First Winchester

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Chris Makowski of Emerging Civil War.

[00:00:02]I'm in Winchester, Virginia, where on the 25th of May, 1862, at about 5:00 a.m., Stonewall Jackson launched an attack against the federal forces of Nathaniel Banks. Now, of course, we all look at Jackson's Valley campaign as being these series of tremendous successes, but it's important to remember he's got about 16,000 guys here compared to only about 6,500 guys from Banks. So Banks outmatched, but he's also outnumbered. What also surprises me about this battle is that for as crazy as people are about Stonewall Jackson, and you know I'm one of them. There's very little of this battlefield that's preserved, aside from a few markers south of town, which is where the battle took place. Otherwise, preservation opportunities have not existed. There's a tremendous amount of development that has swallowed up where all of this fighting took place. Just behind the camera is the area that Jackson advanced from down the Valley Pike on May 24th, just the day before this. He had skirmished with Banks down there at Middletown and then begins pursuing Banks northward toward Winchester.

[00:01:06]Colonel Gordon's Federal Brigade is going to contest Jackson's thrust. Ule is going to attack. Richard Ule's uh division is going to attack toward the southeast corner of town. And we're going to have Charles Winders Stonewall Brigade attacking through this direction and then up the Valley Pike. As those attacks are getting ready to to get into place and and push forward, Richard Taylor's Louisiana, reinforced by two Virginia regiments, the 10th and the 23rd, are going to sneak around Gordon's right flank and outflank him at an area known as Bowers Hill. That's the area where Gordon has his defense set up along a stone wall. and he's looking at for instance William Toiver's brigade in the front, Charles Winer's brigade in the front putting some pressure on him and that allows Taylor to come sweeping up from the side. Meanwhile, Ule is repulsed in his first attack, but he's going to get some reinforcements to come up and push forward as well. So, it's going to be a resounding success. More than 2,000 federal casualties, only about 300 Confederate casualties. Uh, but probably the biggest casualty is the battlefield itself. It's going to get swallowed up and overlooked. It's going to be chocked up as one of those important wins as part of Jackson's Valley campaign. But second Winchester during the Valley campaign is going to get a lot more attention. It's going to be a lot more important. Of course, it'll be third Winchester, the most important of all. A huge victory for Phil Sheridan as part of his 1864 Valley campaign. Wonderful Civil War history here, but not a lot of stuff to see here for First Winchester. But uh if you're really hardcore like I am, you still want to get out on the ground for Emerging Civil War. I'm Chris Macowski.

[00:02:46]We'll see you online and on the battlefield.