The Shenandoah Valley was the breadbasket of the Confederacy. It also provided an avenue of invasion into the North that the South would use several times so defending it was crucial to their survival. Sent to defend The Valley in 1862 was Stonewall Jackson. He had earned his nickname at First Bull Run and was known as a tough commander. His men feared him more than they feared the enemy. Jackson had about 17,000 men under his command. Three different Union armies were sent to defeat them and Jackson evaded all of them and defeated them in separate engagements using cunning and a local knowledge of the terrain.
For the Confederacy in early 1862 their prospects seemed bleak. US Grant had taken control of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers while also defeating a large Confederate army at Shiloh and George McClellan was ready to make his drive on Richmond. The Valley almost seemed like a sideshow. At first Nathaniel Banks small army was sent to take control. Banks captured Winchester and split his forces. Some of them would be taken by McClellan to the Peninsula and he would eventually be left with only one division to fight Jackson.
It appeared that Banks would leave the Valley and Jackson moved to the offensive to engage the remaining division under James Shields near Winchester. Shields moved some of his men to the north of town to keep in reserve while Jackson moved in. Local residents told Jackson that Shields had moved most of his men away and this only made Jackson more aggressive. Here he suffered his only defeat of the campaign here when he attacked Shield’s 9,000 men with only 3,000 of his own on March 23 near Kernstown. His attack stalled and only after trying to flank the Union did he realize he was facing a superior force. With his men out of ammunition many of them began to retreat and Jackson was furious and removed the commander of his old brigade, Richard Garnett. This would stick with Garnett for over a year until he was killed at Gettysburg carrying animosity towards Jackson until then.
After Kernstown Banks made a brief pursuit until supplies ran low. Banks continued to advance into April, slowly because of his supply issues and made it to Harrisonburg. Banks believed that Jackson was hiding and offered to transfer Shields’ division east to aid in the drive on Richmond while he would assume the defensive at Strasburg. That was not what was happening as Jackson was being reinforced with 8,500 men under Richard Ewell. Ewell was expected to attack Banks to help relieve the pressure on Richmond with Edward Johnson’s Division also coming, 2,800 strong. Jackson would have the numbers he needed but so would have to act hast since more Union troops were on their way.
Johnson would run into some of these at McDowell on May 8. About 6,000 soldiers under Robert Milroy and Robert Schenck were near and Jackson moved to reinforce Johnson. Both Union generals knew they were in a bad position as the Confederate position was far superior and offered a better position for artillery, though they did not know that Jackson could not get his artillery into position. Milroy decided not to wait for Jackson to be ready and attacked. His men nearly broke through Jackson’s line but reinforcements drove him back. An attack on the center produced heavy casualties but Jackson’s line held. The following day the Union troops marched away. This was one of the few battles in which the defender lost more men than the attacker. One Confederate regiment, the 12th Georgia lost nearly half of their regiment, one of the top numbers (by percentage) of the entire war.
One of Jackson’s hallmarks was being very secretive about his plans even to the point of keeping his senior commanders in the dark. Ewell at this point had no idea what to do. He received instructions to prevent a junction of Banks and Irvin McDowell, whose men were at Fredericksburg. Jackson was on his way, marching his newly nicknamed “foot cavalry” to join Ewell in the Luray Valley. He defeated a small Union garrison at Front Royal and with that began moving north toward Winchester.
Jackson wanted to intercept Banks near Winchester but his route was determined by Banks. He harassed Banks around Winchester and Banks’ men even drew fire from local civilians. Because Jackson sent his cavalry on another assignment he was unable to pursue Banks to Maryland. Banks lost 2,000 men in Winchester after a brief engagement but he was able to get many of his supply wagons to safety. With Banks out of the Valley another Union force under John Fremont was sent in as was some of McDowell’s men from Fredericksburg. Lincoln, acting as the general in chief, devised a plan to trap Jackson using all three of the forces.
Problems began immediately. Fremont took a different route then expected and took longer to arrive then anticipated. Jackson was demonstrating against Harper’s Ferry when Shields arrived back in The Valley and re-captured Front Royal but Shields would not leave Front Royal until he was reinforced which allowed Jackson to move up the Valley via the macadamized Valley Turnpike. Banks decided that his army was too shaken to be of any use and declined to participate further. Heavy rains hampered McDowell and Fremont in pursuit but Jackson moved quickly so they could do nothing more then harassing the Confederates. Near Harrisonburg, Jackson’s cavalry commander Turner Ashby was killed in an inconsequential skirmish. Jackson had an avenue of escape now and was desperately needed in Richmond but decided to finish his work in the Valley first.
On June 8 Fremont approached Ewell’s men near Cross Keys. Fremont was slow in bringing up his artillery and did not commit his full force, which outnumbered Ewell nearly 2:1. One of Ewell’s commanders grew impatient and advanced to try to invite an attack but Fremont would not oblige. The following day McDowell was approaching Jackson’s column at Port Republic. Things did not go well initially for Jackson. Union artillery got on high ground and an early morning attack was repulsed. Ewell was ordered to move to Jackson’s aid and Jackson continued to attack the artillery’s position and after three tries he took it and used the position for his artillery forcing McDowell to retreat.
Jackson was a great hero and brought a needed morale boost to the South. His men then moved to Richmond to help in the defenses there where they were less than efficient owing to exhaustion. He wanted to assume the offensive and invade the North but Jefferson Davis would not allow it as he believed that becoming an invader seeking conquest would deter European powers from entering the war. His army had marched about 650 miles in 48 days and defeated several larger Federal armies. He had mismanaged several battles but since he was facing the Federal C team it did not matter. At this point the mere mention of his name was enough to scare shaken Federal generals.
