On the morning after the
second battle at Bull Run Pope was joined at
Centreville by the corps of
Franklin and
Sumner.
The next day (Sept. 1, 1862),
Lee, not disposed to make a direct attack upon the Nationals, sent
Jackson on another flanking movement, the latter taking with him his own and
Ewell's division.
With instructions to assail and turn
Pope's right, he crossed
Bull Run at Sudley Ford, and,. after a while, turning to the right, turned down the
Little River pike, and marched towards Fairfax Court-house.
Pope had prepared to meet this movement.
Heintzelman and
Hooker were ordered to different points, and just before sunset
Reno met
Jackson's advance (
Ewell and
Hill) near
Chantilly.
A cold and drenching rain was falling, but it did not prevent an immediate engagement.
Very soon
McDowell,
Hooker, and
Kearny came to
Reno's assistance.
A very severe battle
[
96]
raged for some time, when
Gen. Isaac J. Stevens, leading
Reno's second division in person, was shot dead.
His command fell back in disorder.
Seeing this,
Gen. Philip Kearny advanced with his division and renewed the action, sending
Birney's brigade to the front.
A furious thunderstorm was then raging, which made the use of ammunition very difficult.
Unheeding this,
Kearny brought forward a battery and planted it in position himself.
Then, perceiving a gap caused by the retirement of
Stevens's men, he pushed forward to reconnoitre, and was shot dead a little within the
Confederate lines, just at sunset, and the command of his division devolved on
Birney, who instantly made a bayonet charge with his own brigade of New York troops, led by
Colonel Eagan.
The Confederates were pushed back some distance.
Birney held the field that night, and the broken and demoralized army was withdrawn within the lines at
Washington the next day. See
Kearny, Philip. After the
battle at Chantilly, the Army of Virginia was merged into the Army of the Potomac, and
General Pope returned to service in the
West.
The loss of
Pope's army, from
Cedar Mountain to
Chantilly, in killed, wounded, prisoners, and missing, was estimated at 30,000.
Lee's losses during the same time amounted to about 15,000.
He claimed to have taken 7,000 prisoners, with 2,000 sick and wounded, thirty pieces of artillery, and 20,000 small-arms.
Of the 91,000 veteran troops from the
Peninsula, lying near,
Pope reported that only 20,500 men had joined him in confronting
Lee.
