Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862 - from The Confederate Military History - Part 10 |
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The time had now come when it was necessary for General Lee to concentrate all his forces at Richmond to meet the threatened attack of the great army of the Potomac, which was now in position to the north and northeast of Richmond, within sight of the spires of its churches. Jackson’s brilliant Valley campaign had delayed McClellan’s attack by drawing to the Valley the 40,000 men under McDowell that the Federal commanding general expected to place on his right before proceeding, by one grand movement, as he confidently expected, to seize the Confederate capital. It was important that this force that had been withdrawn should be kept away, and this could best be done by again exciting the fears of the Federal authorities for the safety of Washington. To accomplish this, large reinforcements were hurried, by rail, to the Valley, most of them to Staunton, but Lawton’s six Georgia regiments joined Jackson at his encampment near Weyer’s cave. Federal prisoners, on their way from the Valley to Richmond, met these reinforcements in passing. These, promptly paroled, carried the news to Washington. The cavalry in Jackson’s front, by various devices, spread the intelligence that Jackson, with 50,000 men or more, would soon again march down the Valley to fall on the Federal army there collected. Intelligent escaped “contrabands” reported the arrival of large numbers of troops at Staunton. All these tactics, allowable in time of war, had their effect, not only in persuading Fremont to retreat until he reached Banks at Middletown, but caused the latter to telegraph to the Federal authorities at Washington, on the 12th, “Jackson is heavily reinforced and is advancing,” and on the 19th, “No doubt another immediate movement down the Valley is intended, with a force of 30,000 or more.” On the 22nd he was still on the lookout for Jackson and Ewell, and on the 28th, when Jackson had joined Lee and was actually fighting McClellan before Richmond, Banks still believed “Jackson meditates an attack in the valley.” McDowell had been ordered on the 8th of June to collect his forces and resume his march, by way of Fredericksburg, to join McClellan, but the victories of Cross Keys and Port Republic, and the fears of Banks and Fremont as to what Jackson might again do, delayed him in the Valley, and when he did move, it was toward Manassas, and not Richmond, and Ricketts’ division did not leave Front Royal for Manassas until the 17th of June, when Shields followed him into Piedmont Virginia. The object of his delay in the Valley being accomplished, Jackson left it on the night of the 17th of June, ordering his cavalry to continue its demonstrations down the Valley; and by rail and march, the “ride-and-tie” way, as it was called, he reached the vicinity of Richmond on the 26th day of June, and was in line of battle and ready to fall on McClellan’s rear and participate in the bloody engagement of Gaines’ Mill on the 27th, and become a potent factor in winning the victory of that great day of the Seven Days of battle around Richmond. Swinton, the Federal historian of the army of the Potomac, in writing of Jackson’s Valley campaign, says: In this exciting month’s campaign, Jackson made great captures of stores and prisoners; but this was not its chief result; without gaining a single tactical victory he had yet achieved a great strategic victory, for by skillfully maneuvering 15,000 men he succeeded in neutralizing a force of 60,000. It is perhaps not too much to say that he saved Richmond; for when McClellan, in expectation that McDowell might still be allowed to come and join him, threw forward his right wing under Porter to Hanover Court House on the 26th of May, the echoes of his cannon bore to those in Richmond who knew the situation of the two Union armies, the knell of the capital of the Confederacy. Taken from: The Confederate Military History, Volume 3, Chapter XIV |
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Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862 - from The Confederate Military History - Part 1 Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862 - from The Confederate Military History - Part 2 Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862 - from The Confederate Military History - Part 3 Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862 - from The Confederate Military History - Part 4 Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862 - from The Confederate Military History - Part 5 Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862 - from The Confederate Military History - Part 6 Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862 - from The Confederate Military History - Part 7 Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862 - from The Confederate Military History - Part 8 Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862 - from The Confederate Military History - Part 9 |
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