Stonewall Jackson’s 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign

**General** **Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson**

Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s Valley Campaign of 1862 is one of the most storied and studied campaigns of the Civil War. It occurred at a time in the war, the first several months of 1862, when Southern morale was at its lowest point after defeats in multiple theaters. In the east Brigadier General Ambrose Burnside had won several victories along the coast of North Carolina at Roanoke Island on February 7-8, Elizabeth City on February 10, New Bern on March 13 and Fort Macon on April 25-26. Fort Pulaski which guarded the entry to the Savannah River in Georgia fell on April 11 eliminating that city as a major port on the Atlantic Ocean. New Orleans the second largest city in the Confederacy at the mouth of the Mississippi River fell to a combined Union army and naval expedition under Major General Benjamin Butler and Flag Officer David Farragut on May 1st. The surrender of Fort Henry and the unconditional surrender of an entire Southern army at Fort Donelson on February 6th and 16th, respectively, to Brigadier General Ulysses Grant and Flag Officer Andrew Foote led to the evacuation of Nashville and the loss of most of Tennessee and Columbus, Kentucky. Coupled with other Confederate losses at Shiloh in Tennessee, Pea Ridge in Arkansas and Island Number 10 it appeared the Union was on the cusp of winning the war.

Major General George McClellan was preparing to launch his long delayed major offensive on Richmond with over 120,000 men versus Confederate General Joseph Johnston’s army that was three times smaller. Johnston needed a diversion in the Shenandoah Valley that would keep as many Union troops as possible there thus preventing them from joining McClellan’s operation against Richmond. Between March 22nd and June 9th Jackson’s army which never fielded more than about 17,000 men would march almost 650 miles in 48 days defeating three different Union armies with a combined force about three times his size, preventing them from reinforcing McClellan’s offensive against Richmond. Jackson would lose the first battle at Kernstown on March 28th. This was the only battle Jackson lost as an independent commander. However, what was a loss on the battlefield turned into a strategic victory when Lincoln ordered the Mountain Department in the Alleghenies and the Department of the Rappahannock near Fredericksburg to the Shenandoah Valley. This was followed by a series of five victories at McDowell on May 8th, Front Royal on May 23rd, Winchester on May 25th, Cross Keys on June 8th, and Port Republic on June 9th, shown on the map below. Jackson and his army would then leave the valley on June 19th to join Robert E. Lee outside Richmond for what would be known as the Seven Days Battles (link).