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Chapter 5: return to Strasburg (continued)—Banks's flight to Winchester—Battle of Winchester.
Turning now to
Jackson's operations in the valley during the few days that intervened before he again confronted us at
Front Royal,
Strasburg, and
Winchester, we shall find that this indefatigable captain, while resting for a few days in Elk Run Valley at the foot of Swift Run Gap in the
Blue Ridge Mountains, meditated an attack upon us at
New Market or at
Harrisonburg.
1 Jackson's army at this time numbered six thousand.
But this was not enough for his purposes; he wanted an addition of
Ewell's division and five thousand men from the force covering
Fredericksburg.
On the twenty-eighth of April he applied to
Lee for a command sufficiently large to enable him to march out and attack
Banks.
On the 29th
Lee replied that the
Federal force at
Fredericksburg was too large to admit of any diminution of his own, but suggested that he could have
General Edward Johnson's command, whose last return showed 3,500 men (and who was then near where the
Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike crosses the
Shenandoah Mountain), and
Ewell, who was in the vicinity of
Stanardsville with eight thousand men; and expressed
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the opinion that a “decisive and successful blow at
Banks's column would be fraught with the happiest results.”
2 But
Jackson hesitated.
Milroy, who was at MacDowell (about thirty miles from
Staunton), had pushed his advance over the
Shenandoah Mountain to the neighborhood of the
Harrisonburg and
Warm Springs turnpike, thus opening an easy communication at the former place with
Banks, with whom
Jackson feared not only a union and the capture of
Staunton, but the interposition of a hostile column between
Johnson's force and his own. Such results were to be avoided; and in
Jackson's mind the best way to avoid them was to strengthen his own division by uniting with
Johnson's, and then with both to fall upon
Milroy; after which he would, with the addition of
Ewell's division, attack
Banks.
Conforming to this plan,
Ewell was ordered to march his division to the position which
Jackson occupied in Elk Run Valley, and thus hold
Banks in check.
3
All the
Rebel forces then located in the valley, within this theatre of operations, are given by a Confederate historian as 17,000 under
Jackson (of which 6,000 were at Swift Run Gap), 8,000 under
Ewell (one day's march in his rear east of the
Blue Ridge), and 3,000 with
Edward Johnson at West View, seven miles west of
Staunton, and over forty from Swift Run Gap.
Banks, at
Harrisonburg, with 19,000 Federals, made up of 8,000 men (including cavalry) in
Banks's corps, and 11,000 in
Shields's division;
Milroy and
Schenck, with 6,000 men (in front of
General Edward Johnson), the advance of
Fremont, who was preparing to join them with a force which would give him a movable column of 15,000 men,--completes the summing
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up in numbers and location.
4 Of these forces,
Fremont's were widely separated;
Banks's were concentrated.
So for this reason and for those already given,
Jackson determined to attack
Milroy: and he would begin his movement so secretly that his enemies should be misled.
On the twenty-ninth of April,
Ashby made demonstrations in force towards
Harrisonburg.
They were repeated on the 30th.
Banks appeared to be quietly at rest.
In the afternoon of the thirtieth of April
Jackson left his camp: it was soon occupied by
Ewell.
Straight onward to
Port Republic, on the eastern side of the
Shenandoah River,
Jackson directed his march.
The day was rainy,--indeed for the past ten days heavy rains had fallen.
Do their best, the troops made but five miles; on the next they made but five; the next, the second of May, the struggle with the mud continued.
By nightfall
Jackson had passed
Lewiston to a bivouac between that point and Brown's Gap.
On the 3d, by this gap and
Whitehall, he pressed onward towards Mechum's River station on the Virginia Central Railroad, and at night encamped on the hills and meadows around the station, east of the
Blue Ridge.
On the 4th the artillery and trains took the road by Rockfish Gap to
Staunton: the troops went by rail.
On Sunday, the 5th,
Jackson reached
Staunton; the next day his troops arrived.
So secretly had he moved that the people of the town were surprised.
On the morning of the 7th the army moved against
Milroy.
Edwards's brigade in advance; .then
Taliaferro's (3d); next
Colonel Campbell's (2d); and in the rear the “
Stonewall” brigade,
General C. S. Winder (the 1st). The corps of Cadets of the Virginia Military Institute, where
Jackson had. been a superintendent, was attached to the expedition.
The troops
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moved on the
Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike.
In eighteen miles
Jackson's advance came up with
Milroy's first outposts.
The Federal pickets were captured or dispersed, and
Jackson went on. On this day, for the first time,
Milroy knew that
Jackson was moving on MacDowell; he therefore ordered his troops to concentrate at that place.
On the afternoon of the 7th
Jackson's army was seen on the west side of the
Shenandoah Mountain, moving down the
Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike.
Milroy made an effort to stop it with artillery, but without success.
Jackson bivouacked at night on
Shaw's Fork, twenty-nine miles from
Staunton.
On the 8th he resumed his march; climbed the
Bull Pasture Mountain, and from its plateau looked down on the village of MacDowell and
Milroy's camps in the
valley of the Bull Pasture.
Though
