STONEWALL JACKSON’S RAID: RETREAT OF GEN. BANKS.
While the Army of the Potomac was thus occupied in bridging the Chickahominy, and while General McClellan and the President were in correspondence, the rebels did not remain idle. On the 23rd of May commenced the well-remembered raid, up the valley of the Shenandoah, which was the occasion of a serious panic at Washington, and even further north than New York; which prevented the junction of McDowell’s and McClellan’s forces; and which involved the splendid retreat of General Banks from Strasburgh to Winchester, and thence to Williamsport on the Potomac river. The distance is fifty-three miles, and the retreat was accomplished in forty-eight hours. The Army of the Shenandoah, commanded by General Banks, consisted of about six thousand men, while the forces of the rebel raiders numbered upwards of twenty thousand, and were led by the brilliant and dashing Stonewall Jackson. The advance of the rebels was made up the valley, to the westward of the Blue Ridge, and the first point attacked was Front Royal. Here the enemy encountered the First Maryland Regiment, Col. Kenly, which was attacked with great fury, and driven back towards Strasburgh. Col. Kenly fought with wonderful valor, and was heartily sustained by his men. The fighting, indeed, was of almost unexampled severity, but the regiment was soon overpowered by numbers. Colonel Kenly, when asked to surrender, shot the rebel who thus summoned him to yield: and finally, when overpowered, broke his sword in halves, to avoid surrendering it. He was shot, but only wounded, and was placed in an ambulance. In that ambulance he was subjected to much suffering, for want of surgical aid.
As soon as General Banks received news of this disaster at Front Royal, and knew that General Jackson was advancing in force, he perceived his danger and ordered a retreat. And now commenced a race between the two armies, for the town of Winchester. Had Jackson reached that point first, he would have intercepted the little band of Union soldiers, cut off their supplies, and forced their surrender. But the celerity and courage of General Banks’s forces proved their salvation. They retired, indeed, in the face of superior numbers; but they retired fighting. At Newtown, at Kernstown, and at Winchester they were closely pushed by the pursuing foe; but, at every point of attack, the enemy was checked and held at bay. The severest encounter took place at Winchester. General Gordon’s brigade was here engaged, and gained great honor by its gallantry and coolness. The regiments constituting it were the Second Massachusetts, Lieut-Col. Andrews; the Third Wisconsin, Col. Ruger; the Twenty-seventh Indiana, Col. Colgrove; and the Twenty-ninth Pennsylvania, Col. Murphy. The stability with which this brigade opposed itself to overwhelming numbers undoubtedly saved General Banks’ Army. General Gordon thus describes its final retreat:
“I fell back slowly, but generally in good order. The Second Massachusetts in column of companies moving by flank, the Third Wisconsin in line of battle moving to the rear. On every side above the surrounding crest surged the rebel forces. A sharp and withering fire of musketry was opened by the enemy from the crest upon our centre, left and right. The yells of a victorious and merciless foe were heard above the din of battle, but my command was not dismayed. The Second Massachusetts halted in a street of the town to reform its line, then pushed on with the column, which, with its long train of baggage-wagons, division, brigade, and regimental, was making its way in good order towards Martinsburgh.
“My retreating column suffered serious loss in the streets of Winchester: males and females vied with each other in increasing the number of their victims by firing from the houses, throwing hand-grenades, hot water, and missiles of every description. The hellish spirit of murder was carried on by the enemy’s cavalry, who followed to butcher, and who struck down with sabre and pistol the helpless soldier sinking from fatigue, unheeding his cries for mercy, indifferent to his claims as a prisoner of war.
“This record of infamy is preserved for the females of Winchester. But this is not all: our wounded in hospital, necessarily left to the mercies of our enemies, I am credibly informed were bayoneted by the rebel infantry. In the same town, in the same apartments, where we, when victors on the field of Winchester, so tenderly nursed the rebel wounded, we were even so more than barbarously rewarded.”