Port Republic Battlefield
653 Acres Preserved
“They poured a volley into our ranks when we without delay returned the compliment…Here was the place to try mens [souls].”
The Battle of Cross Keys was one of the culminating battles of Stonewall Jackson’s 1862 Valley Campaign. This Confederate victory, along with the Battle of Port Republic, held off the Union armies in the Valley and allowed Jackson to join Robert E. Lee in the fight around Richmond, Virginia.
Today you can visit the battlefield site known as “The Coaling” which was a 70-foot high prominence, its top cleared for a charcoaling operation. Federal artillery atop the height dominated the battlefield as they waited for Jackson. Repeated attacks on the hill were repulsed by the Union artillery with devastating results. Jackson then turned to Richard Taylor’s Louisiana Brigade, the “shock troops” of his army who flanked the hill and overwhelmed the Union defenders.
