Expecting to outflank the Rebels, Col. Oliver O. Howard's Maine and Vermont regiments reached the top of this rise in two lines of battle. Suddenly the air exploded with shell fragments. A Confederate battery had opened fire from the Chinn House yard. Masses of Confederate infantry came charging out of the woods below.

There was no training for this moment, the New Englanders' first time under fire. They managed to get off a few ragged volleys, then the parade-style battle lines began to break.

The retreat gathered momentum, and soon the Union Army was headed back past Stone House and across Bull Run.

"I don't wish to say anything of what I saw on the field. God grant that I may never see the same again. Our retreat was all confusion and turmoil."

-Pvt. George S. Rollins, 3rd Maine Infantry

Marker can be reached from Chinn Ridge Loop ½ mile west of Sudley Road (Virginia Road 234), on the right when traveling west.

Courtesy hmdb.org

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