Unger's Crossroads Bivouacs

— Jackson's Bath-Romney Campaign —

(Preface): On January 1, 1862, Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson led four brigades west from Winchester, Va., to secure Romney in the fertile South Branch Valley on the North Western Turnpike. He attacked and occupied Bath on January 4 and shelled Hancock, Md.; he marched into Romney on January 14. Despite atrocious winter weather, Jackson's men destroyed telegraph lines and 100 miles of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad track. Leaving Gen. William W. Loring's brigades in Romney, Jackson led the Stonewall Brigade back to Winchester on January 23. Loring followed on January 31, and the Federals reoccupied Romney on February 7.

Along the stream behind you and on the bluff's in front of you, a Confederate army of 8,500 men twice bivouacked during the Bath-Romney Campaign, on January 2 and January 7-13, 1862. The first bivouac occurred as Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's men marched from Winchester to attack the Federal garrison at Bath (present day Berkeley Springs).

After several days of fighting and tearing up Baltimore and Ohio Railroad track, Jackson's army returned here on January 7 to rest before marching west to Romney. The weather deteriorated, inflicting hardship on both men and animals. The 8,500-man army bivouacked here for almost a week while the horses pulling the wagons and artillery were rough-shod for the icy roads.

Hundreds of wagons and horses, thousands of men, and relentless snow and rain quickly turned these fields into a quagmire that the soldiers sarcastically named Camp Mud. After three days, Jackson moved the camp half a mile to the northeast, and the men of the 33rd Virginia Infantry promptly named it Camp No Better. While his men lay in the mud exposed to the elements, Jackson enjoyed the hospitality and warmth of Oakleigh Manor (the large house on the hill in front of you), the home of Washington Unger, a local businessman and politician.

During the campaign, some 2,000 men, or almost a quarter of Jackson's force, became casualties not of bullets but illness Many became sick during the miserable bivouac here and slowly staggered back to Winchester in small groups. An unknown number died of pneumonia and other diseases related to extreme exposure.

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