Colonel Turner Ashby had informed Jackson that Winchester was guarded by a token force of only 4 regiments and two batteries of artillery and that the Federals were preparing to withdraw to Harper’s Ferry, neither of which were true. More than 8,000 men from General Shields’ division were in Winchester. Given this intelligence, the deeply religious Jackson made the difficult decision to attack the following day on the Sabbath, Sunday, March 23rd. On the morning of the 23rd Jackson detached four companies of the Stonewall Brigade to march north and join Ashby by 5:00 AM from Strasburg. The rest of his men were marching north on the Valley Pike at 7:00 AM from near Cedar Creek.

On Sunday morning the members of Union Colonel Erastus Tyler’s Third Brigade were north of Winchester near Stephenson’s Depot. Colonel Nathan Kimball’s First Brigade had slept on their weapons overnight and were near Kernstown. On the morning of the 23rd Generals Shields and Banks met in the Seevers house. Both men were confident that Jackson was nowhere near Winchester. Shields summoned Jeremiah Sullivan, his Second Brigade commander. Sullivan’s men were picketing the roads south of Winchester and they had seen no sign of Ashby further convincing Shields there was no immediate danger. Sullivan was planning to rest his tired men, but Shields ordered him to have them practice skirmishing. Colonel Samuel Carroll whose 8th OH was involved in the previous day’s skirmish obtained permission to visit his wife and children in Martinsburg. He would be recalled by 9:00 AM when the Confederates opened their attack.

Two companies from the 8th OH replaced Sullivan’s men as pickets with Company C taking up a position three miles south of Winchester at Kernstown. Banks confident that Jackson was not near Winchester planned to leave for Washington in the afternoon. However, that morning on the southern outskirts of Kernstown at the Joseph Mahaney house, a two-story red brick home 500 yards south of Kernstown and 20 yards west of the Valley Turnpike, Confederate Captain R. Preston Chew and Colonel Turner Ashby had returned with four companies of the Stonewall Brigade (Companies B, H, and I of the 2nd VA and Company H of the 27th VA) commanded by Captain John Nadenbousch. Chew deployed one of his guns, a British Blakely, on the Mahaney property as the 7th VA rode north. The Mahaney house is no longer standing. It was located on the west side of the Valley Pike across the street from the modern day Kernstown United Methodist Church. The three images in the gallery were shot in front of the church facing west from left to right (South to North).

They soon encountered Union cavalry, fired a volley and fell back. Chew opened fire on the Federals with the Blakely at 9:00 AM, see the map of the battle below.

Confederate skirmishers advanced onto a hill three quarters of a mile north of the Mahaney house. Colonel Samuel Carroll’s 8th OH were moving south to stop them. Lieutenant Colonel Franklin Sawyer commanding Companies B, C, D, E and H forced Ashby’s men back toward the Mahaney house. Kimball ascended the hill that was the original home of the pioneer William Hoge but was now known as Prichard’s Hill. Lieutenant Colonel Daum, Shields’ chief artillery officer, arrived there shortly after Kimball and began to place his guns in order to return Chew’s fire. First on the western knoll (4 ten-pound Parrotts- Battery A 1st WV Artillery, Captain John Jenks), then on the eastern knoll (6 ten-pound Parrotts- Battery E 4th US Artillery, Captain Joseph Clark) and two more rifled guns from Battery B of the 1st WV. The 67th OH protected Jenks’ guns and the 5th OH the guns from Battery B. Pritchard’s Hill was an excellent position for artillery. It was made up of three knolls each 75 yards apart with two of the knolls facing south forming the base of a triangle with the third knoll to the north. The two images below were shot from the base of the hill looking north toward the summit of Pritchard’s Hill. The three different knolls are not easily seen from the base.

The picture below was taken from the top of the hill looking down on the western knoll, which is the plateau where the flag and markers are located.

Standing on the western knoll looking up at the top of the hill where Robinson’s Battery was located.

The eastern knoll where Clark’s Battery was located can be seen below just above the sign in the middle of the image.

Kimball chose not to occupy a higher elevation about one mile to the west known as Sandy Ridge since most of the Confederate force was in front of him to the east. Sandy Ridge can be seen one mile to the west. The middle arrow is a cleared area on Sandy Ridge and the arrow on the right is a post war home on the ridge, both are shown with a zoom lens view below.

He would regret that decision later in the day. The Middle Road ran between Pritchard’s Hill and Sandy Ridge. At the time of the battle, it was extremely muddy and with the recent rains the area to its east was flooded and marshy.

Ashby next tried a flanking move to the east of the Valley Pike with two of Chew’s guns and four companies of the Stonewall Brigade under Captain Nadenbousch. Colonel Carroll with three companies (F, G, K) of the 8th OH and three companies (A, F, I) of the 67th OH moved south to block the move. In the ensuing firefight Private S.W. Drake, Company K of the 8th OH, became the first person to die in the battle. Eight other men were wounded. Kimball also sent the 14th IN under Lieutenant Colonel William Harrow to aid Carroll just before 10:00 AM. Heavily outnumbered the Confederates fell back a quarter of a mile. This initial phase of the battle was observed by Major Henry Armstrong, a member of Shields’ staff, who rode back to the Seever house to report to Banks and Shields. He informed them that Kimball was engaged with Ashby who was the sole Confederate force in the area. Shields scribbled out a discretionary order for Kimball to move forward with an aggressive plan to attack Ashby’s center which Kimball chose to ignore. He was satisfied with his position and decided to remain on the defensive atop Pritchard’s Hill and requested reinforcements from the other two brigades. Although Shields viewed the request to be overly cautious, he granted it. Colonel Sullivan’s brigade advanced to the east of the Valley Pike as shown above. In addition, a company of Andrew’s Sharpshooters from Massachusetts targeted Chew’s gunners and horses with their long-range rifles forcing them to pull back. Without artillery support and now vastly outnumbered Ashby withdrew his men.

As Ashby withdrew, he was pursued by Colonel Carroll with 8 companies of the 8th and 67th OH to the east of the Valley Pike and Lieutenant Colonel Sawyer with 4 companies of the 8th OH and one of the 13th IN to the west. Carroll moved south to Kernstown with his most advanced forces at the Mahaney house and Sawyer at the Opequan Church. Ashby was on elevated ground one and one-half miles south of Kernstown. Captain Samuel Davey unlimbered his two 10-pounder Parrott guns at the Mahaney house. An artillery exchange followed during which one of Davey’s artillerists was decapitated by a shell fragment. Davey was so shaken by the incident that he withdrew his guns to the rear of the skirmishers and resigned from the army 10 days later. The 5th OH fell back to Pritchard’s Hill where Captain Lucius Robinson’s Battery L of the 1st OH Light Artillery had just arrived with their six guns. There were now 16 guns on Pritchard’s Hill. Union skirmishers were too far forward of the guns on Pritchard’s Hill and withdrew back through the town. By 12:00 PM the pursuit of Ashby had ended, and he would need to wait for Jackson to come up before an advance on Winchester.

Colonel Mason was on Pritchard’s Hill and suggested sending men to Sandy Ridge to the east to secure the high ground there. Kimball sent the 84th PA and its 503 men to a wooded area at the base of the ridge but failed to occupy the ridge itself. Mason then left around noon to report back to Shields believing that the only enemy force on the field belonged to Colonel Ashby. At 1:30 PM Mason returned to Pritchard’s Hill with an order from Shields to once again attack Ashby on the plain below. Kimball refused to obey and chose to remain on the defensive. He felt that he was outnumbered during the morning’s fighting which was not true. Kimball had faced only a total of about 600 Confederates. However, shortly after Mason left to report to Shields, Colonel Kimball became aware of a much larger force 2.5 miles to the south near Bartonsville. As he continued to observe the situation over the next hour and a half, he could see a large Confederate force massing in Barton’s woods on the west side of the Valley Pike south of the Opequon Church that he knew did not belong to Ashby, “Stonewall” Jackson had arrived.

Next- The First Battle of Kernstown- Part 2- Noon to 3:00 PM

Source

Stonewall Jackson’s 1862 Valley Campaign- War Comes to the Homefront by Jonathan A. Noyalas

We are in for it- The First Battle of Kernstown by Gary Ecelbarger

Stonewall Jackson’s Valley Campaign- Shenandoah 1862 by Gary Cozzens