First Battle of Winchester

Bowers Hill today, as some of Taylor's Confederates might have seen as they attacked uphill.

NPS Photo

“Banks made an appeal to the soldiery to rally and make a stand ‘My God, men, don’t you love your country?’ he pleaded. ‘Yes,’ said one… ‘and I am trying to get to it as fast as I can.’”

Edwin E. Bryant, 3^rd Wisconsin

Exhausted by their harried evacuation of Strasburg, US Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks’s soldiers took up positions on the hills south of Winchester. Confederate Maj. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson directed a morning assault that pushed the Federals from their defenses. Banks’s men managed a retreat through the hostile population in Winchester, then north and across the Potomac River to Maryland. Jackson’s victories at Front Royal and Winchester once again forced the US Army to divert troops from their advance on Richmond to the Shenandoah Valley.

First Winchester Battlefield

Virginia historical highway markers A-5 and A-7 commemorate the battle. They are both along US Route 11 in Winchester, near the intersections of Jefferson Street and Cedar Creek Grade, respectively.

Federal Defense of Winchester

After US Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks retreated north from Strasburg, Virginia, on May 24th, 1862, he arrayed his force of approximately 5,000 men just south of Winchester. His line stretched for about 2.5 miles, from Camp Hill on the southeast edge of the town, to Bowers Hill, southwest of Winchester. Facing Banks from the south was the combat-savvy Confederate army under Maj. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, including the tough Louisiana Tigers led by Brig. Gen. Richard Taylor. The Confederates were confident, having recently won fights at McDowell, Front Royal, and Middletown, Virginia.

Banks’s Dilemma

Despite what some historians contend, Banks was well-respected by his troops. “Such was the unbounded confidence in him by the men under his command that they considered him equal to the task of extricating them from almost any difficulty,” Lt. Charles Boyce, 28th New York Infantry remembered. One of his brigade commanders, Brig. Gen. Alpheus Williams, considered Banks “…an officer of excellent judgement and good sense...”

The confidence his men had in him was reassuring, but Banks still faced a difficult situation on the morning of May 25th, 1862. Not only was he greatly outnumbered, as Stonewall Jackson could count on close to 16,000 Confederates, but the town of Winchester also lay directly in the Federal rear. Any retreat through the town’s narrow streets might be slow and chaotic.

Banks’s soldiers were exhausted. Two regiments that had been part of the rearguard on the march from Strasburg, the 2nd Massachusetts and 27th Indiana, had marched upwards of thirty miles the day before. Also, because so many of his supply wagons had been captured or destroyed by the Confederates the day before, May 24th, during the ambush at Middletown, Banks’s men had had very little to eat.

Jackson Attacks in Morning Fog

Jackson’s Valley Army began its attack in the foggy daylight of May 25th, with troops from Brig. Gen. Isaac Trimble’s brigade, part of Maj. Gen. Richard Ewell’s division, advancing towards their Federal foes. “The fog now had become so dense as to make it impossible to see twenty steps in any direction,” one member of the 21st North Carolinian recalled, “…the men were drawn in, and the regiment lay down in an orchard and concealed itself behind a board fence to await the lifting of the fog.”

At around 5:40 a.m., the 21st North Carolina finally moved forward, the fog having partially lifted, but the regiment made no headway against the Federal defenses. Other Confederate efforts against the Federals southeast of the town were equally unsuccessful.

Across the Valley Pike to the west, Confederate and Federal batteries exchanged rounds, the southern artillery also receiving heavy infantry fire. Jackson greatly outnumbered Banks, and at 7 a.m., he decided to unleash some of that manpower to outflank the Union position on Bowers Hill. To do this, he called on Brig. Gen. Richard Taylor’s Louisiana brigade.

The Louisianans Strike

As Taylor marched his brigade into position for its attack on the western flank of Bowers Hill, Federal artillery fired on it. Some Louisianans were hit, and others ducked. Taylor stopped the column, yelling, “What the hell are you dodging for? If there is any more of it, you will be halted under this fire for an hour!” The men stood up, and they pushed forward, but as Taylor later recalled, Jackson “…placed his hand on my shoulder, said, in a gentle voice, ‘I am afraid you are a wicked fellow,’ then turned and rode [off].”

Taylor got his men into position, formed them into a battle line, and led them forward. Still only 7:30 a.m., Taylor rode in front of his brigade, all 2,000 of them in perfect order, and led them up Bowers Hill. The Federal soldiers fired their muskets, their artillery belched canister, but the Louisianans filled the bloody gaps in their lines and pressed on. Taylor’s men quickly broke the Union line, Federal resistance collapsed, and the retreat through Winchester began.

Banks Retreats Through Winchester

Although defeated, Banks’s force “preserved their organization remarkably well,” as Jackson later admitted. The problem arose when the town’s civilians – mostly women – got into the act. They threw objects at the retreating Federal soldiers, even fired weapons, killing several and wounding others. At one point Banks appealed to some of his men to rally and make a stand. “My God, men, don’t you love your country?” he apparently asked. “Yes,” one soldier replied, “and I am trying to get to it as fast as I can.”

The commotion in Winchester also held up Jackson’s men. They came on abandoned wagons from Banks’s supply train. “We found delicacies of every description, sutlers’ stores crowded with everything we wanted,” one Confederate officer remembered later, “and we were unable to pursue the enemy on account of the fatigued condition of our men…”

Delighted residents of Winchester thronged their Confederate heroes, also making pursuit challenging. While most Confederates did try to pursue their beaten foe, they were unsuccessful, and Jackson ordered a halt after just a few miles. What Jackson needed was his cavalrymen, but they were nowhere to be found. “Never was there such a chance for cavalry,” he later lamented, “Oh, that my cavalry was in place.”

Federal Losses, Confederate Gains

Banks reached Martinsburg, Virginia, now West Virginia, by early afternoon, May 25th, the rest of his troops by about 5 p.m. That evening, they crossed the Potomac River back into Maryland. Although in defeat, the retreat was apparently well-managed. One member of the 3rd Wisconsin wrote, “…the retreat was…the best ever made during this campaign.” Federal casualties for the May 23-25 period of fighting at Front Royal, Middletown, and Winchester, came to 71 killed, 243 wounded, and 1,714 captured or missing, for a total of 2,028.

Jackson’s Confederate casualties for May 23-25 amounted to 68 killed and 329 wounded. The Confederates also captured approximately half-a-million rounds of ammunition, over 9,300 small arms (muskets, pistols), 34,000 pounds of commissary stores (food), and lots of quartermaster supplies (clothing, blankets, etc.). Jackson had also retaken Winchester and put fear into the Federal authorities in Washington, D.C.

Best of all, Jackson had held Banks and his Federal force in the Shenandoah Valley for over two months, preventing Banks from reinforcing the massive Union invasion of eastern Virginia. President Abraham Lincoln still saw this as an opportunity to defeat Jackson, however, and his decisions would lead to the final stages of the 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign at the Battles of Cross Keys and Port Republic.