Episode Details

In the spring of 1862, with George B. McClellan's army moving up the Virginia Peninsula toward Richmond, Thomas J. Stonewall Jackson commanded the Valley District with as few as 5,000 men and at most about 17,000. The Shenandoah Valley, 140 miles long and producing about 19 percent of Virginia's wheat, was split down the middle by Massanutten Mountain, and Jackson used its gaps as interior lines to strike separated Union forces. His campaign opened with a defeat at First Kernstown on March 23, when Turner Ashby reported only about 3,000 Union troops and Jackson found about 9,000. Richard B. Garnett retreated after his brigade ran out of ammunition, and Jackson had him court-martialed.

Kernstown still alarmed Lincoln, who diverted Irvin McDowell's troops away from the Richmond offensive. Jackson had cartographer Jedediah Hotchkiss map the valley, marched east through mud in early May as a feint, then took westbound trains back to Staunton and won at McDowell on May 8. Joined by Richard S. Ewell, he moved through the Luray Valley to strike Front Royal on May 23 and drove Nathaniel P. Banks through Winchester on May 25. Lincoln then sent the armies of John C. Frémont, Banks and James Shields to trap him at Strasburg, but Jackson escaped up the paved Valley Pike while his cavalry burned bridges behind him.

• Jackson's infantry moved so fast they were called the foot cavalry, at times outpacing their own cavalry by dropping packs and leaving tents and wagons behind.
• Troops captured about $300,000 in supplies at Winchester and nicknamed the Union general Commissary Banks.
• Turner Ashby was killed in a rearguard skirmish on June 6.
• Ewell held off Frémont at Cross Keys on June 8, and at Port Republic on June 9 Jackson's piecemeal attacks on the Coaling cost him more than 800 casualties.
• Over 48 days his men marched about 646 miles and tied down more than 50,000 Union troops, but Jackson was sluggish in the Seven Days Battles that followed.