East Woods

"It was wholesale murder to stand at the muzzle of the enemy's guns and have a volley poured into us." Private Henry Brown Company F 21st Massachusetts

Stonewall Jackson's Corps which included Jackson's Division, Hill's Light Division, Ewell's Division and Stuart's Cavalry Division, had been the vanguard of Lee's push to capture the vital crossroads at Germantown. It was just as elements of Jackson's Division had begun their attack on the crossroads that General Stevens unexpectedly emerged from the woods on the Confederate southern flank. As Jackson's Division broke off it's attack on Germantown to meet this new threat, it moved south of the turnpike, along a wooded ridge that ran parallel to and east of West Ox Road.
General Starke, the commander of Jackson's Division, began to position his brigades (Stonewall, Taliaferro, Starke and Trimble) facing east along the ridgeline to cover any Union attack from Germantown. In order to counter the new threat from the south, Starke anchored the Confederate battleline around the highest point of the ridge and then extended it due west until it met Ewell's Division at West Ox Road. In effect, presenting a front both to the east and south roughly in the shape of the letter "J".
With his division now deployed, General Starke discovered there was a significant gap between his left flank and the turnpike. With the losses his division had suffered at Second Manassas he didn't have enough men to stretch his line from the turnpike to West Ox Road and also take advantage of the ridge as a defensive position. If Union forces were to advance in force from Germantown, he would have to abandon the ridge and contract his battleline towards West Ox Road. Only by shortening his line along the road could Starke mass enough firepower to protect the Confederate left flank from any determined attack from both Germantown and the unknown Union forces advancing from the south.
As Stark began to deploy his division, General Reno arrived with the two brigades of 2nd Division, IX Corps. After a brief discussion with General Stevens, Reno began deploying his division in support of Stevens' main attack on the Confederate center. He immediately ordered both the 51st New York and the 21st Massachusetts of Ferrero's Brigade, to pressure the Confederate left on the east side of West Ox Road. The remaining regiment, the 51st Pennsylvania, would support Durrell's Light Artillery Battery now unlimbering near the Reid house.
Nagle's Brigade, with it's three regiments, was to extend the Union line east across West Ox Road. They would be held in reserve in case of a Confederate counterattack -- a prudent move since Jackson's Confederate Wing enjoyed a three to one advantage over IX Corps. However one of regiments, the 6th New Hampshire, instead of heading east, apparently misunderstood their orders and went north, to where Stevens' Division was preparing for it's attack against the Confederate center.
With the 2nd Division ready for action, General Reno ordered the 51st New York, followed shortly by the 21st Massachusetts, into the woods that bordered the east side of West Ox Road. Both regiments then turned north and began their advance more or less abreast of each other and along the ridge that ran parallel to the road. Although General Reno correctly surmised that the Confederate line extended east across West Ox Road, the two Union regiments had no idea that an entire Confederate division had just positioned itself on the same ridge they were following.
Because of thick undergrowth and limited visibility, both regiments remained out of contact as they advanced northward along the ridgeline. The rough terrain was unforgiving... thickets of thorns snagged woolen uniforms and entangled equipment... dense undergrowth and darkening skies further reduced visibility... but the blue line marched onward, resolute in their cause.
The spine of the densely wooded ridge gradually became more pronounced and the terrain even more broken as they pressed forward through the unforgiving landscape. Brilliant flashes of lightning would momentarily light up the woods, as nature warned of it's impending fury. These hardened veterans, who had drawn first blood in the Cypress swamps of North Carolina, still did not waver in their task...
The 21st Massachusetts slowly began drifting to the left of the ridge where the lay of the land seemed to steer the regiment. With it's sister regiment advancing along the left side of the ridge, the 51st New York veered to the right, with the high point of the ridge acting as a wedge between the two regiments. The further north they traveled, the higher the ridge had become, with both regiments now quite distant from each other. To make matters worse Mother Nature joined the battle and let loose with all of her fury and might.
The sheer force and volume of rain caused streams of water to run off the ridge into the low-lying areas until the rocky ground could absorb no more. The 51st New York had taken the "low road" to the right of the ridge, where the eastern slope dropped sharply off to the now flooded lowlands. As the regiment maneuvered through the tangled undergrowth, unable to see ahead because of the intense storm, it became increasingly disoriented. Its sister regiment, the 21st Massachusetts, was nowhere to be seen... and more ominously... nor were the Confederates, who were assuredly lurking somewhere in the dark and forbidding woods.
This same storm was recorded 15 miles away in Washington, D.C. as a class 6 -- the highest rating on the meteorological scale at the time. The effect of the darkened skies and torrential rain must have also dampened the fears of some... who would fight in such foul weather, many must have wondered? But the continued boom of cannons and sudden rattle of musketry just to the west of the 51st New York made it more wishful thinking than expectation.
While the 51st New York was taking the "low road" to the right, the 21st Massachusetts took the "high road" to the left of the ridge. The ranks of the 21st Massachusetts were soon hopelessly out of formation as the blue line tried to navigate the rocky terrain and briar patches. The regiment became so entangled in the undergrowth that the officers had to stop the advance so they could guide their men back into line and dress the ranks.
To the immediate front of the 21st Massachusetts, the ground rose to the highest point of the ridge where whatever lay ahead was hidden and out of sight. The extreme right flank of the regiment faced a wooded knoll crowned with pine trees being buffeted in the strong winds from the approaching storm. Its left flank extending down the slope and towards West Ox Road.
With the regiment now in good order, the officers stayed to the front of the regiment and continued to guide the 21st Massachusetts northward along the ridge. Just as the 21st Massachusetts crested the highest point they suddenly found themselves staring in horror as the muskets of an entire Confederate brigade were being leveled directly at them... Trimble's Brigade, concealed in the thick woods and rain, suddenly rose up and poured a devastating volley into the well dressed ranks of the 21st Massachusetts. The Rebs had been silently waiting... picking their targets at a close range of 30 yards and in some instances as close as 30 feet... they couldn't miss.
As if a giant scythe cut through the ranks, over one hundred Massachusetts Volunteers dropped to the ground dead or wounded including five officers killed... Lieut. Col. Joseph P. Rice, second in command killed, Lieuts. Frederick A. Bemis and William B. Hill, killed ; Capts. John D. Frazer and Ira Judson Kelton, mortality wounded and soon to die. Five other officers were also wounded... the 21st Massachusetts was decimated... its life's blood mingling with rivulets of water as if the ground itself were wounded by the murderous volley.
With the high number of officer fatalities, its apparent that these leaders of men were being targeted by the Rebs. At such close range it would've been quite easy to distinguish their rank as the officers guided the troops back into line. A week after the battle 19 year old Henry Brown, a private in company F of the 21st Massachusetts Volunteers, wrote to his mother...
"The boys are gradually getting over the terrible Battle of Chantilly. It was a scene I shall never forget. It was wholesale murder to stand at the muzzle of the enemy's guns and have a volley poured into us. I had a very narrow escape of my life and being taken prisoner. A ball passed through my collar. Our Lt. Col. was killed." [Contributed by John Proctor and Henry Brown - Pvt. Henry Brown was their great uncle. To read an excellent collection of war time letters written by Pvt. Brown from September 2, 1861 to June 5, 1864, click here]
In his letter you can tell that Henry and the rest of the 21st were having trouble recounting the horrific sight of what they had witnessed. It also appeared that he felt that the rules of engagement had not been followed... his regiment murdered. Twice he had taken pen in hand and tried to explain what his mind would not recount. He could only write a variation of the one paragraph. Even though previous letters had been quite detailed about smaller actions his regiment had fought, Henry couldn't translate what his mind saw on the slopes of Ox Hill. His parents would never truly know how badly he and his regiment had suffered.
There was something dark about what happened at Ox Hill... Even officers who had written voluminous reports both before and after Ox Hill, fell strangely silent. This day, September 1st, 1862... was the the most painful day that the 21st Massachusetts would ever endure. At the beginning of the battle it had close to four hundred men who were present for duty. When it ended, less than two-hundred were left standing... the regiment's heaviest loss of the entire war.
Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross, was at Fairfax Station tending to thousands of Union wounded when she heard the battle raging on. In a letter to a friend she wrote... "it commenced to thunder and lighten and all at once the artillery began to play, joined by the musketry about two miles distant. We sat down in our tent and waited to see them break in, but Reno's forces held them back. The old 21st Massachusetts lay between us and the enemy and they could not pass." Clara Barton also added the following in her journal... "This was the afternoon of Monday. Since Saturday afternoon I had not thought of tasting food, and we had just drawn around a box for that purpose, when, of a sudden, air and earth and all about us shook with one mingled crash of God's and man's artillery. The lightning played and the thunder rolled incessantly and the cannon roared louder and nearer each minute. Chantilly with all its darkness and horrors had opened in the rear. With what desperation our men fought hour after hour in the rain and darkness! How they were overborne and rallied, how they suffered from mistaken orders, and blundered and lost themselves in the strange mysterious wood. And how, after all, with giant strength and veteran bravery, they checked the foe and held him at bay, is an all-proud record of history. And the courage of the soldier who braved death in the darkness of Chantilly let no man question."
The 51st New York, who had been lost and out of contact with the 21st Massachusetts, heard the thunderous volley to their west. They advanced towards the sound of gunfire (as if coming from Germantown), slogging their way through the flooded lowland toward the Confederate line. The knee-deep water and heavy undergrowth was bad enough to cause George Whitman (younger brother of the poet Walt Whitman) to think it was yet another Cypress swamp, similar to what they had encountered during Burnside's expeditions earlier that year...
"our regiment was ordered into a Cypress swamp on the extreme right where the trees were so thik we could hardly walk and the rain was falling in torrents completely soaking us. we only found a few of the enemys skirmishers who we drove out but the Regiments who went in on the left of us among which was the Mass 21st belonging to our Brigade and who stood side by side with us in all the fights we ever had was completely cut to peices..." [Note: Cypress swamps were not indigenous to northern Virginia. Although Whitman had no way of knowing, the flooding from the torrential downpour had become so bad that the lowlands at the bottom of the ridge did indeed look like a swamp.]
While the two Union regiments had been slowly working their way up the ridge, General Starke had found General Early who was in command of a Virginia brigade that was supporting the Confederate center. Starke relayed to Early that he didn't have enough men to hold his position on the ridge. A Union force of unknown size was approaching (the 21st Massachusetts) and Starke expected to be attacked from both Germantown and the south. He desperately needed Early's Brigade to plug the gap on his extreme left flank. Even though the Confederate artillery commanded Little River Turnpike between Ox Hill and Germantown, Starke felt that a determined infantry attack from Germantown could still break through between his position and the turnpike. With much reservation, but deferring to his superior, General Early began to pull his brigade from behind Hays' Brigade in the Confederate center and insert it on the far left between Starke's position and the turnpike. General Reno's ploy to divert the Confederates from where General Stevens' Division was making it's attack, appeared to be working even better than Reno could have hoped for.
General Early quickly found that his apprehension about moving his brigade was well founded. Just as he had begun deploying his Virginians to support General Starke, who was now under attack by the 21st Massachusetts, he learned that the Confederate center had collapsed and Hay's Brigade of Louisiana regiments were in a panicked retreat. Had it not been for Early's 13th, 25th and 31st Virginia regiments who had stayed behind on their own initiative, General Stevens' attack on the Confederate center would have been disastrous for the Confederates. Early hurried back with the rest of his brigade, thankful of his regimental commanders initiative and cool thinking. He quickly directed his brigade to cover the route of Hay's Brigade as a second Confederate battleline formed and began to stiffen. A lively and hot fire erupted as the blue wave hit it's high watermark... but the Confederates had drawn their line and were standing their ground... there would be no further retreat. The fury of man and nature continued with explosions, cracks of lighting and the rolling sheets of flames from volleys being fired back and forth... Bayonets were liberally used as black powder muskets became unserviceable in the torrential downpour. "When we got into the woods, we ran through what we did not shoot. We bayonetted them. One man begged and got no mercy, a yankee ran him through. Thank God it was not an Irishman did it." Dennis Ford, Company H 28th Massachusetts
After General Early had hurried back to cover the retreat of Hay's Brigade, George Whitman and the rest of the 51st New York advanced from the east, as if coming from the Germantown defenses. General Starke had already started his withdrawal from the ridge in order to reorganize his line closer to West Ox Road when the 51st New York began it's attack.
As the blue line closed to within 50 yards of the ridge, the remaining Confederate troops engaged in a short but lively melee in the torrential downpour. The 51st New York's casualties were light with only 8 men wounded and 10 captured. Eventually both sides began to mutually disengage and head back to their respective lines with Mother Nature being the only victor, her fury unsurpassed.
The fierce storm had an opposite effect on the combatants east of West Ox Road. The downpour seemed to have dampened the will to fight on both sides. In spite of it's very heavy losses, the 21st Massachusetts had fought an orderly withdrawal until it was able to disengage and cross West Ox Road into the grass field. There it began the grim task of reorganizing it's shattered command but instead of disengaging, it had quite literally jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. It was now near the cornfield where the heaviest fighting was occurring and would soon be in the "thick of it" again
When the 51st emerged from the woods further down West Ox Road, it was put into reserve joining the 48th Pennsylvania and 2nd Maryland from Nagle's Brigade. There were now three regiments anchoring the Union right flank across West Ox Road as General Reno had first intended.
Because of the bravery and sacrifice of the 21st Massachusetts... (and the 51st New York attacking from the east) the Confederate left was now falling back to more defensible positions. General Reno had accomplished the impossible and with 2 regiments was able to tie up an entire Confederate division for the duration of the battle - nearly one third of the Confederate forces engaged at Ox Hill. The only additional casualties that occurred on the east side of West Ox Road were two soldiers of the 48th Pennsylvania who were wounded by stray shots.