Ox Hill Battlefield Park & Interpretive Trail

Ox Hill Battlefield Park and Interpretive Trail. ★ The Battle of Ox Hill ★. , This small park is the last remnant of Fairfax County’s only major Civil War battlefield. The Battle of Ox Hill, also known as the “Battle of Chantilly,” lasted but a few hours on the afternoon of September 1, 1862. Here, some 6,000 Union troops encountered and attacked about 17,000 Confederates of General Stonewall Jackson. It was a “beastly, comfortless conflict” fought during a ferocious thunderstorm., As darkness fell and the fighting ceased, hundreds of soldiers lay dead and more than a thousand were wounded or missing. Two of the most promising generals in the Union army, Isaac Stevens and Philip Kearny, were among the slain. The bloody stalemate frustrated the Confederate attempt to intercept and destroy General John Pope’s Union army as it retreated toward Washington following the Battle of Second Manassas (Bull Run)., Interpretive Trail , Follow the loop trail through this surviving portion of the battlefield. Visit the wayside markers labeled 1-9 and learn how the battle progressed and its aftermath. Read soldiers’ descriptions of the action, discover how generals Stevens and Kearny fell, view the monuments and learn the fate of the wounded.