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Part I - The Shenandoah Before Sheridan
Cannon at New Market State Park, Virginia, marking the position of a Union artillery battery.
From the beginning of the Civil War the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia played an important role in the strategy of both sides. After brief skirmishing and small maneuvers in 1861 the Union made its first serious attempt to remove it as the Confederacy's storehouse, breadbasket, and manpower source, vital to the fledgling nation; as its commander at the time, Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson wrote, "If this Valley is lost, Virginia is lost." Jackson soon afterward embarked on a campaign that thwarted Union designs, protecting the Valley, its people, and their harvests in a series of moves that came to be known as the Valley Campaign: http://civilwartalk.com/threads/sto...paign-a-synopsis-and-index-to-threads.124248/
Following his successes in Spring, 1862, the Valley became an avenue of invasion for Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia during the Maryland and Gettysburg Campaigns of 1862 and 1863. There were only a few battles and skirmishes that occurred within the Valley proper in the course of these actions, the Second Battle of Winchester being the largest. Despite having continued to strengthen the defenses of the town by erecting works like the Star Fort above, Union commander Maj. Gen. Robert Milroy's force was surprised and routed, largely by the same force led the previous year by Jackson.
Map by Hal Jesperson, www.cwmaps
War returned with a vengeance in the spring of 1864, when Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant conceived his Overland Campaign which was designed to apply pressure on each front of the dwindling Confederacy. His strategy called for three simultaneous advances in Virginia stretching on a broad front from the Appalachian Mountains in the west to the Chesapeake Bay in the east. The western arm was to be led by political general Franz Sigel and consisted largely of troops from Midwestern states like Ohio, Indiana, and the new state of West Virginia.
The Battle of New Market, May 15, 1864
The Valley was only lightly defended by only a scratch force of cavalry and a few small infantry brigades, all under the command of former Vice President of the United States and 1860 Presidential candidate, Lt. Gen. John C. Breckinridge. In a battle fought in a thunderstorm Breckinridge's men managed to overcome Sigel's poorly-deployed force at the strategically-located town of New Market. http://civilwartalk.com/threads/the-battle-of-new-market-may-15-1864.113540/ Above, the battlefield as seen from the Union position with Massanutten Mountain looming in the background; the Bushong House and orchard through which the cadets of Virginia Military Institute charged is in middle distance.
The Battle of Piedmont, June 5, 1864
The unexpected Confederate victory at New Market soon proved less than a windfall when Robert E. Lee prematurely decided the Shenandoah was secure and ordered Breckinridge and most of the infantry with him to the vicinity of Richmond to replace the staggering losses he had incurred fighting Grant. Although Breckinridge and his men arrived to take a small part in the victory at Cold Harbor, this was more than offset by the latest Federal incursion in the Valley. Unlike following previous defeats, the Federals recovered quickly and under a new and aggressive leader, the sexagenarian Maj. Gen. David "Black Dave" Hunter they encountered another scratch force made up mostly of cavalry and dismounted cavalry led by irascible Confederate Brig. Gen. William "Grumble" Jones. The forces met at the village of Piedmont south of the old Port Republic battlefield of two years earlier and after a stiff fight Jones' center gave way and he was killed while trying to stem the rout of his men.
Hunter quickly took advantage of his victory, marching south through the Valley all the way to Lexington where he destroyed Confederate stores and burned the home of Virginia Governor John Letcher and the buildings of Virginia Military Institute, seen above as they now look rebuilt and vastly expanded in the Twentieth Century. Hunter's actions precipitated a crisis in the Confederate command, especially when he next proceeded to cross the Blue Ridge Mountains and threaten the rail hub and major supply depot at Lynchburg. Lee was forced to return Breckinridge and ultimately detach a third of his infantry and most of his cavalry under Lt. Gen. Jubal Anderson Early to meet Hunter's threat. When Early's Second Corps arrived at Lynchburg and Hunter realized he was facing a major part of Lee's veterans and not just militia he quickly disengaged and beat a retreat for the Alleghenies thereby taking himself and his army from the Shenandoah for several crucial weeks.
Confederate commanders in the Shenandoah Valley during 1864, from left to right: Lt. Gen. John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, victor at New Market and second-in-command of the enlarged force; Brig. Gen. William "Grumble" Jones who was killed at Piedmont; and Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early, last commander of the Valley District. Stonewall Jackson himself had anticipated the situation that existed there when he wrote in a letter to Valley congressman Col. Alexander R. Boteler in December, 1862,
My dear Colonel,
In reply to my communication to Genl. Lee, respecting the sending of troops to the Valley, he expressed his desire to do so, if he had the troops to spare. As he asked the question whether I thought troops could be wintered there to advantage, I stated that 20,000 could be wintered near Winchester if entrusted to an enterprising officer... I named the officer to whom the trust might be confided-Genl. Early-. I have repeatedly urged upon Genl. Lee the importance of protecting the Valley... I am well satisfied that General Lee desires to protect the Valley.
When Lee sent Early to Lynchburg it was with instructions to 1) relieve the town; 2) clear the valley of Hunter's Federals; 3) if possible, cross the Potomac River into Maryland; and 4) threaten Washington, D. C. "Old Jube" soon proved he was worthy of Jackson's recommendation and Lee's trust, accomplishing all that was asked of him in a campaign that rivaled that of the great Stonewall: http://civilwartalk.com/threads/jubal-earlys-1864-raid-on-washington-d-c.103669/ In a series of forced marches through a brutally hot July Early's small army defeated a scratch force led by Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace at the Monocacy River in Maryland http://civilwartalk.com/threads/the-battle-of-monocacy.103560/ and advanced to the outskirts of the capital http://civilwartalk.com/threads/the...ns-and-battleground-national-cemetery.103589/ before withdrawing back into Virginia.
The Battle of Cool Spring, July 18, 1864
Smarting from the humiliation of Jubal's Raid, the Washington authorities ordered a pursuit of the Rebels by Maj. Gen. Horatio Wright and his VI Corps from Grant's Army of the Potomac that had been rushed to protect the capital. Wright's pursuit went as far as Cool Spring, above, where a division of the supporting corps of Maj. Gen. George Crook was badly mauled. Crook next followed Early who was mistakenly thought to be withdrawing from the Valley to rejoin Lee at Petersburg.
The Second Battle of Kernstown, July 24, 1864
Crook soon was disabused of his notion when Early suddenly turned on his pursuer in the battle of Second Kernstown, fought over exactly the same ground as the first of Jackson's Valley battles. Crook was caught without all his force deployed; his center stood firm behind the low stone wall at the Pritchard Farm lane above but both flanks had been turned and fled. Irish-born Col. James Mulligan commanding the center was mortally wounded in the fight and carried into the Pritchard House below where he died. http://civilwartalk.com/threads/cro...cond-battle-of-kernstown.125887/#post-1361997
Kernstown was considered by Early's men a complete victory but it came with a high price: President Abraham Lincoln was forced to give in to the requests of Grant to combine the heretofore separate forces facing Early into one. The errant Hunter had by then returned to the main theater of operations following his sojourn in the mountains of western Virginia and as senior was offered command, but when he confessed to Grant that he had no idea of the whereabouts of Early and his army, Grant instead insisted on his original choice for the job, Maj. Gen. Phillip Sheridan.
Federal commanders in the Shenandoah in 1864; Ultimate victor Maj. Gen. Phillip "Little Phil" Sheridan was propelled to fame, as evident from this print by Currier and Ives, and is flanked by his predecessors Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel at left and Maj. Gen. David Hunter, known as "Black Dave" for his depredations, at right.
Next, Part II
Cannon at New Market State Park, Virginia, marking the position of a Union artillery battery.
From the beginning of the Civil War the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia played an important role in the strategy of both sides. After brief skirmishing and small maneuvers in 1861 the Union made its first serious attempt to remove it as the Confederacy's storehouse, breadbasket, and manpower source, vital to the fledgling nation; as its commander at the time, Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson wrote, "If this Valley is lost, Virginia is lost." Jackson soon afterward embarked on a campaign that thwarted Union designs, protecting the Valley, its people, and their harvests in a series of moves that came to be known as the Valley Campaign: http://civilwartalk.com/threads/sto...paign-a-synopsis-and-index-to-threads.124248/
Following his successes in Spring, 1862, the Valley became an avenue of invasion for Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia during the Maryland and Gettysburg Campaigns of 1862 and 1863. There were only a few battles and skirmishes that occurred within the Valley proper in the course of these actions, the Second Battle of Winchester being the largest. Despite having continued to strengthen the defenses of the town by erecting works like the Star Fort above, Union commander Maj. Gen. Robert Milroy's force was surprised and routed, largely by the same force led the previous year by Jackson.
Map by Hal Jesperson, www.cwmaps
War returned with a vengeance in the spring of 1864, when Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant conceived his Overland Campaign which was designed to apply pressure on each front of the dwindling Confederacy. His strategy called for three simultaneous advances in Virginia stretching on a broad front from the Appalachian Mountains in the west to the Chesapeake Bay in the east. The western arm was to be led by political general Franz Sigel and consisted largely of troops from Midwestern states like Ohio, Indiana, and the new state of West Virginia.
The Battle of New Market, May 15, 1864
The Valley was only lightly defended by only a scratch force of cavalry and a few small infantry brigades, all under the command of former Vice President of the United States and 1860 Presidential candidate, Lt. Gen. John C. Breckinridge. In a battle fought in a thunderstorm Breckinridge's men managed to overcome Sigel's poorly-deployed force at the strategically-located town of New Market. http://civilwartalk.com/threads/the-battle-of-new-market-may-15-1864.113540/ Above, the battlefield as seen from the Union position with Massanutten Mountain looming in the background; the Bushong House and orchard through which the cadets of Virginia Military Institute charged is in middle distance.
The Battle of Piedmont, June 5, 1864
The unexpected Confederate victory at New Market soon proved less than a windfall when Robert E. Lee prematurely decided the Shenandoah was secure and ordered Breckinridge and most of the infantry with him to the vicinity of Richmond to replace the staggering losses he had incurred fighting Grant. Although Breckinridge and his men arrived to take a small part in the victory at Cold Harbor, this was more than offset by the latest Federal incursion in the Valley. Unlike following previous defeats, the Federals recovered quickly and under a new and aggressive leader, the sexagenarian Maj. Gen. David "Black Dave" Hunter they encountered another scratch force made up mostly of cavalry and dismounted cavalry led by irascible Confederate Brig. Gen. William "Grumble" Jones. The forces met at the village of Piedmont south of the old Port Republic battlefield of two years earlier and after a stiff fight Jones' center gave way and he was killed while trying to stem the rout of his men.
Hunter quickly took advantage of his victory, marching south through the Valley all the way to Lexington where he destroyed Confederate stores and burned the home of Virginia Governor John Letcher and the buildings of Virginia Military Institute, seen above as they now look rebuilt and vastly expanded in the Twentieth Century. Hunter's actions precipitated a crisis in the Confederate command, especially when he next proceeded to cross the Blue Ridge Mountains and threaten the rail hub and major supply depot at Lynchburg. Lee was forced to return Breckinridge and ultimately detach a third of his infantry and most of his cavalry under Lt. Gen. Jubal Anderson Early to meet Hunter's threat. When Early's Second Corps arrived at Lynchburg and Hunter realized he was facing a major part of Lee's veterans and not just militia he quickly disengaged and beat a retreat for the Alleghenies thereby taking himself and his army from the Shenandoah for several crucial weeks.
Confederate commanders in the Shenandoah Valley during 1864, from left to right: Lt. Gen. John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, victor at New Market and second-in-command of the enlarged force; Brig. Gen. William "Grumble" Jones who was killed at Piedmont; and Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early, last commander of the Valley District. Stonewall Jackson himself had anticipated the situation that existed there when he wrote in a letter to Valley congressman Col. Alexander R. Boteler in December, 1862,
My dear Colonel,
In reply to my communication to Genl. Lee, respecting the sending of troops to the Valley, he expressed his desire to do so, if he had the troops to spare. As he asked the question whether I thought troops could be wintered there to advantage, I stated that 20,000 could be wintered near Winchester if entrusted to an enterprising officer... I named the officer to whom the trust might be confided-Genl. Early-. I have repeatedly urged upon Genl. Lee the importance of protecting the Valley... I am well satisfied that General Lee desires to protect the Valley.
When Lee sent Early to Lynchburg it was with instructions to 1) relieve the town; 2) clear the valley of Hunter's Federals; 3) if possible, cross the Potomac River into Maryland; and 4) threaten Washington, D. C. "Old Jube" soon proved he was worthy of Jackson's recommendation and Lee's trust, accomplishing all that was asked of him in a campaign that rivaled that of the great Stonewall: http://civilwartalk.com/threads/jubal-earlys-1864-raid-on-washington-d-c.103669/ In a series of forced marches through a brutally hot July Early's small army defeated a scratch force led by Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace at the Monocacy River in Maryland http://civilwartalk.com/threads/the-battle-of-monocacy.103560/ and advanced to the outskirts of the capital http://civilwartalk.com/threads/the...ns-and-battleground-national-cemetery.103589/ before withdrawing back into Virginia.
The Battle of Cool Spring, July 18, 1864
Smarting from the humiliation of Jubal's Raid, the Washington authorities ordered a pursuit of the Rebels by Maj. Gen. Horatio Wright and his VI Corps from Grant's Army of the Potomac that had been rushed to protect the capital. Wright's pursuit went as far as Cool Spring, above, where a division of the supporting corps of Maj. Gen. George Crook was badly mauled. Crook next followed Early who was mistakenly thought to be withdrawing from the Valley to rejoin Lee at Petersburg.
The Second Battle of Kernstown, July 24, 1864
Crook soon was disabused of his notion when Early suddenly turned on his pursuer in the battle of Second Kernstown, fought over exactly the same ground as the first of Jackson's Valley battles. Crook was caught without all his force deployed; his center stood firm behind the low stone wall at the Pritchard Farm lane above but both flanks had been turned and fled. Irish-born Col. James Mulligan commanding the center was mortally wounded in the fight and carried into the Pritchard House below where he died. http://civilwartalk.com/threads/cro...cond-battle-of-kernstown.125887/#post-1361997
Kernstown was considered by Early's men a complete victory but it came with a high price: President Abraham Lincoln was forced to give in to the requests of Grant to combine the heretofore separate forces facing Early into one. The errant Hunter had by then returned to the main theater of operations following his sojourn in the mountains of western Virginia and as senior was offered command, but when he confessed to Grant that he had no idea of the whereabouts of Early and his army, Grant instead insisted on his original choice for the job, Maj. Gen. Phillip Sheridan.
Federal commanders in the Shenandoah in 1864; Ultimate victor Maj. Gen. Phillip "Little Phil" Sheridan was propelled to fame, as evident from this print by Currier and Ives, and is flanked by his predecessors Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel at left and Maj. Gen. David Hunter, known as "Black Dave" for his depredations, at right.
Next, Part II
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