He Hath Loosed the Fateful Lightning, Part 3

He Hath Loosed the Fateful Lightning: The Battle of Ox Hill (Chantilly), September 1, 1862
by Paul Taylor

Chapter 3
1. This chapter deals with the buildup to the battle. Jackson’s men again marched slowly on September 1, even though the Little River Turnpike was an excellent road. Taylor writes that Pope finally responded to the possibility of a flank attack by the Confederates. Two Brigades were at Germantown, ESE of Ox Hill and ENE of Centreville. Germantown was the intersection of the Little River Turnpike and the Warrenton Pike, and as such it was a key position. As long as the Federals held it the retreat route to Washington, D.C. was open. At this point, Taylor says, Jackson could have pushed on for Germantown or headed south from Ox Hill to cut the Warrenton Pike. Instead he did neither. Stonewall, in a scene reminiscent of the Battle of Glendale on June 30, 1862, fell asleep at Ox Hill. Taylor does not castigate Jackson for this, and in fact makes a very good point about this possibly being a PLANNED halt per instructions from Lee.

2. The Jackson sleeping incident here is not as well known (at least not by me) as is the famous lethargy Stonewall showed at Glendale (White Oak Swamp). I believe that incident, which occurred during the Seven Days, was much more important. Lee had a realistic (my emphasis) chance to trap a part of McClellan’s Army on June 30, 1862. On September 1 of that year at Chantilly, several things conspired against him. Most importantly, Lee and the rest of the army was still far behind. Jackson, who Taylor estimates had 15,000 men, could have potentially faced several times his number had he moved south to the Warrenton Pike or east to Germantown. They had to worry about an attack to their flank no matter which way they pushed. At Glendale, Jackson could have put tremendous pressure on the Federal Divisions guarding the northern approcahes to Glendale through White Oak Swamp. As it was, many II Corps men eventually left that front to help defeat Longstreet and A.P. Hill farther south. If Jackson had pushed hard, these men would have had to stay at White Oak Swamp, thus allowing the Confederates farther south a much better chance to break through and cut off a significant portion of the Union Army. My second point is that Jackson’s men were exhausted and hungry at Chantilly, having campaigned non-stop since early August. You can counter with the argument that Jackson’s troops were also tired at Glendale, but the battle of Gaines’ Mill (fought several days earlier), although a large and desperate engagement, could not have taken the same toll as the repeated long marches of August and the brutal repeated attacks Jackson faced on August 29. A.P. Hill’s Division was especially devastated at Second Manassas.

3. A controversy also arose in Pope’s Army. During the Second Manassas Campaign, McClellan sent a telegram to Lincoln which in part stated his desire to “leave Pope to get out of his own scrape”. This message angered Lincoln, and some people in Washington viewed the telegram as treasonous in nature. To make matters worse, McClellan seemed slow in forwarding elements of his Army of the Potomac to Pope’s ever-growing Army of Virginia. After the defeat at Second Bull Run, Pope felt surrounded by enemies who wished to see his demise. He told Lincoln:

I think it my duty to call attention to the unsoldierly and dangerous conduct of many brigade and some division commanders of the forces sent here from the Peninsula. Every word and act and intention is discouraging, and calculated to break down the spirits of the men and produce disaster….You have hardly an idea of the demoralization among officers of high rank in the Potomac Army, arising in all instances from personal feeling in relation to changes of commander-in-chief and others. These men are mere tools or parasites, but their example is producing , and must necessarily produce, very disastrous results….

These were hardly encouraging words from a man who still had to get his beaten Army back to cover Washington…

NOTE: I had to keep this one relatively short. I hope to finish the rest of the book tonight and tomorrow, to post Part 4 of this series tomorrow night, and to produce a review later in the week.

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

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