JACKSON'S SHENANDOAH VALLEY CAMPAIGN OF 1862
General Joseph E. Johnston sent Jackson with his small army of 6,500 men into the Valley in November 1861 and was told to do two things for sure, protect the left flank of the Confederate Army at Manassas, guard Virginia's breadbasket against all intrusions, but not expect many reinforcements and try to build his army up with local Valley boys. He spent the rest of the year training his troops.
He marched his men from Winchester to Bath Country and hit a force of General Fremont troops at McDowell, Virginia in the Senandoah mountains and drove them back to Romney, West Virginia and on to Franklin. He destroyed the Baltimore and Ohio railroad bridge while there to cut supplies from Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and etc. reaching D.C.
General Jackson moved his forces back to the Valley in April as President Lincoln had sent two armies to destroy his troops as they were a constant threat to D.C.
General Banks was at Front Royal with 8,400 men and General Shields at Harper's Ferry with 10,000 more men to try to drive Jackson and his army of 12,000 troops completely out of the Valley.
Jackson sent word to General Johnston and President Davis that if they would send him enough reinforcement to bring his army up to 16,000 men he would whip both Federal forces one at a time and drive them from the Valley.
On May 1 General Ewell arrived with 4 divisions of troops from Culpepper, Virginia to give General Jackson the necessary force to strike hard. One of the divisions sent to General Jackson was the 42nd infantry division from Bedford County.
Jackson had his troops marching at daylight, heading for Winchester to prepare for a strike at Bank's troops at Fort Royal. General Lee had told him to drive them back to the Potomac river. He hoped to take Banks by surprise and hit him just before daylight to catch him unprepared for battle. The trick worked and Banks fell back to Winchester and continued his retreat towards Martinsburg, West Virginia.
Jackson sent his horse cavalry the 2nd and 6th Virginia to pursue Banks and he withdrew across the Potomac into Maryland. General Lee had ordered Jackson to drive Banks toward the Potomac, but he had pushed him clear across, this was on Saturday, May 24, 1862.
This caused great concern in Washington, thinking Jackson might swing towards Washington as General McClellen had the Army of the Potomac between the Chickahominy and the Pamunkey rivers waiting for General McDowell with his 20,000 troops to arrive to start the strike at Richmond. Lincoln sent word to General McClellen to swing General McDowell's troops from Fredericksburg to Front Royal and Strasburg to get between General Jackson and the road to Washington and drive Jackson from the Valley. He arrived in Strasburg on May 28 with 35,000 Union troops and felt sure he could capture Jackson and his entire army.
General Shield's divisions left from Front Royal in hot pursuit of Jackson's troops which were headed for Luray and then on to New Market. General Fremont's Division was sent down the Valley to cut Jackson off as he came over the Massanutten mountain to New Market. General Jackson would have no part of this trap and headed his army to Port Republic and sent his calvary to the three bridges over the South Fork of the Shenandoah river to burn the bridges to hold the two armies apart, as he thought he would be able to defeat them one at a time.
On June 8 General Ewell was sent to hold General Fremont's troops on the west side of the Shenandoah while General Jackson dealt with General Shields' troops at Port Republic. Jackson made a bold strike at Cross Keys, Virginia and crushed General Shield's troops, although he did have to call in help from Ewell's men.
Now the two armies would go for General Fremont's troops, General Shield's forces were no longer a threat.
General Trimble's brigade of General Ewell's command made contact with General Fremont's forces near Cross Keys and had to give ground back towards Port Republic. They crossed the bridge across the North River and put it to torch. This stopped the entire army of General Fremont from getting to make a strike at General Jackson's troops. With the bridge in flames and the river high General Fremont's troops stood on the hills along the river watching General Tyler's Ohioan retreat and being mauled by the Stonewall Brigade, they were unable to cross to their assistance.
All the fighting in the Valley was not this simple, near Kernstown just out of Winchester, Virginia the Stonewall Brigade under the command of General Richard B. Barnett was in serious trouble when they engaged the entire Union Division of General Kimball after three hours of heavy fighting. They ran out of ammunition and were in danger of being totally overwhelmed. General Garnett issues the order to retreat back to their wagon trains at Newton, four miles south.
This is what the author had to say about this engagement and I quote, "the 5th and 42nd Virginia divisions made a gallant stand againt hordes of oncoming Federal troops but were too exhausted and out of ammunition to continue the fight".
General Jackson was furious when he found out the Stonewall Brigade had been withdrawn from the field of battle prematurely. Jackson snorted at Garnett, "the men could have held their position by using the bayonet"—an instrument that no one but Jackson admired.
The Confederates camped out in the hills near Weyer's Cave until June 17th, they left swiftly to join Lee at Richmond.
The Federal troops were ordered back to Washington to return to Fredericksburg.
So ended the Valley campaign, Jackson had denied the Army of the Potomac the use of 40,000 troops, yet he never had more than 17,000 men. He had defeated three armies, one at a time, had marched his "foot calvary" over 550 miles in just twelve weeks.