to avoid attacking the Centreville fortifications, sent Major General Stonewall Jackson and his Left Wing on a wide flanking movement via the Little River Turnpike to get into Federal Army’s rear and render its position at Centreville untenable.
By noon on September 1, General Pope understood his precarious position and ordered a withdrawal to Jermantown and Fairfax Court House. Late in the afternoon of September 1, federal units sent ahead to block Jackson’s advance collided with Jackson’s lead divisions east of the Chantilly Plantation on the Little River Turnpike near Ox Hill. Jackson’s forces turned south off of the Little River Turnpike to meet this threat and deployed against the Union divisions commanded by Generals Stevens, Reno, and Kearny.
The fierce fighting conducted during a severe, late afternoon thunderstorm, was inconclusive – the Confederates maintained possession of the battlefield around Ox Hill, but Jackson’s flanking movement had been thwarted and the Federal Army’s line of retreat remained open. More than 1,500 casualties resulted from this confusing and bloody battle, including Union Generals Stevens and Kearny who were both killed.
Recognizing that his army was still in danger at Fairfax Courthouse, Major General Pope ordered the retreat to continue to Washington defenses. With Pope no longer a threat, Lee turned his army west and north into Maryland, initiating the 1862 Maryland Campaign, which culminated in and the Battles of South Mountain and Antietam (Sharpsburg). Major General George B. McClellan assumed command of Union forces around Washington.
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