The Battle of Ox Hill, also called Chantilly, was fought here in rain and storm on September 1, 1862, as a bloody aftermath of the Second Battle of Manassas of August 28-30, where the Union Army under Gen. John Pope was defeated and driven across Bull Run by the Confederate forces of Robert E. Lee. After Pope retreated to Centreville seven miles west of here, Lee tried to turn Pope's position by sending Stonewall Jackson around Pope via the Little River Turnpike, Route 50, to cut the Union line of retreat near Fairfax. Pope learned of the movement, ordered troops to Germantown, and sent the IX Corps, including Gen. Issac Stevens' division, to block Jackson at the turnpike. About 4 p.m. on September 1, as storm clouds gathered, Stevens attacked Jackson's column at Ox Hill, and a fierce battle followed as a violent thunderstorm lashed the combatants with high winds and rain. Stevens was shot through the head and killed. As Stevens's troops fell back, Gen. Philip Kearny brought up several brigades of III Corps troops and attacked Jackson's right, but when the attack faltered, Kearny rode forward in the rain and gloom to reconnoiter, entered the Confederate lines, was shot from his horse, and was killed. Darkness halted further fighting. About 500 Confederate troops and perhaps 1,000 Union troops were killed or wounded. The Union army retreated during the night to Alexandria and the defenses of Washington. On September 3, Lee's army moved toward Leesburg and the Potomac River fords, entered Maryland on September 4-7, and fought the Battle of Sharpsburg, Antietam, on September 17, ending Lee's Maryland adventure.
