Ambush at Ewell’s Chapel

Ambush at Ewell’s Chapel. His Men Quickly Scattered. Acting on good intelligence, Union Gen. George G. Meade ordered a trap set here for Maj. John Singleton Mosby and his band of partisan rangers on the morning of June 22, 1863. With a small detachment of the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry exposed as bait, a company of the 14th U.S. Infantry hid in the rear of Ewell's Chapel and along a farm lane that entered the Old Carolina Road near the chapel. Coming from the Bull Run Mountains and passing through the Ewell Farm, Dunblane, Mosby and about 25 of his men saw the Union cavalry and attacked according to plan. The concealed U.S. infantry, however, delivered poorly directed fire as the Confederates approached the chapel. Mosby and his men quickly scattered and escaped with only three wounded. Mosby himself allegedly shot and killed Sgt. Martin Aumiller of the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry, posted as a lookout in a tree and the only Union casualty. He was buried near the chapel. , Sidebar Dunblane, the home of Dr. Jesse Ewell, served as a convalescent facility for his cousin, Confederate Gen. Richard S. Ewell, who was severely wounded in the left knee during an engagement at Groveton on August 28, 1862. After the general’s leg was amputated at the Arris Buckner house, Auburn, five miles north of the battlefield, Ewell was brought to Dunblane to recuperate under the care of relatives. Although his condition improved rapidly, reports of Union cavalry in the area on September 17 aroused concern for Ewell’s safety. He was evacuated south the next day., “Prettiest chance... to dispose of Mr. Mosby” , Gen. George G. Meade