CHAPTER LVIII
THE BATTLE OF CHANTILLY
The enemy’s troops thus struck and hurled back were Ewell’s division of Jackson’s corps. Hays’s and Trimble’s brigades were behind the fence, and were supported by Early’s and Lawton’s brigades in the woods in their rear. This was the centre division in Jackson’s column. The leading one, under Starke, had already crossed the Ox Road, and the rear division, under A.P. Hill, was closed up on Ewell’s.
Jackson, judging from the fury of the attack and the numbers of his men running in disorder out of the woods that he was assailed by a heavy force, and fearing for his artillery, which had taken position on Ox Hill, on the north side of the pike, when Ewell’s division advanced into the woods on the south side, at once moved his batteries half a mile back up the pike to a long ridge, and planted them in position to rally his troops upon in case of need, while at the same time he hurried Hill’s infantry division forward to maintain the battle. That officer advanced the brigades of Branch and Brockenbrough (Field’s), and successively threw into the fight those of Gregg, Pander, Thomas, and Archer, all of which, except the last, became heavily engaged and suffered severely. General Stevens’s division withstood the attack of these fresh troops stoutly. It had driven back everything in its immediate front, but the contest now raged over the cornfield on the left. It was impossible for its scanty numbers long to resist the pressure of Hill’s brigades, successively rushing into the conflict.
At the moment of ordering the fatal charge, General Stevens sent Lieutenant H.G. Belcher, of the 8th Michigan, back to the main turnpike with instructions to ask support, and to go from commander to commander until he secured it. Belcher applied to several generals, who declined to go without orders, until finally he met General Kearny. Scarcely had he made known his mission to him, and its urgency was startlingly emphasized by the rapid and fierce musketry of the battle, when Kearny exclaimed, “By God, I will support Stevens anywhere!” and at once broke the head of his column off the pike, and struck across the fields to the sound of the battle.
It was Birney’s brigade that Kearny so promptly brought to the rescue. They arrived just in time. The 4th Maine, Colonel Elijah Walker, formed line in rear of the cornfield, considerably to the left of the farmhouse, and opened on the enemy swarming in the farther edge of the field. The remaining regiments as they came up, the 101st New York, 3d Maine, 4th New York, and 1st New York, extended the line to the right as far as the house, or the right border of the cornfield, and, as General Birney reports, “held the enemy and sustained unflinchingly the most murderous fire from a superior force.” From this position they made a gallant advance well into the cornfield, driving back the enemy to the woods, and then withdrew to their former ground. Captain George E. Randolph planted his battery of four guns immediately in rear of the line, and fired over it into the farther side of the cornfield and into the woods. The 18th New York and 57th Pennsylvania were put in later, and helped sustain the contest.
General Stevens’s troops maintained their unequal battle until after Birney’s line opened. Jackson reports, “So severe was the fire in front and flank of Branch’s brigade as to produce in it some disorder and falling back,” and other Confederate officers mention the severe flank fire, showing conclusively that both Stevens’s and Birney’s smote this brigade, one in flank, the other in front, under which double fire it was broken and driven back. “This engagement is regarded by this brigade as one of our severest,” says its commander in his report. After holding their ground for an hour in the unequal contest, and expending all their ammunition, General Stevens’s troops fell back to the Reid house from the position they had so gallantly won. The enemy did not advance into the open ground on the right of the cornfield, and Birney’s fight was continued over it until night ended the contest.
Ferrero’s brigade, of only three regiments, reached the field immediately after Stevens’s division, and was ordered by General Reno to cover his right. The 51st New York, the leading regiment, moved forward into the woods some distance on the right of Stevens’s column until it encountered the line of Starke’s division, became somewhat engaged, and retired with a loss of thirteen. The next regiment, the 21st Massachusetts, was not to escape so easily. Thrown forward on the left of the 51st New York, and disconnected from it, it advanced for a long distance in the woods, somewhat disordered by fallen trees, struck the enemy’s line, and unexpectedly received a deadly volley, and nearly one hundred brave fellows, dead and wounded, lay prostrate at the blow. The gallant regiment returned the fire as well as it could, but in the drenching rain many guns became unserviceable, and it fell back from the woods, the enemy not pursuing. The third regiment, the 51st Pennsylvania, entered the woods on the right of the 51st New York, but were not engaged.
Meantime Starke withdrew his whole division from the woods back to the Little River pike, and moved to the rear. Whether his line, struck by an unaccountable panic, fell into disorder, or whether Jackson drew back the troops for the support of Hill, all of whose brigades were then going into the fight, is uncertain, but probably the latter. Early moved to the left and covered the front vacated by Starke, but with a contracted line, while Trimble’s and Lawton’s brigades were content to hold their ground in the woods considerably to the rear of the fence from which Hays and Trimble had been so roughly driven.
Longstreet deployed Toombs’s and Anderson’s brigades of his leading division (Jones’s), and advanced them into the woods in support of Jackson’s troops, but they were not called upon, as night soon closed the contest.