Posted on 02/10/2015 4:41:43 AM PST by bmwcyle
West Ox Road at Rt.50 (Lee Jackson Hwy) was the site of the Battle of Ox Hill/Chantilly.
Pope was retreating back into the defenses of Washington following 2nd Manassas/Bull Run along Rt.29\Lee Hwy and Lee was attempting what might have been a flanking maneuver (with Stuart and Jackson) to beat Pope to Fairfax City.
Pope was sending units up the various roads on his left flank to recce and intercept such an attempt. The unit that went up West Ox, led by Isaac Stevens, was the one that ran into Stuart, backed by Jackson.
Battle was small, but intense. Fought in a raging thunderstorm. Stevens was killed, as was Phil Kearney (who arrived with reinforcements) but it bought enough time for Pope to pass and Lee decided to focus on the campaign that led to Antietam/Sharpsburg.
The great what-if of the battle is how the war would have turned out differently had Stevens and Kearney, both very talented commanders, survived. Particularly Kearney, who was incredibly aggressive and might have been Lincoln’s choice to replace Hooker at the head of the AoP just prior to Gettysburg.
The sad thing is that the battlefield survived largely intact until the mid 1980s. When it was mostly developed, leaving only a sliver of land used as a memorial park. I remember telling my wife, on several occasions eating at the Unos in Fair Oaks Mall, that we were enjoying dinner on the spot where the 51st NY Infantry, stumbling through the woods in the middle of the thunderstorm, ran smack into the Stonewall Brigade ...
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I've also toured the Old Ox Brewery.
Thanks for your note!
You’re Welcome!
If you can, pick up a copy of “Tempest at Ox Hill: The Battle of Chantilly.”. Excellent book on the battle, written by a NoVA local.
They used to have copies in the gift shop at Sully Plantation. They also sold a soft-cover coffee table style book on the battle, which has cool (if depressing) overlays of the land over the years (it was surveyed aerially ever 10-15 years or so starting in the 1930s) The late 1980s development that paved the place over was criminal, IMHO.
Like Ben Franklin said in “1776”
“It’s like calling an Ox a Bull, he’s grateful for the honor, but, would rather have back what is rightfully his.”
“Santa Gertrudis bull.”
Mean, tough range cow. They run them in the east Texas
big thicket area. But that’s a good joke.
Check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYrYvNb5cl0
So True
Join the Loudoun Business Community as we stand together in opposition of the trademark case against fellow Chamber Member, Old Ox Brewery. Let’s stand as a United front for the entrepreneurs that dare greatly in creating the backbone of this great county, our small businesses.
TODAY
Correctioin Thursday at 5:30 PM Rally against Red Bull at Old Ox.
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