Jackson's Valley Campaign

Jackson's Valley Campaign, also known as the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862, is Confederate Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's spring 1862 campaign through the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia during the American Civil War.

Employing audacity and rapid, unpredictable movements on interior lines, Jackson's seventeen thousand men march six hundred and forty-six miles (one thousand and forty kilometers) in forty-eight days and win several minor battles as they successfully engage three Union armies (fifty-two thousand men), preventing them from reinforcing the Union offensive against Richmond.

Jackson suffers a tactical defeat (his sole defeat of the war) at the First Battle of Kernstown (March 23, 1862) against Col. Nathan Kimball (part of Union Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks's army), but it proves to be a strategic Confederate victory because President Abraham Lincoln reinforces the Union's Valley forces with troops that had originally been designated for the Peninsula Campaign against Richmond.

On May 8, after more than a month of skirmishing with Banks, Jackson moves deceptively to the west of the Valley and drives back elements of Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont's army in the Battle of McDowell, preventing a potential combination of the two Union armies against him.

Jackson now heads down the Valley once again to confront Banks.

Concealing his movement in the Luray Valley, Jackson joined forces with Maj. Gen. Richard S. Ewell and captured the Federal garrison at Front Royal on May 23, causing Banks to retreat to the north. On May 25, in the First Battle of Winchester, Jackson defeated Banks and pursued him until the Union Army crossed the Potomac River into Maryland.

Bringing in Union reinforcements from eastern Virginia, Brig. Gen. James Shields recaptures Front Royal and plans to link up with Frémont in Strasburg.

Jackson is now threatened by three small Union armies.

Withdrawing up the Valley from Winchester, Jackson is pursued by Frémont and Shields.

On June 8, Ewell defeats Frémont in the Battle of Cross Keys and on the following day, crosses the North River to join forces with Jackson to defeat Shields in the Battle of Port Republic, bringing the campaign to a close.

Jackson follos up his successful campaign by forced marches to join Gen. Robert E. Lee for the Seven Days Battles outside Richmond.

His audacious campaign elevates him to the position of the most famous general in the Confederacy (until this reputation is later supplanted by Lee) and will be studied ever since by military organizations around the world.

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