Colonel Arnold resigned and was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel John Chatfield of the 1st Connecticut Infantry Regiment , who was promoted to colonel. The regiment’s own Lieutenant Colonel Brady took this badly and refused to recognize Colonel Chatfield, and was deprived of his sword for his insubordination, although he was honorably mustered out at the end of his service and went on to honorable service in the 17th Connecticut Infantry.

Battle of Bull Run, or Manassas

Commanded by Colonel Chatfield, the regiment lost 4 men killed and 10 men wounded.

According to General Keyes’ official report,

At about two o’clock P. M., General Tyler ordered me to take a battery on a height in front.  The battery was strongly posted and supported by infantry and riflemen, sheltered by a building, a fence, and a hedge.  My order to charge was obeyed with the utmost promptness.  Colonel Jameson of the Second Maine, and Colonel Chatfield of the Third Connecticut Volunteers, pressed forward their regiments up the base of the slope about one hundred yards, when I ordered them to lie down, at a point offering a small protection, and load.   I then ordered them to advance again, which they did, in the face of a movable battery of eight pieces and a large body of infantry, toward the top of the hill.  As we moved forward, we came under the fire of other large bodies of the enemy, posted behind breastworks, and on reaching the top of the hill the firing became so hot that an exposure to it of five minutes would have annihilated my whole line.

The gallantry with which the Second Regiment of Maine, and the Third Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers, charged up the hill upon the enemy’s artillery and infantry was never, in my judgment, surpassed.

The regiment fell back to Centerville in good order, then was ordered to continue to Falls Church.