Today, in this community of about 1000 people, pre-Civil War structures such as Benner's Tavern, the Pritchard House and the Opequon Presbyterian Church cemetary mark a landscape changed little since the Civil War. The cemetary includes the earliest marked gravesite in the Shenandoah Valley-1742. Today's church is the third on the site and is the oldest Presbyterian congregation west of the Blue Ridge. The Grim Farm, lying between Kernstown and Sandy Ridge is in the heart of the battlefields, and is eligible for inclusion on the Virginia and National Registers of Historic Places. Today's landscape, beautifully peaceful and steeped in heritage, is in great danger. It could vanish forever. Much depends on its fate.
23 MARCH 1862- On this date Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson fought the opening engagement of his famous Valley Campaign. Although he suffered a tactical defeat, he swiftly transformed it into a strategic victory. In little over a month after Kernstown, Jackson had swept Union forces out of the Valley and contributed significantly to the salvation of the Confederacy.
"I do not recollect of ever having heard such a roar of musketry," wrote Jackson after the battle. When darkness ended the battle, casualties totaled over 1300 men. Kernstown was the first battle fought in the Valley, and it launched the great campaign still studied today.
24 JULY 1864-The Second Battle of Kernstown was a decisive Confederate victory, the last such in the Valley. Lt. General Jubal Early's victorious Confederates inflicted 1185 casulties in smashing General George Crook's Army of West Virginia, clearing the Valley again of Union troops. The battle cleared General Early's route into Pennsylvania. In Washington, President Lincoln moved to put the entire Valley area under the command of General Philip Sheridan. The battles of Third Winchester, Cedar Creek, and the Great Burning were to follow.
COPYRIGHT © 1996-2002 KERNSTOWN BATTLEFIELD ASSOCIATION
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