First Kernstown, 1862: Stonewall Jackson's Only Defeat, and a Strategic Win

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Stonewall Jackson lost the First Battle of Kernstown, just south of Winchester, Virginia, on March 23, 1862. It was the only defeat of his two years of Confederate service. Yet it achieved exactly what his superior wanted: alarmed by his aggressiveness and convinced his army was far larger than it was, Abraham Lincoln sent thousands of Union soldiers back to the Shenandoah Valley — soldiers who were supposed to be helping take Richmond.

A yellowed 1800s map showing terrain and battle movements in red.

Detail of Jedediah Hotchkiss's sketch map "The Battle of Kernstown, Sunday, March 23d 1862." Credit: Library of Congress.

Outnumbered and misinformed

In early March 1862, Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's orders from Gen. Joseph E. Johnston were to keep Union forces in the Valley from moving east to reinforce Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's offensive against Richmond. But Jackson had barely 4,000 men at Winchester against about 20,000 under U.S. Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks. When Banks advanced on March 11, Jackson withdrew south to Mount Jackson.

On March 22, Col. Turner Ashby of the 7th Virginia Cavalry skirmished with Union outposts south of Winchester and reported that most of Banks's force was leaving the Valley. Jackson saw his chance and marched north. But Ashby was wrong: Gen. James Shields's division of nearly 8,000 was still at Winchester.

The battle

March 23, 1862
About 9 a.m.	On a cold, raw Sunday with patches of snow on the ground, Ashby's cavalry, a battery and four companies of the 2nd Virginia open fire near the hamlet of Kernstown
Morning	Col. Nathan Kimball, commanding in place of the wounded Shields, puts ten rifled guns on Pritchard's Hill, west of the Valley Pike; Ashby's flanking attempts fail under heavy artillery fire
About 2 p.m.	Jackson's main force arrives after a march of nearly twenty miles from Strasburg. Judging Pritchard's Hill too strong to attack head-on, he sends artillery and the brigades of Brig. Gen. Richard Garnett (the Stonewall Brigade) and Col. Samuel Fulkerson west across the Middle Road to Sandy Ridge, where they take cover behind a long stone wall
Then	Staff officer Sandie Pendleton scouts the Union line and reports as many as 10,000 enemy troops. "Say nothing about it," Jackson tells him. "We are in for it."
Next	Col. Erastus Tyler's Union brigade attacks the ridge
After several hours; evening	Low on ammunition, Garnett orders a retreat without Jackson's approval, and the Confederates withdraw south on the Valley Pike

Tyler nearly brought on disaster by advancing his regiments one behind another instead of side by side, so only the lead regiment could fire at the Confederates behind the wall while the rest formed up under fire. Reinforcements from Kimball and the guns on Pritchard's Hill saved him, and once his five regiments were in line, Union numbers told. Jackson was furious at Garnett and later brought charges against him — but retreating was the right decision.

Losses	Engaged	Killed, wounded and captured
Confederate	about 3,700	nearly 740 (over 22%)
Union	about 7,200	about 575 (just over 8%)

A strategic victory

The Lincoln administration, always sensitive about Washington's safety, believed Jackson's army was much bigger than it was and feared he might invade Maryland. So it sent substantial reinforcements meant for McClellan back to the Valley. Kernstown was a tactical loss for Jackson but a strategic win — and the opening battle of his remarkable 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign.

The battlefield today

The all-volunteer Kernstown Battlefield Association preserves the 388-acre battlefield on the Pritchard-Grim Farm in Frederick County, Virginia. Rose Hill Park, run by Frederick County Parks & Recreation and the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, was the scene of the battle's end at Rose Hill Farm.