A few stragglers eventually rejoined the shattered remnants of the regiment. The Parisian colonel finally returned to Centreville with only 4 officers and 27 men.
Many of Duffié's men were captured the next morning as Chambliss cut off their escape route. At 7:00 p.m., Stuart's attack routed the vastly outnumbered Rhode Islanders. Duffié barricaded the streets of Middleburg, dismounted half of his regiment behind stonewalls, and sent for help from Judson Kilpatrick's brigade near Aldie. He ordered Beverly Robertson to move immediately to Middleburg to crush the Union cavalry.
Stuart and his staff quickly retreated to Rector's Crossroads, the location of his closest brigade. and heading for Middleburg as ordered.Īrriving there about 4:00 p.m., Duffié drove in the few Confederate pickets deployed there and disrupted Stuart's evening of socializing with local ladies. Duffié continued on his isolated march, turning to the north by 11:00 a.m. Confederate commanders could not believe that a small Union regiment would dare to travel so deep into enemy territory without an escort, so Chambliss did not aggressively attack, fearing that the column was the advance element of a much larger enemy force. Duffié crossed the Bull Run Mountains at Thoroughfare Gap at 9:30 a.m., easily pushing aside pickets from John R. Pleasonton had ordered him to camp at Middleburg that evening and then to proceed the next day toward Noland's Ferry, extending his march to the west as far as Snickersville. Duffié, a French-born officer, had taken the 280 men of the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry westward from the Army of the Potomac's camp near Centreville. Stuart established his headquarters at Middleburg and scattered his brigades throughout the Loudoun Valley to watch for enemy activity.
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