Stonewall Jackson’s 1862 Valley Campaign

“This campaign made the fame of Jackson as a commander... The rumor of his rapid movements and constant successes came like a wind from the mountains to the Confederate capital”
— John Esten Cooke

In the spring of 1862, a Union army of 100,000 was approaching Richmond from the southeast, attempting to take the Confederate capital. The plan also called for Gen. Irvin McDowell, with 30,000 men near Fredericksburg, to advance on Richmond from the north. By unleashing a vigorous offensive in the Shenandoah Valley, Confederate Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson kept McDowell in Fredericksburg, wresting the initiative away from the Federal campaign.Despite an initial tactical setback on March 23 at Kernstown, Jackson quickly recovered, then moved south, pausing at Conrads Store (present-day Elkton) to develop the vision for what would come to be known as his Valley Campaign. To deceive Federal forces, Jackson’s army marched out of the Valley toward Charlottesville and returned by train to Staunton – then headed west into the mountains of Highland County, planning to close the Valley’s western “back door”. On May 8 at McDowell, he turned back Union troops from Gen. John C. Fremont’s army. Learning that another Union army was approaching from the north, he then quickly moved in that direction and, with reinforcements, defeated Federal forces under Gen. Nathaniel Banks at Front Royal (May 23) and Winchester (May 25).

Jackson pursued Banks north, almost to Harpers Ferry. In early June, two separate Union armies of 20,000 each moved to unite near Strasburg and crush Jackson in a trap. Jackson raced south, eluding the trap—the two northern armies pursuing him on either side of the Massanutten Mountain, which runs down the spine of the Shenandoah Valley. At the Massanutten’s southern tip, Jackson’s army fought masterful back-to-back battles at Cross Keys (June 8) and Port Republic (June 9), preventing the Federals from combining. After these “twin battles” and defeats, Union forces withdrew from the Valley. Jackson, having accomplished his mission, moved east and joined Gen. Robert E. Lee in front of Richmond.

In a swift feat of marching, deception, counter-marching and sheer boldness, Jackson had conducted one of the most audacious and brilliant campaigns in American military history. With only 18,000 men, marching several hundred miles over the course of a few weeks, Jackson inflicted twice as many casualties as he suffered, seized countless supplies, and tied up elements of three separate Federal armies totaling more than 60,000 men that would otherwise have been used against Richmond.

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Stonewall Jackson’s 1862 Valley Campaign
by Jonathan A. Noyalas

Virginia's Shenandoah Valley was known as the "Breadbasket of the Confederacy" due to its ample harvests and transportation centers, its role as an avenue of invasion into the North and its capacity to serve as a diversionary theater of war. The region became a magnet for both Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War, and nearly half of the thirteen major battles fought in the valley occurred as part of General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's 1862 Valley Campaign. Civil War historian Jonathan A. Noyalas examines Jackson's Valley Campaign and how those victories brought hope to an infant Confederate nation, transformed the lives of the Shenandoah Valley's civilians and emerged as Stonewall Jackson's defining moment.