diff --git a/ci/tsqa/tests/test_connect_attempts.py b/ci/tsqa/tests/test_connect_attempts.py
index 231f94d368e..d52f41e41f9 100644
--- a/ci/tsqa/tests/test_connect_attempts.py
+++ b/ci/tsqa/tests/test_connect_attempts.py
@@ -111,6 +111,36 @@ def thread_slow_response(sock):
             sleep_time -= 1
 
 
+def thread_slow_close(sock):
+    '''
+    Thread to sleep a decreasing amount of time after the request, before closing
+
+    sleep times: 2 -> 1 -> 0
+    '''
+    sock.listen(0)
+    sleep_time = 2
+    num_requests = 0
+    # poll
+    while True:
+        select.select([sock], [], [])
+        try:
+            connection, addr = sock.accept()
+            connection.send((
+                'HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n'
+                'Content-Length: {body_len}\r\n'
+                'Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8\r\n'
+                'Connection: close\r\n\r\n{body}'.format(body_len=len(str(num_requests)), body=num_requests)
+            ))
+            time.sleep(sleep_time)
+            connection.close()
+            num_requests += 1
+        except Exception as e:
+            print 'connection died!', e
+            pass
+        if sleep_time > 0:
+            sleep_time -= 1
+
+
 class TestOriginServerConnectAttempts(helpers.EnvironmentCase):
     @classmethod
     def setUpEnv(cls, env):
@@ -154,6 +184,11 @@ def _add_sock(name):
         t.daemon = True
         t.start()
 
+        sock = _add_sock('slow_close')
+        t = threading.Thread(target=thread_slow_close, args=(sock,))
+        t.daemon = True
+        t.start()
+
         # only add server headers when there weren't any
         cls.configs['records.config']['CONFIG']['proxy.config.http.response_server_enabled'] = 2
 
@@ -206,3 +241,10 @@ def test_slow_response(self):
         ret = requests.get(url)
         # make sure it worked
         self.assertEqual(ret.status_code, 504)
+
+    def test_slow_close(self):
+        '''Verify that we retry connecting to an origin when there is a connection failure'''
+        url = 'http://127.0.0.1:{0}/slow_close/s'.format(self.configs['records.config']['CONFIG']['proxy.config.http.server_ports'])
+        ret = requests.get(url)
+        # make sure it worked
+        self.assertEqual(ret.status_code, 200)
diff --git a/proxy/http/HttpTransact.cc b/proxy/http/HttpTransact.cc
index d4818522b46..077590855b8 100644
--- a/proxy/http/HttpTransact.cc
+++ b/proxy/http/HttpTransact.cc
@@ -6473,8 +6473,8 @@ HttpTransact::is_request_valid(State *s, HTTPHdr *incoming_request)
 bool
 HttpTransact::is_request_retryable(State *s)
 {
-  // If the connection was established-- we cannot retry
-  if (s->state_machine->server_request_hdr_bytes > 0) {
+  // If there was no error establishing the connection (and we sent bytes)-- we cannot retry
+  if (s->current.state != CONNECTION_ERROR && s->state_machine->server_request_hdr_bytes > 0) {
     return false;
   }