able general, the Army of Northern Virginia would have disappeared in the first half of the month of September, 1862, between the Catoctin and the Potomac, as if the mountains had toppled over and buried it, or the earth had gaped and swallowed it up.

COOKE, in his "Life of STONEWALL JACKSON," draws a doleful picture of the condition of the rebel forces and of the dismal landscape which environed them. The same state of affairs existed on our side, as borne witness to by a friend, an officer of HOOKER's Division. The rebels, however, had enjoyed some full meals out of our plundered stores at Manassas, a piece of good fortune denied to our poor fellows.

The scene at this moment was interesting. The men of the STONEWALL Brigade and their comrades were lying on the side of the road hungry and exhausted. They had not seen their wagons since they had left the Rappahannock, and the rations secured at Manassas were long since exhausted. Green corn and unripe apples had for some days been their sustenance, and now they were in a country that did not afford even these. The hungry men saw on every side bleak fields and forests, with scarce a roof visible in the entire landscape; and thus famished and worn out they were lying down awaiting the order to advance and attack." HENSINGER, referring to the desolation which brooded over this district, observes, "a solemn or mysterious silence reigned over this wide, desolate flat, the plains of Manassas."

The attempt to cut our communication, and intercept our retreat upon the defenses of Washington was resumed by LEE on the 1st of September; but the deluge of rain, unusually cold for the season, presented obstacles almost as difficult to overcome as the resistance of men. All day long LEE's heavy columns moved along the Little River pike toward Fairfax. The enemy's objects developed themselves so clearly on the

this war which have been examined in connection with this biography. Only a few of them have been cited, because very often they have merely served to confirm or justify an opinion. Not that the writer considers that an honest opinion needs justification, but the world is so constituted that it often requires the testimony of many who are actual humbugs with high titles to establish a fact, when the judgment of a single expert, or hard student and unprejudiced man, is worth the whole of their pedantic dicta following in one track like a flock of sheep led by a cosset with a bell,

afternoon of this day, September 1st, and it was so evident that they intended to try and turn POPE's right, by Fairfax Court House, that the Army of Virginia was disposed so as to receive or give battle, between the Little River pike and the road from Centreville to Fairfax Court House. Early in the afternoon, HOOKER was directed to assemble all the troops in his vicinity and push forward to Germantown, about a mile and a half west of the Court House. His own division constituted the right of our line, which was formed upon a range of heights (Ox Hill), between the Warrenton and Little River pike. This line nearly bisected the angle formed by their junction. MCDOWELL was on his left; next FRANKLIN, Somewhat in the rear; next RENO, with KEARNY in his rear, in reserve; next PORTER, behind whom POPE posted himself; SUMNER held the extreme left of the Union line, near the house of J. MILAN (or MILLEN), about three miles due west of Germantown.

PLAN OF THE BATTLE-FIELD OF CHANTILLY, OR OF OX HILL, OR
GERMANTOWN, 1ST SEPTEMBER, 1862.

Such were the dispositions made by POPE for a collision which deserves a far more prominent place among the conflicts of the war than it has ever yet received. The Battle of CHANTILLY— or, as it is more appropriately but less euphoniously named by the rebels, Ox HILL, from the elevation or range on which it was fought, or Germantown, near which the hardest fighting occurred (Chantilly is more than three miles from the

stage of action, to the northeast and in rear of the rebel forces) -belongs to the same class of fights as Oriskany (1777) at the North, and King's Mountain (1780) at the South, during our first great revolutionary struggle; or the "Cannonade of Valmy," which last has been placed by CREASY among his "Twelve Decisive Battles of the World." Any one who will turn to a good map of the region will perceive that the locality in which the troops collided was a very important one strategically considered. The battles of Gainesville and Groveton, or Second Bull Run, had been fought on the line of the Warrenton turnpike, which passing through Centreville west by north, is intersected at Fairfax Court House by the Little River pike, from Aldie, running northwest and southeast. The Union line of retreat lay along the Little River pike, which, about a mile and a half beyond Annandale, bifurcates the left-hand branch, the Columbia turnpike, leading across the Long bridge into Washington- the right-hand road into Alexandria. Consequently, if JACKSON could get possession of the turnpike at Fairfax Court House, and the Orange and Alexandria Railroad near Burke's Station, only three miles to the south, POPE was entirely cut off; Washington was uncovered; and the rebel problem, as to advantage of position, solved. The battle which ensued to prevent this turning of our right—or rather, cutting our line of retreat and supply-was very short, very sharp and very decisive. The intentions of the rebels were completely frustrated, their attack repulsed, and the Union troops retained possession of the field. Chantilly was an undoubted victory, and from it, as a buckler, the rebel attack glanced off No other blow was delivered in this direction. The result proves that, as HALLECK mildly expressed it, "had the Army of the Potomac arrived a few days earlier, the rebel army could have been easily defeated and perhaps destroyed." And in another place, "some of the corps moved with becoming activity[he might in justice have indicated KEARNY'S, HOOKER's and RENO'S commands]-but the delays of others were neither creditable nor excusable."

The theatre and time of action were as gloomy as the Northern people deemed our fortunes in front of the National Capital,

to become still more gloomy through the fall of two of our most eminently patriotic generals. STONEWALL JACKSON was in command of the rebels and pressed the attack, supported by the fire of his artillery on an eminence to the left and north of the Little River pike. His troops, as usual with the rebels, were disposed in the woods to the right and east of it; JACKSON'S own division was on the left of his line; EWELL'S, under LawTON, "who ably sustained its reputation," in the centre, and HILL'S on the right. The struggle which ensued, ending as it did, almost justified HOOKER in saying that he never met JACKSON without whipping him; and proves that it required to beat JACKSON, not the kind of men who encountered him at Chancellorsville on our right, but such as met him and drove him back at Chantilly.

Just before sunset a terrific thunder storm, similar to one which actually, for a time, palsied the fight at Oriskany, in 1777, and Solferino, in 1859 — a storm cold and pitiless as the rebels themselves—burst over the field; and amid the convulsions of the elemental warfare and the drenching rain, the blaze of battle rivaled the fierce lightning. It was a fearful hour. A distinguished staff officer, little given to emotional feeling, describes it as the worst he encountered in his term of service, which lasted throughout the war and enabled him to participate in the grandest triumphs as well as the greatest reverses of the Army of the Potomac. The day became suddenly almost converted into night, and, amid the darkness and tropical down-pour of water, the heads of the rebel and Union columns came in contact at Ox Hill, near Chantilly. A number of the hardest fighting men of the two armies-RENO, STEVENS, HOOKER and KEARNY; JACKSON, EARLY and HILL encountered amid this churm of battle and of nature. EWELL had lost a leg through a wound received in the previous battle and was not present, although his division took part under LAWTON, a very able and valiant officer. The rain was so furious that ammunition could scarcely be kept serviceable, and the thunder so loud that the roar of the artillery was utterly unheard at Centreville, three miles distant. The action began about five P. M., near Chantilly. At first the rebels gave way before the stern aggressive of

RENO, then, re-enforced, drove back STEVENS' division, and STEVENS, "bearing aloft the colors of one of his regiments, cheering on his men, fell fatally wounded by a minie-ball through his head." Confused and out of ammunition, the dying general saw his troops compelled to give way. "To repair this break," says an elegant writer but prejudiced historian, for once kindled into due appreciation of this "Type Volunteer General,” "KEARNY, with the promptitude that marked him, sent forward BIRNEY'S brigade, of his own division; and presently, all aglow with zeal, brought up a battery which he placed in position. But there still remained a gap on BIRNEY's right, caused by the retirement of STEVENS' division. This BIRNEY pointed out to KEARNY, and that gallant soldier, dashing forward to reconnoitre the ground, unwittingly rode into the enemy's lines and was killed.* In his death, the army lost the living ideal of a soldier

a preux chevalier, in whom there were mixed the qualities of chivalry and gallantry as strong as ever beat beneath the mailed coat of an old knight. Like DESAIX, whom NAPOLEON characterized as 'the man most worthy to be his lieutenant,' KEARNY died opposing a heroic breast to disaster."

*"On Monday evening following the disastrous battle of Bull Run, a severe engagement with the enemy took place at Chantilly, two miles north of Fairfax Court House, between a portion of our army and JACKSON'S forces. Our loss was very heavy, including General STEVENS, Who was shot in the head while he was leading his brigade into action, bearing the colors, the color-sergeant having been previously shot. His son, also, who was acting on his staff, was wounded. General PHILIP KEARNY was also killed the same evening. He was shot through the back while wheeling his horse around to cheer on his men. His loss is deeply deplored by the whole army. He was considered one of the bravest generals in the service, and the enemy made repeated efforts to kill, wound or capture him. His dashing and fearless bearing and his conspicuous figure, with but one arm, made him an easily-distinguished and coveted aim. Up to the night of his death he was on every occasion to be found in the thickest of the fight, and seemed to lead a charmed life. The Union Army has not lost an officer who will be as much regretted as General KEARNY. Tho operations of the contending armies on the south side of the Potomac completely absorb the attention and interest of every body - citizens and soldiers. The excitement which would naturally be awakened by the knowledge of the fact that bloody battles were being fought within cannon sound of the national capital was considerably increased, because no full and authentic information respecting the results, or losses, had been received from the scene of action."-" Leaves from the Diary of an Army Surgeon," p. 209.

†“Among the reports, true or false, which were repeated to me during this sad night (1st September, 1862), there was one whose mournful impression has never been effaced. 'KEARNY had been killed the previous evening.' It was not only a source of mourning for his friends, it was a great loss for the army and the country.

“PHILIP KEARNY belonged to a family of high consideration, which had already furnished a general to the United States. No one possessed in a higher degree the tastes and the qualities of a professional soldier. To these natural gifts and military education, ** he added, besides, an experience which very few officers in our army possessed. For example,