The Second Battle of Winchester: The Confederate Victory that Opened the Door to Gettysburg

529 Pages·2016·6.821 MB·English

by  Scott L. Mingus Sr., Eric J. Wittenberg

The Second Battle of
WINCHESTER
The Confederate Victory that Opened
the Door to Gettysburg
Eric J. Wittenberg
and Scott L. Mingus Sr.
Savas Beatie
California
© 2016 by Eric J. Wittenberg and Scott L.MingusSr.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
First Edition, first printing
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wittenberg, Eric J., 1961- author. |Mingus, Scott L., Author.
Title: The Second Battle of Winchester : the Confederate victory that opened
the door to Gettysburg / Eric J. Wittenberg and Scott L.MingusSr.
Description: First edition. | El Dorado Hills, California : Savas Beatie LLC,
2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers:LCCN2016010383| ISBN 9781611212884 (hardcover :alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781611212891 (ebk. :alk. Paper)
Subjects:LCSH: Winchester, 2nd Battle of, Winchester, Va., 1863.
Classification: LCC E475.5 .W58 2016 |DDC973.7/349--dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016010383
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“To many of us this was a new and strange scene, and will live in
our memories as long as reason occupies her throne.”
— Cpl. George K. Campbell, Co. B, 116th Ohio Volunteer Infantry
This book is respectfully dedicated to the memory of those Civil War soldiers, blue
and gray, who fought at the Second Battle of Winchester, and to the
many civilians living or visiting there, whose lives were disrupted
during the occupation and subsequent fighting.
Lt. Gen.
Richard S. Ewell
LOC
Maj. Gen.
Robert Milroy
LOC
Table of Contents
Foreword and Acknowledgments
vii
Introduction
xiii
Chapter 1
December 1862 - June 1863
1
Chapter 2
The Confederate Advance on Winchester, June 3 - 11, 1863
32
Chapter 3
Friday, June 12
51
Chapter 4
Saturday, June 13, Part 1
71
Chapter 5
Saturday, June 13, Part 2
122
Chapter 6
Sunday, June 14
155
Chapter 7
Sunday, June 14,
afternoon and evening
190
Chapter 8
Sunday, June 14
241
Chapter 9
Monday, June 15, morning
268
Table of Contents (continued)
Chapter 10
Monday, June 15,
afternoon and evening
329
Chapter 11
June 16 through June 30
354
Chapter 12
The Aftermath
400
Epilogue
The March into Undeserved Obscurity
417
Appendix A
Driving Tour of the Second Battle of Winchester
431
Appendix B
Orders of Battle: Second Winchester and Martinsburg
445
Appendix C
Union Surgeons and Chaplains Captured at Second Winchester
and Confined to Libby Prison
455
Appendix D
Resolution of the 123rd Ohio
457
Bibliography
461
Index
483
Foreword
As
former Union general Robert H. Milroy lay on his deathbed in
Olympia, Washington, in late March 1890, friends and family
surrounded and comforted him. While his wife Mary and three
sons lamented his impending death, Milroy grieved that he had not done enough
during his final 27 years to remove the tarnish his legacy received—despite his
exonerationbyacourtofinquiry—fromhisdisastrousdefeatattheSecondBattleof
Winchesterinmid-June1863.Strongenoughtospeakbarelyaboveawhisper,Milroy
imploredhisfamilytohaveajudgevisithimsohecouldgiveonelaststatementinhis
finalhoursthatheborenoneoftheblameforwhathappenedatWinchester—“the
supreme occasion of his life.”1
InspiredbythestatementMilroygavetoajudge,identifiedinMilroy’sobituaryas
“JusticeAustin,”newspaperreportersinOlympiacoveringMilroy’sfailinghealthdid
what they could to not only further exonerate him, but to resurrect an idea held by
someofMilroy’sveteranswhofoughtatWinchesterin1863:IfMilroyhadnotmade
suchastubbornresistanceagainstLt.Gen.RichardEwell’sSecondCorps,theArmy
ofthePotomacwouldnothavehadtheopportunitytodefeatGen.RobertE.Leeat
Gettysburg. The Union defeat at Winchester, mused a journalist for Olympia’s
Republican Partizan after Milroy’s death, “so detained Lee’s army that Meade was
enabled to fight more advantageously at Gettysburg.”2
General Milroy wanted historians to write a detailed chronicle of the Second
Battle of Winchester, and in a historical utopia remember his role therein from the
Partizan’sperspective.Alas,thebattlefadedintothehistoricalshadowsandremained
therefordecades.Earlyhistoriesgaveitonlyscantattention,andwhenitdidgetanod
fromhistorians,thebattleanditscontextweregeneralized.PopularhistorianBruce
1 Republican Partizan(Olympia, Washington), April 5, 1890.
2 Ibid.
viii The Second Battle of Winchester
Catton—whocondemnedCivilWarhistoriansforoftenoversimplifyingtheconflict’s
battles—made the same mistake in his 1952 classic Glory Road when he described
SecondWinchester’scomplexitiesinasinglesentence:“OffbeyondtheBlue Ridge
Lee’s army was moving, and Federal outposts in the Shenandoah Valley collapsed
before a tidal wave of Rebel soldiers.”3
EvensomeoftheearlieststudiesoftheGettysburgCampaign,ofwhichSecond
BattleofWinchesterplayedanimportantpart,treateditasasideshowtothestoryof
Lee’s invasion into Pennsylvania. In fact, Edward J. Stackpole, in his once popular
They Met at Gettysburg (1956) subtitled his two-paragraph treatment of the battle as
“The Winchester Sideshow.” Glenn Tucker offered similar scant attention to
WinchesterinhishighlytoutedHighTideatGettysburg:TheCampaigninPennsylvaniatwo
years later by devoting only one slim paragraph to the clash between Milroy and
Ewell.4
DouglasSouthallFreeman,inhisearly1940smagisterialthree-volumestudyLee’s
Lieutenants: A Study in Command, and Edwin Coddington in his classic 1968 The
GettysburgCampaign:AStudyinCommand,offeredmorespacetothebattle,butfailedto
fully examinethe intricaciesofEwell’s victoryand the combat’s significance.5 After
all,Milroy’sdefeathadnotonlyopenedthedoorfortheArmyofNorthernVirginia’s
invasionoftheKeystoneState,butbroughtrelieftoWinchester’sConfederatecivilian
population,whichhadbeenenduringMilroy’ssomewhatharshoccupationfornearly
sixmonths.Ewell’ssuccessalsoendedtheactiveenforcementoftheEmancipation
ProclamationintheShenandoahValley,whichwouldnotresumeuntilUnionforces
under Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan wrested the region once more from the
Confederacy’s grasp in the autumn of 1864.
Ultimately, it was not until 1989 that this crucial engagement received its first
stand-alone study in The Second Battle of Winchester: June 12-15, 1863, by Charles S.
Grunder and Brandon H. Beck. Although a short monograph of fewer than 100
pages, Grunder’s and Beck’s The Second Battle of Winchester laid the intellectual
3 CattonwroteoftheproblemofoversimplificationofCivilWarhistory:“Wetakewhatwe
knowofthewar…asitrecedesinthedistance…and…wetendtooversimplifyit.”SeeJohn
Leekley,ed.,BruceCatton:ReflectionsontheCivilWar(NewYork:Berkeley,1982),4;BruceCatton,
Glory Road(New York: Doubleday, 1952), 251.
4 EdwardJ.Stackpole,TheyMetatGettysburg(Harrisburg,PA:EagleBooks,1956),15;Glenn
Tucker,HighTideatGettysburg:TheCampaigninPennsylvania(Gettysburg,PA:StanClarkMilitary
Books, 1995), iv, 22.
5 DouglasSouthallFreeman,Lee’sLieutenants(NewYork:CharlesScribner’sSons,1944),3:
20-26;EdwinB.Coddington,TheGettysburgCampaign:AStudyinCommand(NewYork:Charles
Scribner’s Sons, 1968), 80-91.
Foreword ix
foundationforfuturescholarshipon the battle as it notonly gave a morecomplete
treatmentoftheengagement,butofferedthefirst-everdrivingtourofthebattle’ssites
notyetlosttodevelopment.6ItcertainlylaidthecornerstoneformystudyofGeneral
Milroy published in 2006.
DespitemypreviousworkonMilroy,andGrunder’sandBeck’sTheSecondBattle
ofWinchester,onethingthatserioushistoriansalwaysunderstandisthatnoworkistruly
everdefinitivebecausenewresearchmaterialwillalwayssurfacefromsomedustybox
inanattic,andhistoricalperspectiveschangewitheachgeneration—henceVoltaire’s
wisecounselprofferedcenturiesagothateachnewgenerationneedstoreexaminethe
pastaseachonepondersnewhistoricalquestions.Withthepassingofageneration
sincethepublicationofGrunder’sandBeck’smonographthetimehasindeedcome
for a fresh, updated, and more thorough examination of the Second Battle of
Winchester.
SeasonedCivilWarauthorsEricWittenbergandScottMingus—nostrangersto
writing about events in the Shenandoah Valley or the Gettysburg Campaign—have
amassedasignificantamountofnewmaterialinthisstudy,andthroughclearprose
offeranobjectiveexaminationoftheSecondBattleofWinchestersuretobecomenot
only the final word on the battle for another generation, but a fitting tribute to the
veteransofMilroy’sandEwell’scommandswhoengagedindeadlycombatforfour
daysinandaroundtheShenandoahValley’smostimportantcity,onewhichwitnessed
unspeakable horrors and incessant conflict throughout four years of hard war.
Jonathan A.Noyalas
Assistant Professor of History & Director,
Center for Civil War History, Lord Fairfax Community College
6 CharlesS.GrunderandBrandonH.Beck,TheSecondBattleofWinchester:June12-15,1863
(Lynchburg, VA: H.E. Howard, 1989).