Battle of Guard Hill

The Battle of Guard Hill, Battle of Crooked Run, or the Battle of Front Royal took place on August 16, 1864, in Warren County, Virginia as part of Philip H. Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley Campaign of the American Civil War. According to Pachan, the Union's superior numbers and quality leadership routed the Confederate infantry, and the battle proved a watershed event in the Shenandoah Valley campaign.[1][2]

Battle of Guard Hill
Part of the American Civil War

Sketch of Action by Jedediah Hotchkiss.
DateAugust 16, 1864 (1864-08-16)
Location
Warren County, Virginia
Result Inconclusive
Belligerents
United States (Union) CSA (Confederacy)
Commanders and leaders
Thomas C. Devin William Wofford
Strength
Brigades Brigades
Casualties and losses
71 480

Background

HistoryNet's America's Civil War: Front Royal Was the Key to the Shenandoah Valley claims that the valley was vital both strategically and agriculturally to Major Gen. Stonewall Jackson during the early 1862. If he loses this valley, then Virginia would be lost, as well as the Confederacy. This valley was very important to the Confederacy due to the Massanutten Mountain where it bisected the valley into two and it is the key to Massanutten of Front Royal. This means whoever controls of Front Royal, will control the outcome of the civil war. In a mile and a half away from the town, the North and South forks of the Shenandoah River will unite to become one stream.[3]

During the spring of 1862, the Confederate's military forces in Virginia prepared themselves for a push. However, the offense army would be in a campaign called the Peninsula campaign organized by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan and his Army of the Potomac. The army contained about 100,000 soldiers who came all the way from Chesapeake, Virginia to Alexandria to Fort Monroe. Meanwhile, elsewhere in Virginia, Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell's and his 40,000 subdivisions in Fredricksberg, Virginia helped Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's military force by threatening Richmond from the north side and Maj. Gen. John C. Fremont's army which contained 15,000 soldiers began their operations in the Allegheny Mountains. While Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks's army made their operations in the valley to prevent Confederate forces from increasing Richmond's defenses and reaching the Union's capital from the north. Confederate President Jefferson Davis accepted to Gen. Joseph E. Jonhston's emotional urgent request to combine the disorganized military departments of the Northwest of Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley, the Potomac River, the Aquia Harbor, the Peninsula Campaign, and Norfolk, Virginia into one huge military department with Gen. Johnston commanding it. The new military department contained 100,000 soldiers, but he believed he could not control a push of 150,000 Union soldiers back and across Potomac, instead he staged an aggressive attack from the northern side of the river.[3]

Battle
Map of Guard Hill Battlefield core and study areas by the American Battlefield Protection Program.

Shenandoah Valley was vital both strategically and agriculturally to Major Gen. Stonewall Jackson in early 1862 On the morning of August 16, Confederate troopers scattered the Federal pickets at the Shenandoah River crossing at Front Royal. The troopers pursued them down the Front Royal Pike, eventually coming to Guard Hill, a prominent landmark. There, they were hit by Union Brig. Gen. Thomas C. Devin's dismounted cavalry brigade and sustained heavy losses. Confederate Brig. Gen. William T. Wofford's brigade attempted a flanking movement by wading across Crooked Run. There, they were attacked by two New York brigades, who took 300 of them captive. Union Brig. Gen. George A. Custer's Michigan Brigade rode toward the battle and sustained Devin's line along Crooked Run until they were forced to withdraw to Cedarville by Confederate artillery now on Guard Hill.[4]

During the afternoon of August 16, Williams C. Wickham led a charge of Brig. Gen. Thomas C. Devin's brigade army towards Cedarville. Devin brought two of his regiments forward in order counterattack, but a Confederate and a Union regiment strikes each other in a sword fight. The Confederate broke apart and retreated back to their positions and Wickham led another charge resulting in the Union's force to weakened to the point where his own men have to cross the river again. While Devin's unit captured two flags and 139 soldiers. The Union's victory had been planned out very well. Brig. Gen. Wesley Merritt, commander of the 1st Division, Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Shenandoah, confirmed the presence of the Confederate which forced Sheridan to order a retreat down the valley from the town, Front Royal. On the night of the battle, Sheridan's unit went back to their lines at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia and once the night had passed by, Merritt and his unit went to Nineveh, Virginia.

References
  1. Scott C. Patchan, "The Battle of Crooked Run: George Custer's Opening Act in the Shenandoah Valley," North & South: The Official Magazine of the Civil War Society, (Dec 2008), 11#2 pp 76-82
  2. "The Battle of Front Royal: Guard Hill - Civil War Discovery Trail Sites on Waymarking.com". www.waymarking.com. Retrieved 2018-05-04.
  3. "America's Civil War: Front Royal Was the Key to the Shenandoah Valley | HistoryNet". www.historynet.com. Retrieved 2018-05-04.
  4. Patchan (2008) p 76, "The Battle of Crooked Run" Archived 2011-07-14 at the Wayback Machine, part of the Battle of Guard Hill

Further reading
  • Kennedy, Frances H., ed., The Civil War Battlefield Guide, 2nd ed., Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998, ISBN 0-395-74012-6.
  • Patchan, Scott C. "The Battle of Crooked Run: George Custer's Opening Act in the Shenandoah Valley," North & South: The Official Magazine of the Civil War Society, (Dec 2008), 11#2 pp 76–82
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