American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

http://www.brettschulte.net/ACWBooks/2ndBullRun.htm

He Hath Loosed the Fateful Lightning: The Battle of Ox Hill (Chantilly) September 1, 1862. Paul Taylor. Shippensburg, PA: White Mane Books (2003). 179 pp. 8 maps.

This is a review and summary of Paul Taylor’s He Hath Loosed the Fateful Lightning: The Battle of Ox Hill (Chantilly) September 1, 1862. In this book, Taylor describes the small but fierce Battle of Ox Hill (Chantilly), which occurred only two days after the Second Battle of Manassas, and the results and consequences of the battle. Taylor’s book is one of three books that have covered the battle of Ox Hill in the past five years. The others include David Welker’s Tempest at Ox Hill: The Battle of Chantilly and Charles V. Mauro’s The Battle of Chantilly (Ox Hill: A Monumental Storm). At first I was a little hesitant about buying this one because White Mane Books published it. White Mane has been known in the past to publish books that used questionable or non-existent research. In any event, I decided to give this one a chance based on its own merits. Taylor describes the Second Manassas Campaign prior to Chantilly in an introductory chapter, and then moves on to cover August 30-September 2 in the rest of the book, with an emphasis on the actual tactical maneuvers during the Battle of Ox Hill on September 1. The book is rather short at only 179 pages. There are 8 maps, with a good mix of strategic and tactical maps. However, the maps do not go into the level of detail I usually prefer. All in all, this was a fairly standard account of the battle. I believe a more definitive account can probably be written.

In the early chapters, Taylor covers the events leading up to the start of the battle. He gives a brief overview of the Second Manassas Campaign through the close of the Battle of Second Manassas on August 30, 1862. Pope and his Union Army of Virginia then retreated to the formidable fortifications surrounding Centreville. Lee and Jackson, as they had done earlier in the Campaign, decided to flank Pope on his right. Jackson marched north from the battlefield, and then took the Little River Turnpike ESE in an attempt to cut off the Federal retreat route somewhere near Germantown and Fairfax CH. Jackson’s men, tired from marching and fighting, hungry from the lack of food, and contending with a steady rain, marched poorly (for them anyway). The Union Cavalry at this time was almost completely broken down, so Pope had to rely on infantry units to try to find the Confederates. Jackson stopped at Ox Hill, several miles west of Germantown. Taylor mentions that he could have either attacked Germantown or he could have moved south to try to cut the Warrenton Pike, Pope’s main retreat route. Instead, he did neither. Taylor believes that Jackson and Lee had probably planned this halt if Jackson saw evidence of a Yankee buildup. His 15,000 men didn’t want to end up fighting the whole Union Army alone. Late in the day on August 31, “Jebâ€