mythic, arcadian identity of the Shenandoah Valley had taken such deep root. Banks and Fremont together numbered nearly 30,000 men, well outnumbering Jackson. moving up the Valley all the way to Lexington, where on June 12 Hunter burned VMI Military Institute, 145 Ednam Drive, Charlottesville, VA 22903-4629. and plenteous abundance. gave to one side were reflected in the advantages it offered the other. debilitating mistrust among erstwhile neighbors; and plethoric incidents of theft, Jackson ceded the lower Valley to Banks, who occupied Winchester on March 12. factors that ultimately explain why the Union won and the Confederacy lost the war. the war itself was "total" or even "brutal.". Military Institute in Lexington turned back the first Union offensive of the spring by Both Union columns withdrew from the upper Valley, freeing Jackson to join Gen. Robert E. Lee, who had assumed command in the east after Johnston was wounded. Near Middletown, about 20 miles south of Winchester, Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park offers exhibits representing the history of the Shenandoah Valley, the Civil War and the 1864 Battle of Cedar Creek. Help save a crucial 22-acre tract on the battlefield where 14 African American soldiers earned the highest military honor in the land. As the plantation fiction, and romantic landscape art, the Shenandoah Valley was already Confederate control and made possible Early's raid on Washington in July. Washington in 1864, Confederates used the Valley to undertake offensive operations In six small engagements—at Kernstown, McDowell, Front Royal, Winchester, Cross Keys, … Early mistook this limited action to mean that Sheridan was afraid to fight and he left his army spread out from Martinsburg to Winchester. importance: it could be used as a staging area into Unionist east Tennessee, Immediately, Jackson saw an opportunity to recapture the town he had reluctantly evacuated. Defeating Banks and capturing 3,000 prisoners and tons of Union supplies, ammunition and arms, Jackson chased the Yankees north nearly all the way to Harper’s Ferry before returning to Winchester on May 29. Early’s Confederate Army of the Valley ceased to be a viable force, giving the Union a free hand in the Shenandoah. Fremont and Shields failed to unite, but both followed Jackson south along opposite sides of Massanutten Mountain, towering above the Valley floor for 50 miles. Show your pride in battlefield preservation by shopping in our store. "Stonewall" Jackson and Turner Ashby; in fact, one substantial number of reluctant secessionists before the war, as well as a Jackson marched his army up and down the Shenandoah Valley for ten weeks. Early was operating in the same area that Thomas J. The 140-page journal also reviews nine recent books related to the Shenandoah Valley’s Civil War era story. Military action in the Valley was always a counterweight to the campaigns fought between the Potomac and the James. Likewise, Union troops in the upper Valley were on the flank of Confederates defending central Virginia. defeating Union general Franz Sigel at the Battle of New Market. Finally, and in part because the Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack A naval engagement at Hampton Roads, Virginia, a harbor at the mouth of the James River, notable as history’s first duel between ironclad warships and the beginning of a new era of naval warfare. The Majority of our funds go directly to Preservation and Education. Virginia Military Institute seeking to understand Sheridan's campaign as part of a larger effort to frame the sheep, hogs, and cattle and laid in ashes "2,000 barns filled with wheat, hay, and Thus Ulysses Grant put in motion the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign, placing Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan in command, with directions "to put himself south of the enemy and follow him to the death…. Contributed by Peter Cozzens. effort to capture Richmond. Every purchase supports the mission. Rightfully known as the “breadbasket of the Confederacy,” it contained some of the most fertile farmland and one of the largest concentrations of livestock in the South, both critically important to the Confederate economy. After a running battle on the 24th along the Valley Turnpike from Middletown to Newtown (Stephens City), Banks made a stand on the heights south of Winchester. Banks fell back north, where Jackson attacked him at the First Battle of Winchester on May 25. The 1862 battle of Shenandoah Valley ranks as one of the grandest masterpieces of military history. Shenandoah had become what one scholar called an "iconic Confederate place," the Date. Winter was harsh on Jackson’s ill-supplied men, several hundred were lost to disease or transfers. His cavalry leader, however, the dashing but inexperienced Col. Turner Ashby, underestimated the strength of the remaining Union division in Winchester, reporting it to be only a brigade. Jackson was outnumbered and outmaneuvered during the battle, his only loss of the campaign. western flank of Union operations in central Virginia, the Shenandoah provided the Union high command with a state of West Virginia. Jackson deftly marched back up the Valley on June 1 as Joe Johnston attacked McClellan outside of Richmond. farming implements [and] over seventy mills filled with flour and wheat.". Moreover, the wartime experience in the Shenandoah Valley had generated an intense the Shenandoah, The Burning was carried out by Union By 1860, and thanks in part to antebellum travel and adventure literature, it was the bloodiest battle of the war and it marked the end of Southern control of the Mississippi valley. Reaching the mountain’s southern tip, Jackson stopped to face his pursuers. as well as the home of former Virginia governor John Letcher. the Confederacy" was largely stripped of its resources by late 1862. important town, was said to have changed hands more than seventy times. Eight U.S. Presidents were born in Virginia – Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Harrison, Tyler, Taylor and Wilson. Yet, Jackson’s audacity worried President Abraham Lincoln, who withheld a division from McClellan’s army and returned Banks to the Valley. behind by ravenous partisans and guerrillas who disrupted his supply lines, chose to leave the valley and His invasion route passed through the valley. It was the largest battle fought in the Shenandoah Valley during the CIvil War. Please consider making a gift today to help raise the $170,000 we need to preserve this piece of American history forever. Ridge Mountains on the east and the Alleghenies on the west, its breadth never Technically speaking, the Shenandoah Valley is the northern part of the Great Valley of Virginia, approximately a 140-mile corridor extending north from Rockbridge County to the Potomac River. for the Union and defeat for the Confederacy were all but assured. How did Union win Battle of Shiloh? The Battle of Cedar Creek was a pivotal point in the war. a unique and "Southern" place in popular imagination. After Hunter's Raid. On two other notable occasions, the Gettysburg Campaign of 1863 and Jubal A. Gen. Edward "Allegheny" Johnson's Army of the Northwest in early May,... On June 9, 1862, the day after his victory at Cross Keys, Maj. Gen. Thomas J. climax to a brutalizing war, it was understood that way precisely because the Confederate nationalism—the Shenandoah's abundance supplied wheat, corn, meat, and It ended southern resistance in the Shenandoah Valley which eliminated the valley as a source of food for the Confederacy. On May 25, Jackson attacked and overwhelmed the Union defenders, who broke and fled in a panic to the Potomac River. Confederates, to control it was to control a pressure point, a natural and is the northern part of the Great Valley of Virginia, approximately a 140-mile County to Woodstock in Shenandoah County and accomplished first in Virginia what William T. Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan was given command of the Army of the Shenandoah and sent to the Shenandoah Valley to deal with the Confederate threat of Lt. Gen. Jubal A. HISTORICAL MAP | Map of McDowell, Virginia and vicinity circa 1862. some argue that Sheridan did not destroy as much as he claimed to have destroyed; By the closing weeks of September, Sheridan had won victories in battles at Opequon (Third Winchester) and Fisher’s Hill, and had forced Early’s men back some 60 miles, reversing Early’s previous gains in the Shenandoah Valley. Many battlefields are already preserved and restored to their 18th and 19th Century state. (Broadening the map broadened the Valley's Those who lived through the Burning—those who experienced it as well as many of This decision With Banks’ army still heavily damaged, Fremont’s army to the west and a division under Brig. military operation in the valley until the close of the war. the Valley's two northernmost counties, Berkeley and Jefferson—the former's seat, Martinsburg, was a bastion of Federal Identification Number (EIN): 54-1426643. (2015, October 27). retreat into West Virginia. Sheridan's army Not only was the Burning understood as a culminating When those connections were destroyed by Union general Philip H. Sheridan and his Valley Campaign in the During that time, his army fought in five battles, winning four of them. Robert E. Lee was concerned about Hunter's advances in the Valley, which threatened critical railroad lines and provisions for the Virginia-based Confederate forces. personal promotion. Its northeast-southwest axis pointed like a dagger into the heart of western Maryland and central Pennsylvania. A. Jackson won the battle despite having significantly less experience. in the North. if uneasy nationalism that tied these idyllic ideas of home and place to the Born in Virginia, Jackson had taught for ten years at the Virginia Military Academy in Lexington by the time war broke out in 1861. That mythology would survive Sheridan and even the war. The forks of the Shenandoah River flow northward to join above Massanutten Mountaina massive topog… The Valley, For the next 11 months, Lee and Jackson would run up victories against a series of Union army commanders and bring the Confederacy to the brink of victory. Banks’ force was complemented by another Federal army in the Allegheny Mountains west of the Valley under the command of Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont. "Stonewall" Jackson from relative obscurity to the first rank of Southern generals. Confederate war effort. The divisions—which centered on political and economic factors, The September 1864 combat was the largest, longest, and bloodiest battle fought in the Shenandoah Valley. Because the Valley's direction is Ferry. His movements tied down 70,000 Union soldiers, a force four times larger than his own. Who won Battle of Shiloh? unfolded. David Hunter succeeded in Early. The Shenandoah Valley saw less combat in 1863 than in any other year. Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862. Fremont caught up with Jackson at Cross Keys on June 8, but Fremont’s mismanaged attacks failed to dislodge the Confederates. Frederick and Clarke Counties September 19, 1864 Outcome: Union Victory. On May 15, 1864, a small Confederate force After that, the centre of attention moved north. high command was slow to use its advantages. He defeated three different Union armies. "Stonewall" Jackson had in his successful 1862 Valley campaign. 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