General Robert E. Lee, commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, congratulated Major-General John C. Breckinridge for his resounding victory over Major-General Franz Sigel’s Federals at the Battle of New Market: “I offer you the thanks of this army for the victory over General Sigel. Press him (northward) down the Valley, and if practicable follow him to Maryland.”
Lee and the Confederate high command hoped the Federals would repeat their two-year pattern of abandoning the Valley after a defeat. Lee therefore sent a second message to Breckinridge: “If you can follow Sigel into Maryland, you will do more good than by joining us. (But) if you cannot, and your command is not otherwise needed in the Valley or in your department, I desire you to prepare to join me.”
With Sigel’s army in full retreat down the Valley, Breckinridge believed that pursuit would be impractical because the rivers were too swollen and supply lines would be too long to maintain. He therefore told Lee that he preferred to bring 2,500 men to Lee’s command in eastern Virginia rather than chase Sigel to Maryland. Lee answered, “Proceed with infantry to Hanover Junction by railroad. Cavalry, if available, can march.” Breckinridge’s Confederates began heading east on May 19.
Meanwhile, Federal General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant, headquartered with the Army of the Potomac, learned of Sigel’s defeat at New Market. Sigel’s performance was an embarrassment to the Federal high command, but Grant nevertheless wrote Chief of Staff Henry W. Halleck that he wanted Sigel to keep his Federals around Staunton so that they could disrupt the flow of supplies from the Valley to Lee’s army.
Halleck replied, “I have sent the substance of your dispatch to General Sigel. Instead of advancing on Staunton he is already in full retreat on Strasburg. If you expect anything from him you will be mistaken. He will do nothing but run. He never did anything else. The Secretary of War proposes to put General (David) Hunter in his place.” Grant had never been impressed with Sigel’s abilities, and he welcomed the suggestion to replace him.
Major-General David Hunter took over the Federal Department of West Virginia, now headquartered at Strasburg. Sigel was sent north to command the Federal garrison at Harpers Ferry. Hunter was given the same orders that Sigel had failed to carry out: move to Staunton and wreck the important Virginia Central Railroad. Hunter was then to turn east “if he does not meet too much opposition.”
Meanwhile, the Federal force that was supposed to have reinforced Sigel, led by Brigadier-General George Crook, reached Meadow Bluff after retreating 50 miles into West Virginia. The men had been tasked with wrecking the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad, but Crook had ordered a withdrawal after receiving “dispatches from Richmond” alleging that Grant had been defeated at the Wilderness. Crook’s Federals were exhausted and low on supplies, but when Hunter took command, he ordered them to “move immediately on Staunton.”
Grant noted that the combined force of Hunter and Crook would number about 17,000 men. He therefore amended his original orders and directed Hunter (through Halleck) to “move (southward) up the Valley… cross over the Blue Ridge to Charlottesville and go as far as Lynchburg if possible, living upon the country and cutting the railroads and canal as he went.” Grant wanted the railroads and canals “destroyed beyond possibility of repair for weeks.” Then, Grant later wrote, “After doing this he could find his way back to his base, or join me” with the Army of the Potomac.
Hunter would be introducing a brutal new policy to Valley residents by having his men live “off the country” as they marched and destroy anything useful to the Confederate war effort. No longer would Federals be allowed to take months to regroup before resuming the offensive in the Valley. They would now be expected to apply relentless pressure on all enemy forces as well as any civilians who aided the enemy.
When Confederate guerrillas shot up a Federal wagon train near Newtown, Hunter sent a cavalry unit to burn down the house from where the shots came. The Federals declared that if these attacks continued, “the commanding general will cause to be burned every rebel house within five miles of the place at which the firing occurs.”
Prior to this order, both sides had a tacit understanding that the rights and property of civilians would be respected. But Hunter asserted that Confederate guerrillas were outlaws, and if they could not be caught, then those who aided and abetted them would suffer. This policy of retaliatory arson earned Hunter the nickname “Black Dave.”
Hunter’s newly renamed Army of the Shenandoah, about 8,500 strong, left its camps at Strasburg and Cedar Creek on the 26th, moving south up the Valley turnpike. Hunter’s orders from Halleck were to destroy the Virginia Central Railroad “beyond the possibility of repair for weeks; then, either return to your original base or join Grant, via Gordonsville.”
Meanwhile, Brigadier-General William E. “Grumble” Jones was assigned to command the new Confederate Department of Southwestern Virginia now that Breckinridge and his men had gone east. Jones absorbed Breckinridge’s old Department of Western Virginia, as well as eastern Tennessee. He had about 8,500 infantry and cavalry, and his main responsibilities were to protect Staunton’s warehouses and the crucial Virginia Central Railroad.
As Hunter moved south, Confederate cavalry under Brigadier-General John D. Imboden felled trees to impede his advance. From New Market, Imboden reported that Hunter was heading for Strasburg, adding, “His cavalry outnumbers ours two to one, his infantry four to one, his artillery four to one. There is no point this side of Mount Crawford where I can successfully resist him.”
The Federals advanced through Woodstock, where, according to Colonel David H. Strother (Hunter’s chief of staff), Hunter was “evidently seeking an apology to burn something” by searching the town jail. Hunter found no prisoners but still planned to burn the town hotel until his aides talked him out of it. On the 30th, Hunter’s Federals returned to New Market and properly interred their dead comrades whom Confederates had only partially buried.
Farther west, Crook’s Federals began moving out of their camps on the Greenbrier River in the Alleghenies. Crook was to move east and join forces with Hunter. These Federal movements concerned Lee, who directed Jones to “get all the available forces you can and move at once to Imboden’s assistance to defend the Shenandoah Valley.” Action in the Valley would escalate as the enemy forces approached each other in June.
Bibliography
- Catton, Bruce, Grant Takes Command. Open Road Media, Kindle Edition, 2015.
- Catton, Bruce and Long, E.B. (ed.), Never Call Retreat: Centennial History of the Civil War Book 3. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc. (Kindle Edition), 1965.
- Foote, Shelby, The Civil War, A Narrative: Red River to Appomattox. New York: Vintage Civil War Library, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group (Kindle Edition), 2011.
- Grant, Ulysses S., Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant. New York: Da Capo Press, 1982 (original 1885, republication of 1952 edition).
- Lewis, Thomas A., The Shenandoah in Flames: The Valley Campaign of 1864. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1983.
- Long, E.B. with Long, Barbara, The Civil War Day by Day. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1971.
- Sears, Stephen W., Lincoln’s Lieutenants: The High Command of the Army of the Potomac. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books, (Kindle Edition), 2017.
- Wert, Jeffry D. (Patricia L. Faust ed.), Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.