Jackson Prepares for Battle

— Battle of Front Royal - May 23, 1862 —

Devoid of trees in 1862, this hill afforded Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's troops their first good look at Front Royal and the deployments of the Union garrison here. Approaching from the south on the Gooney Manor Road (now Browntown Road), Col. Stapleton Crutchfield, Jackson's artillery chief, posted a battery here. The smoothbore cannon, however, lacked the range to reach the Union guns on Richardson's Hill, a mile an three quarters further north. Lt. Samuel J. Simpson, a native of the area, led Crutchfield's artillery on a path concealed by woods around the western end of town and up the ridge on which Randolph Macon Academy stands. By 3:30 p.m., a Confederate rifled cannon was in position there.

In the meantime, the 1st Maryland Infantry (CSA) and the Louisiana Brigade advanced on Front Royal from the southeast. The Marylanders overran pickets who revealed that they were members of the 1st Maryland Infantry (US), which garrisoned the town.

Col. John R. Kenly commanded Front Royal's Federal defenders - a thousand infantrymen and a two-gun section of rifled artillery on Richardson's Hill. With this meager force, he sought to protect the military supplies stored in town, the Manassas Gap Railroad, and the bridges over the forks of the Shenandoah River. When the surviving pickets straggled in, Kenly understood that his force was about to be tested.

(Lower Left Sidebar): On November 7, 1868, the Ladies' Warren Memorial Association was chartered to collect the Confederate dead buried in sites throughout Warren County and rebury them in this circular lot, later called Soldier's Circle. The task of locating and moving the bodies involved much labor and expense and was especially difficult in the post war era. In a short time, however, the remains of 276 soldiers representing every state in the former Confederacy were interred here. Some 90 were identified and placed in separate graves, each with a marble headstone. The remains of 186 unknown soldiers were buried in a common grave in the center of the circle, and on Aug. 24, 1882, the 18-foot-high monument was erected above them. A memorial service is held annually on the anniversary of the Battle of Front Royal.

Several notable local residents are buried elsewhere in Prospect Hill Cemetery. They include Lt. Samuel J. Simpson and Lucy Buck, the diarist.

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Show me all markers in:  Front Royal, VA  |  Warren County  |  22630  |  Virginia  |  United States of America

Mosby's Men
Warren County High School and Massive Resistance
Warren County Confederate Memorial
The Warren County Courthouse
Warren County 9/11 Memorial
Warren County World War I & II Memorial
Warren County Korea & Vietnam Memorial
Capture of Front Royal
The Courthouse
William E. Carson

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