Although Banks’ army had escaped, part of Jackson’s orders stated he was to make a demonstration toward Baltimore or Washington if possible. After resting his army on the 26th, on the evening of the 27th he ordered Brigadier General Charles Winder and four of his five brigades, about 1,000 men, north toward Harpers Ferry. That same day he ordered Colonel Conner and the 12th GA to Front Royal to guard the bridges over the North and South Forks of the Shenandoah River. Should Conner have to fall back he was to burn both bridges. Taylor’s Brigade was sent to Berryville to guard the road from Leesburg. The 1st MD occupied Martinsburg while detachments of Ashby’s Cavalry were on the lookout for an approach by Frémont from the Alleghenies. Just outside Charles Town, shown on the map below, the Confederates encountered a Union reconnaissance in force of about 1,500 men from the 111th PA and the 1st MD Cavalry sent from Harpers Ferry by General Saxton, who had replaced Colonel Dixon Miles as commander of the garrison there. The Federals were relatively green, and Winder’s men had no trouble pushing them back. The Confederates chased the Yankees as far Halltown before halting when they spotted a large Union force atop Bolivar Heights in Harpers Ferry. Jackson and his staff arrived the next day along with the 2nd Brigade commanded by Colonel John Patton and the 3rd Brigade commanded by General Taliaferro.

Brigadier General Rufus Saxton had accumulated a force of about 6,000 men over the last several days and they were on Bolivar and Maryland Heights. A map of the area is shown below. Wilder’s fifth regiment, the 2nd VA, arrived and occupied Loudon Heights on the Virginia side of the river. Saxton moved his men from Bolivar Heights to Camp Hill closer to town. Jackson had received some intelligence that Frémont from the west and Shields/McDowell from the east were moving in his rear to affect a combination near Strasburg trapping him in the valley cutting off his line of retreat south. In response he ordered Major John Harman to remove the captured Federal supplies from Front Royal and Winchester.

On the morning of the 30th Jackson oversaw an artillery duel across the Potomac at Harpers Ferry from a hilltop near Halltown. Jackson assessed that he would need at least 40,000 men to carry Harpers Ferry and make a movement further north or east. He sent a courier, Alexander Boteler, to Richmond to lobby for additional troops. By the early afternoon Jackson concluded he could do no more at Harpers Ferry and decided to head back toward Winchester. He ordered Taylor’s Brigade from Berryville back to Winchester and Conner to hold Front Royal until the captured supplies were removed. Winder would remain behind in order to feint toward Bolivar Heights to keep Saxton occupied and then rejoin the army. Jackson would have lunch at his commissary chief’s home, Charles Hawks, in Charles Town, then board a train to Winchester.

Maryland Heights

Loudon Heights

Near the depot at Summit Point Jed Hotchkiss on horseback stopped the train with news from Front Royal. Brigadier General Nathan Kimball’s brigade of Shield’s division from McDowell’s Department of the Rappahannock had routed the garrison there and recaptured all of the Union supplies that the Confederates captured on the 23rd. Shield’s division had marched 95 miles in four days to get to Front Royal. Jackson arrived in Winchester at the Taylor Hotel and met with Colonel Zephaniah Connor of the 12th GA, the commander at Front Royal. Jackson furious at him for fleeing the town on horseback placed him and his second in command under arrest.

The Union campaign in the valley was being run out of the War Department by Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton rather than by the military. On the 30th McDowell had control of Front Royal. He did not advance because his other two divisions were a day away from entering the valley. Lincoln urged McDowell to push forward as soon as possible but didn’t tell him where to go or what his role was. Frémont and his 11,000-man Mountain Department were instructed to proceed from Franklin to Harrisonburg, 41 miles away. The roads to Harrisonburg, however, were in poor condition and Frémont decided to move to Strasburg instead. After a 30-mile march north he was in Petersburg on the 25th and Moorefield on the 27th. His men were near starvation and surviving on hardtack and coffee alone. Things were so bad that their medical director, Dr. George Suckley, insisted that the troops be given a day of rest. On May 30 they were at Wardensville about 20 miles from Strasburg.

The most well rested troops in the valley were Jackson’s who had only marched 25 miles in 4 days but they were also the furthest north, 35 miles from Winchester (22 miles from Strasburg). Shields was in Front Royal only 12 miles from Strasburg, By midnight on May 30th Jackson’s men had marched 25 miles in 10 hours to Stephenson’s Depot. At 3:00 AM on the 31st Jackson ordered Jedediah Hotchkiss to return to Charles Town and guide the Stonewall Brigade, the unit furthest north, south through the Winchester area. By the end of the day Ewell’s Division and William Taliaferro’s brigade from Jackson’s Division had marched 30 miles and were now near Strasburg at the head of the column. The Stonewall Brigade were at the rear six miles south of Winchester between Burtonsville and Newtown. Jackson headquartered at George Hupp’s house in Strasburg. As for his Union pursuers Shields’ men were still in Front Royal where McDowell appeared to be waiting for the rest of his army to arrive and Shields was given no orders to move toward Strasburg. The head of Frémont’s column was only 5 miles west of Strasburg but badly strung out after a hard march over mountainous roads.

On the morning of June 1st both Jackson and Frémont’s forces were on the road early. At 7:00 AM Frémont’s men crossed Cedar Creek and headed toward Strasburg on the Moorefield Road where they ran into skirmishers from Fulkerson’s brigade. The Federals were unable to penetrate the Confederate’s skirmish line. Ewell rode out the Moorefield Road with Taylor, assumed command, and kept the Valley Pike open. To the east McDowell heard sounds of gunfire which he mistakenly thought was coming from the Winchester area and ordered Shields’ force to march west to Strasburg to try and cut off Jackson’s column. Turner Ashby’s Cavalry was along the road from Cedarville to Middletown (Chapel Road) to block a move from McDowell there. However, only a small picket screen was along the route from Front Royal to Strasburg (Strasburg Front Royal Road). Jackson ordered his chief engineering officer Captain James Boswell to take six men and check on the pickets. After about 4 miles Boswell contacted a large group of Union Cavalry headed west toward Strasburg under Brigadier General George Bayard.

McDowell had asked Bayard to conduct a reconnaissance mission down the Strasburg Front Royal Road to verify a report that he gotten from a group reconnoitering along the Chapel Road of a Confederate column headed south on the Valley Pike and if true to attack it. As Bayard advanced, he could see that the supply train was heavily guarded by infantry, cavalry and artillery and he could do nothing to stop it. About this time McDowell also learned that Shields instead of following orders to head west to Strasburg had instead marched toward Winchester. Jackson had escaped south through Strasburg with the Stonewall Brigade now at the front of the column and was moving toward Harrisonburg.

Jackson knew that Frémont was pursuing him on the Valley Pike and that McDowell would be moving south parallel to him on the other side of Massanutten Mountain in Page County, see the two maps below. Jackson sent his cavalry across New Market Gap to burn the White House and Columbia Bridges, as well as Miller’s Bridge at Conrad’s Store. The bridge burning was completed by the 3rd. This would isolate McDowell’s force on the east side of the South Fork of the Shenandoah River giving Jackson time to deal with Frémont’s Mountain Department to the west of the river first, followed by McDowell’s Department of the Rappahannock on the east side of the river.

General Bayard’s “Flying Brigade” was temporarily detached from McDowell and reported to Frémont on the morning of June 2nd. Bayard commanded two cavalry regiments, a battery of four Griffen guns and a battalion of infantry, a total of about 1,850 men. The infantry regiment, the 1st PA Rifles (the Bucktails), commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Kane were known for their marksmanship. Bayard’s men would be the primary force that would be attacking Jackson’s rearguard as they moved south. The rearguard was made up of the 2nd and 6th VA Cavalry commanded by Brigadier General George Steuart. Jackson judged Steuart’s performance so poor that he replaced him with Turner Ashby. On the 3rd Ashby burned the bridge over the North Fork of the Shenandoah River between Mount Jackson and New Market. The destruction of the bridge was a blessing for Jackson’s foot-sore soldiers who had marched 80 miles in a little over four days. They were allowed a day of rest on the 4th.

By the time Bayard and his cavalry, including the 1st PA and 1st NJ (commanded by Sir Percy Windham) reached the North Fork bridge they had already captured about 400 Confederate stragglers. The North Fork was running so high that it could not be forded. A first attempt at constructing a pontoon bridge over the river failed when it was washed downstream by the heavy currents. A second bridge was finally completed by 10:00 AM on the 5th. The Rebels passed through Harrisonburg and headed east toward Port Republic, a small town at the confluence of the North and South Rivers that joined there to form the South Fork of the Shenandoah River.

Jackson moved in this direction because he felt that he had done all he could in the valley with the men he had on hand. Port Republic was only one mile from Brown’s Pass, and he would be in a better position to join Lee in Richmond.

On the 6th Jackson crossed the bridge over the North River and entered the town establishing his headquarters at Madison Hall the home of Dr. George Kemper. The rear of his column was near Harrisonburg guarded by Ashby.

The van of Jackson’s column on the 6th, the Stonewall Brigade, was about a mile from Port Republic while the rear was at Harrisonburg. The Federals were finally across the North Fork of the Shenandoah on the 5th and were at Harrisonburg the next day. Unfortunately for the men at the rear of the Rebel column they were about to be attacked by Bayard’s cavalry and June 6th would become the only day in the 1862 Valley Campaign where a commissioned general would be killed in action.

Next- The Second Battle of Front Royal- May 30, 1862

Sources

From Harpers Ferry to Cross Keys by Gary Ecelbarger. Blue and Gray Magazine Volume XXIX, Issue 1, 2012.

Stonewall Jackson’s Valley Campaign Shenandoah 1862 by Peter Cozzens