Kernstown: Where Stonewall Jackson Lost, and Won
Near Front Royal, Virginia
Three miles south of Winchester lies Kernstown, where Thomas Jonathan Jackson fought the only battle he ever lost, and where that loss turned into a strategic gift for the Confederacy.
On March twenty-third, eighteen sixty-two, Jackson attacked a Union force under Colonel Nathan Kimball. His cavalry commander passed along reports that badly misjudged the enemy strength, and when Confederate ammunition ran low his infantry pulled back without orders. The Federals won the field. But the consequences rippled all the way to the Peninsula. The Union War Department, alarmed by Confederate aggression in the Shenandoah Valley, sent General Nathaniel Banks back into the Valley and kept another corps near Washington instead of reinforcing McClellan's advance on Richmond. Jackson's tactical defeat had bought the Confederate capital precious time.
Kernstown saw a second battle on July twenty-fourth, eighteen sixty-four, this time a Confederate victory under General Jubal Early. Two Civil War engagements on the same ground within two years: that is a record only a handful of Virginia crossroads can claim.
