The Rangers successfully defended the attack and subsequently routed the 2nd Pennsylvania, inflicting heavy casualties and taking many prisoners.

Upon arriving in Dranesville, they found the garrison abandoned, having been pulled back east of Difficult Run in the face of mounting pressure from the partisan warfare being waged by Mosby.

At the farm, located on the eastern bank of the Broad Run near its confluence with the Potomac River, a few miles north of the Leesburg Pike (present day Route 7), the Rangers felt safe from Federal patrols.

Most of the Rangers tied their mounts in the barnyard and made their beds in the barn, which was surrounded by a high fence with only a single gate opening out to the lane running to the road to Leesburg pike.

Upon learning the news, Taggart immediately dispatched Captain Henry C. Flint and five companies of the 1st Vermont Cavalry to kill or capture the Rangers.

By early dawn, the Federals had reached Broad Run on the Leesburg Pike, and stopped briefly at a house off the Road to inquire as to the whereabouts of the Miskel Farm.

Bean was detailed with the duty of barricading the barnyard gate after Flint and his men went through and then circling around behind the barn to cut off all routes of escape for the Rangers.

The fight resulted in a crushing defeat for the Federals; they had the Rangers bottled up in a barnyard with only one exit, on a farm surrounded on two sides by water and outnumbered them by more than 2 to 1.

The fight taught the young commander Mosby and his troops many valuable lessons; never again would he put himself in such a vulnerable position, nor leave himself camped without the protection of pickets.