On 25 May 1862 Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's Confederate army attacked Nathaniel P. Banks's much smaller Union force at Winchester, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. After a morning's fighting in fog, a flank attack by Richard Taylor's Louisiana brigade broke the Union line, and Banks's army fled through the town and on across the Potomac into Maryland. The victory crowned Jackson's Valley Campaign and alarmed Washington into diverting troops meant for the campaign against Richmond.
A diversion in the Valley
In the spring of 1862 George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac was advancing on Richmond, and Confederate authorities ordered Jackson to create a diversion in the Shenandoah Valley that would draw Union attention and troops away from the capital. On 23 May Jackson and Richard S. Ewell overran the Union garrison at Front Royal, about 1,000 men of the 1st Maryland under Colonel John Kenly by the Park Service count, 900 by Encyclopedia Virginia's, and most of them were captured. The blow put them on Banks's flank, closer to Winchester than Banks himself was. After skirmishing at Middletown and Newtown on 24 May, Banks fell back to Winchester to make a stand.1
The numbers are disputed. The American Battlefield Trust and the National Park Service battle summary put Union strength at about 6,500 against 16,000 Confederates. A Park Service article speaks of about 5,000 Federals, and Encyclopedia Virginia of some 3,500 deployed south of the town, fighting mainly to give Banks's 550 supply wagons a head start toward Williamsport on the Potomac.2
Fog, Camp Hill and Bowers Hill
Banks held a line south of Winchester running from Camp Hill on the southeast to Bowers Hill on the southwest. Jackson attacked at dawn on 25 May in thick fog. Ewell's troops, led by Isaac Trimble's brigade, struck at Camp Hill but made no headway.3
Around 7 a.m. Jackson sent Richard Taylor's Louisiana brigade, about 2,000 men, around the Union right. The Park Service describes Taylor keeping his men in order under artillery fire as they formed, then climbing Bowers Hill by about 7:30 and breaking the Union line. Panic spread through the Federal ranks and many fled through the town. According to the Park Service, residents, mostly women, threw objects at the retreating soldiers and fired on them, killing several.4
Commissary Banks
Banks reached Martinsburg that afternoon and crossed the Potomac into Maryland that evening. Jackson's infantry were too exhausted to pursue far, and his cavalry was not where he needed it. The Park Service quotes him lamenting, "Oh, that my cavalry was in place".5
Banks left behind enormous stores, which the Park Service puts at about 500,000 rounds of ammunition, more than 9,300 small arms and 34,000 pounds of food. The American Battlefield Trust records that the Confederates nicknamed him "Commissary Banks". Losses were lopsided. The Trust gives 2,019 Union casualties, 1,714 of them missing or captured, and 397 Confederate; the Park Service battle summary rounds the Confederate figure to 400.6
Washington alarmed
With Jackson's army near the Potomac, Abraham Lincoln diverted Irvin McDowell's command of some 40,000 men from Fredericksburg to the Valley, weakening the Union push on Richmond, as Encyclopedia Virginia describes. The American Battlefield Trust likewise notes that thousands of troops meant to support McClellan were sent toward the Valley instead. Jackson went on to win at Cross Keys and Port Republic in June, and the campaign made him a national figure in the Confederacy. His career is told in our biography of Stonewall Jackson.7
