Stonewall Jackson's 1862 Valley Campaign

"If this Valley is lost, Virginia is lost." — Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

"The army of General Fremont crossing the north fork of the Shenandoah at Mt. Jackson — Pursuit of Stonewall Jackson," by Edwin Forbes, 1862. Library of Congress.

A strategic diversion

With Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan advancing on Richmond with 100,000 soldiers, Jackson was ordered to create a diversion in the Shenandoah Valley. In March 1862 he marched his small army of about 3,500 men north from Mount Jackson to strike the Union forces. From late March to early June, using aggressive tactics and his thorough knowledge of the Valley's terrain, he fought and beat several Union commanders up and down the Valley. When the Union forces fell back in June, his army left the Valley on June 17 to join Gen. Robert E. Lee's besieged army near Richmond.

The battles

First Kernstown (March 23). The Union won this battle just south of Winchester, but Jackson's aggressiveness alarmed Washington. Believing Jackson had more men than he did, Lincoln sent thousands of troops back to the Valley — a tactical loss for Jackson but a strategic win that kept those troops away from Richmond.

McDowell (May 8). Jackson retreated up the Valley to Swift Run Gap, where Gen. Richard Ewell's division reinforced him, while Union Gen. John C. Frémont moved in from what is now West Virginia. Leaving Ewell to watch Banks, Jackson fooled the Union by marching the rest of his army east, out of the Valley toward Richmond — then secretly brought it back by rail to Staunton. On May 8 he surprised Frémont's vanguard under Gen. Robert Milroy at McDowell and forced it to retreat west.

Front Royal (May 23). By late May Jackson had 17,000 men. Moving against Banks's main force at Strasburg, he used the Valley's geography to sidestep it, marching most of his army across Massanutten Mountain and overwhelming a small Union outpost at Front Royal, at the mountain's northern end. With Jackson behind him, Banks retreated toward Winchester.

Middletown (May 24). Jackson cut into the retreating column on the Valley Turnpike. The head of the column reached Winchester; the rear fled west out of the Valley. Jackson hoped to press on, but some of his troops stopped to loot captured wagons, and the rest of Banks's force reached Winchester that night.

First Winchester (May 25). Jackson attacked the next morning and drove Banks toward Harpers Ferry and into Maryland. Outnumbered and facing two Union armies, he had cleared the Valley of Union troops in just over two weeks.

The escape. Lincoln ordered three Union columns to converge and trap him — Banks from the rear, Frémont from the west and Maj. Gen. James Shields from the east. Jackson's exhausted men cleared Strasburg on June 1 just as the columns closed in behind them, and hurried south.

Cross Keys (June 8) and Port Republic (June 9). At Port Republic, at the southern end of Massanutten, Jackson held the only bridges over the South Fork, keeping the two Union columns apart so he could fight them one at a time. At Cross Keys the fighting ended at dark with the Confederates holding the field. The next day, leaving Ewell to hold off Frémont, Jackson turned on Shields's smaller force at Port Republic and won again — his second victory in two days, closing the spring campaign.

Timeline

Sources

• National Park Service, Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park: "Jackson's 1862 Campaign in the Shenandoah Valley," part of the series The War Consumed Everything. The article gives Jackson's rank differently in different places, so no rank is given for him here. Campaign maps credited to Hal Jespersen are not reproduced.