Ox Hill

On August 29th/30th, the Union and Confederate Armies clashed once again along the banks of Bull Run and on the plains of Manassas. The circumstances leading up to this action were simple. With George McClellan and his Army of the Potomac sitting at Harrison's Landing out of the war, it was deemed necessary to organize a new Union Army to defend Washington. Troops from the Valley, as well as those left in front of Washington by McClellan were formed into a new force. As its commander, John Pope was brought east from his recent success at Island #10 with the Army of the Mississippi. Arriving at his new command, Pope issued his famed headquarters in the saddle Order, and led his new Army of Virginia along the railroad towards Gordonsville.

With McClellan bottled up out of the way, Robert E. Lee ordered Thomas Jackson to move his command to Gordonsville and block Popes advance. Faced with Jackson's arrival Pope fell back and demanded reinforcements, and so McCiellan was ordered north with his command. Using interior lines of communication, Robert E. Lee brought the remainder of the Army of Northern Virginia back to the soil that it was for in the hopes of destroying Pope before McClellan could arrive on the scene.

In a whirlwind campaign carried out in late August, Jackson turned Popes right flank and overran his supply base at ManassasJunction. When Pope turned to deal withJackson, Lee then brought up the rest of his army, and crushed Pope in a two day battle. However Popes Army, though driven from the field, rallied at the hamlet of Centreville, and awaited the arrival of the remainder of the Army of the Potomac. The old Confederate fortifications located there provided shelter for Popes Army, and discouraged a direct attack by Lee on that position. In an attempt to cut off Popes Army from Washington, Lee ordered Jackson to take his command to once again turn Popes right flank and cut Pope's supply line from Centreville to Washington.

Jackson's command marched north in a heavy rain on the 31st of August, and covering 12 miles, reached the Little River Turnpike by the end of the day. On the 1st of September, Jackson moved his command southeast along that road, intending to cut the Centreville-Washington Turnpike at Germantown, six miles behind the Union positions at Centreville. However the campaign had taken its toll on Jackson's famous foot cavalry as a combination of fatigue, weather, battlefield losses, and a lack of supplies decimated his command. (Jackson's command had been either in action or on the road every day since the 25th of August, and the supply trains were far in the rear.) On the morning of September 1st his command only covered eight miles in six hours, and by early afternoon that speed dropped to three miles in three hours. Nevertheless, by 3:00 PM on the 1st, Jackson had passed the hamlet of Chantilly and was behind the Union flank, with but four miles to go to before he reached his goal.

Jackson's march had not gone unnoticed though, and Pope was taking steps to deal with it. Joe Hooker and his 1st Corps of the Army of Potomac was ordered back to Germantown with his troops, while divisions of the Vth and IXth Corps were ordered north to cover Jacksons line of approach. These last two units were among the first elements of the Army of the Potomac to reach Pope, and had already been engaged in the 2nd Battle of Bull Run.

Late on the afternoon of September 1st, the Union and Confederate forces clashed at Ox Hill.

Ox Hill Order of Battle and Map

ED Note: This article first appeared in The Vedette,the Journal of the Central, Illinois Table Top Warriors. (1705 Stratford, Champaign, IL, 61821) and is reprinted with their kind permission.

Copyright 1995 by The Courier Publishing Company.