How exactly General Stevens grasped the military situation when he caught sight of the rebel skirmish line, and instantly decided to stay Jackson’s impending advance by an attack that would throw even him on the defensive, is clearly shown by the Confederate leader’s objective, and the dispositions he had made of his troops to accomplish it.

Jackson had moved down the pike from Chantilly slowly and carefully, to give time for Longstreet to close up in support. His troops were well in hand, the infantry of one division, and probably of all three, marching in two columns, one on each side of the road, and the artillery on the road between them. Already he had thrown this solid column, prepared for battle rather than for the march, athwart the Ox Road, which led straight across to the coveted line of retreat. Already his skirmishers, supported by a regiment, had pushed southward half a mile, and were advancing across country to the other pike, and in another half mile—in ten minutes more—would come in plain sight of the wagons moving back upon it. His whole corps was in position,—Ewell’s division (under Lawton) in the centre, Starke on the left, Hill on the right. It lay wholly in Jackson’s will and power, advancing but little over a mile, to hurl this mighty mass, seventy regiments strong, upon Pope’s only road and his retreating troops and trains. Who that knows Jackson’s career can doubt his will and power to seize the golden opportunity?

At the very instant of launching the thunderbolt, Jackson learns that the enemy is advancing upon him, his skirmishers are driven in, his centre division is hurled headlong from its position, the fugitives pour out of the woods, he hurries his artillery to the rear, is forced to throw the whole of his right division into the fight, brigade after brigade, and to withdraw his left division for his last reserve. The possibility of striking his enemy is gone. He can only say, “I hope it will prove a victory to-morrow.”

And the troops that General Stevens led to this desperate and victorious charge were the same who, but ten weeks since, suffered the slaughter on James Island, and had just lost half of their number in the bloody encounters on the plains of Bull Run. Can more be said for the gallantry and devotion of the soldiers, or the hold upon them of their heroic leader?

Had General Stevens remained on the defensive and given time—and time counted by minutes—for Jackson to advance, disaster were inevitable. How long could his scanty force of nine regiments, outflanked and overborne, have resisted the avalanche? True, Kearny was on the pike, and perhaps others would have joined in the defense, but where was the army or corps commander to put them in, and order and control battle against Jackson’s onslaught, backed by Longstreet? Pope was at Centreville; Sumner, with his second corps, north of it; Sigel’s, McDowell’s, Franklin’s troops scattered from Fairfax to Alexandria and Washington; Banks retreating down Braddock road,—all scattered and out of reach. The closest study of the situation strengthens the conviction that General Stevens that day saved the army and the country from an appalling disaster.

General McDowell, hurrying to Fairfax Court House as directed by General Pope, met Patrick’s brigade near that point and posted it behind Difficult Run, just in front of Germantown,[21] where it was supported by Ricketts’s division. General Stuart, who with his cavalry preceded Jackson’s column down the pike, after passing the Ox Road some two miles found his advance arrested by these troops, and, after some skirmishing, moved off northward toward Flint Hill in a fruitless effort to flank the Union line. Patrick’s brigade lost twenty wounded. Neither force took any part in the battle of Chantilly.

UNION LOSSES.

Stevens’s division:Staff2
First brigade:
Colonel Daniel Leasure		100th Pennsylvania
46th New York		36
50*
Second brigade:
Colonel David Morrison		79th Highlanders
28th Massachusetts		40
99
Third brigade:
Colonel B.C. Christ		8th Michigan (7 killed)
50th Pennsylvania (7 killed)		50*
50*
Reno’s division:
Ferrero’s brigade21st Massachusetts130
51st New York13
51st Pennsylvania (none)
143
Kearny’s division:Staff1
Birney’s brigade3d Maine50
4th Maine64
40th New York163
1st New York40*
38th New York25*
101st New York40*
57th Pennsylvania25*
Poe’s brigade:Pickets4
Total:16 regiments412
882

* Estimated. No report in war records or histories.