Background and Overview of the Campaign

In May of 1864 Grant launched his Overland Campaign. His objective was Lee’s army, which he would either try to destroy in the field or box into the defences around Richmond. For Grant, the Shenandoah Valley was just one of several sideshows that he hoped would support his main operation.

The Shenandoah was always important to the South. It was a vital source of food, supplies, and recruits. Its geography made it a sheltered approach for Confederate armies to land at Washington’s back door. As Lee’s army was relentlessly pushed into a siege around Richmond, he saw the Valley as the South’s only chance to divert Union attention away from Richmond.

Robert E. Lee gave Jubal Early the Second Corps, Jackson’s old command, many of whom were from the Shenandoah. He was ordered to the  Valley to see if he could repeat the magic of 1862 when Jackson and his “foot cavalry” drew many times his strength in Union troops away from McClellan’s drive on Richmond. Early was also to try to hold the breadbasket of Virginia and protect critically needed supplies for Lee’s hungry army.

He succeeded – for a while. Although Early could not take Washington he drew tens of thousands of Union troops away from Grant’s forces around Richmond. The effort ultimately annihilated his army and left the Valley in ashes, but Early probably extended the life of the Confederacy into 1865.

The Civil War in the Valley in 1864 was not one, but a series of three campaigns. In the first, the Lynchburg Campaign, Union troops moved up the valley to strike at and be turned back from the vital Confederate rail center at Lynchburg. The second campaign, Early’s Invasion of the North, brought Early’s Second Corps from the Army of Northern Virginia to sweep the Valley clean of Federals and threaten Washington itself. In the final campaign, Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign, Union forces diverted from Grant’s army took permanent control of the Valley in a series of battles in September and October and ultimately destroyed Early’s Army of the Shenandoah.

Timeline of the Lynchburg Campaign

April
April 30	Union Major General Franz Siegel marched south from Winchester with 6,300 men. A commander of revolutionary forces in the 1848 German Revolution, he had become a leader of the pro-Union, anti-slavery German community after emigrating to the United States in 1852. His orders were to advance up* the Shenandoah Valley and destroy the strategic railroad junction at Lynchburg.(*In the Shenendoah Valley “moving up” refers to elevation; the Valley rises as you move south.)
May
Early May	Confederate Major General John Breckinridge was ordered to assume “general direction of affairs” in the Shenandoah Valley. The former vice president of the United States under James Buchanan and candidate for President of the United States in 1860 (coming in second in the Electoral College behind Lincoln), Breckinridge was able to bring together about 4,000 men in two small brigades of infantry and a brigade of cavalry.
May 11	Confederate General John Imboden captured 464 of Sigel’s cavalry near Front Royal.
May 12	Breckinridge arrived at Staunton.
May 14	Sigel’s advance reached Mount Jackson.
May 15	Battle of New Market Breckinridge’s outnumbered Confederates (including a contingent of cadets from the Virginia Military Institute) beat Sigel, who retreated to Mount Jackson.
May 17	Sigel continued his retreat to north of Cedar Creek.
May 18	Breckinridge was ordered to take his infantry division to join Lee, who had just finished the bloody fight at Spotsylvania Court House and was taking up new defensive positions north of Richmond along the North Anna River.Confederate Brigadier General William ‘Grumble’ Jones (West Point Class of 1848) and his cavalry brigade were left behind to cover the Valley. Jones, rated as the best outpost officer in the Confederate cavalry, got along so poorly with cavalry commander J.E.B. Stuart that Stuart had him court-martialed. Lee intervened, sending Jones to western Virginia where he could put his disciplinary skills to work on the irregular Confederate troopers west of the Blue Ridge.
May 21	Franz Sigel was relieved of command of the Department of West Virginia reassigned to the Reserve Division at Harpers Ferry.Union forces in the Shenandoah Valley and the Department of West Virginia were taken over by Major General David Hunter (West Point Class of 1822), an ardent abolitionist who had accompanied Lincoln on his inaugural train from Springfield to Washington in 1861 and a friend of Grant. Hunter was ordered to advance up the Valley through Staunton to Charlottesville and Lynchburg, “living off the country” and destroying the Virginia Central Railroad, one of the main supply arteries to Richmond.
May 26	Hunter’s forces began advancing up the Valley Pike. (“Up” referred to rising in elevation, which was advancing to the South.)
June
June 5	Battle of Piedmont Hunter’s 8,500 man army defeated Jones’ 5,500 about 10 miles northeast of Staunton. Jones was killed leading a charge, and over 1,000 Confederates were taken prisoner.
June 6	Hunter occupied Staunton.
June 8	Union Brigadier General George Crook from West Virginia joined with Hunter.
June 10	Hunter resumed his march up the Valley
June 11-13	The occupation of Lexington. Hunter pushed McCausland’s Confederate Cavalry Brigade out of Lexington and ordered Duffié’s cavalry brigade to join him. Hunter burned the Virginia Military institute, two faculty houses and Governor Letcher’s house. The bronze statue of George Washington was removed and taken to West Virginia. Civilian homes and businesses were looted.
June 12	Robert E. Lee met with Lieutenant General Jubal Early (West Point Class of 1837), who commanded the Second Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia. Lee ordered Early to take his three infantry divisions and two of his artillery batteries – reduced in the battles since May to a strength of barely 8,000 men – and move west to prevent Hunter from taking Lynchburg and destroying the railroad junction there. Afterward Early was to advance into the Shenandoah Valley and recreate the role Stonewall Jackson played in 1862, threatening Washington and creating a diversion that would force Union forces to be diverted from the Richmond area.
June 13	Duffié’s cavalry joined Hunter at Lexington. Hunter sent Averell’s cavalry to drive McCausland out of Buchanan and capture the James River bridge, but McCausland was able to burn the bridge before withdrawing.Early’s men began their movement from Richmond. The infantry were to move by train while artillery and cavalry march for Lynchburg.
June 14	Hunter joined Averell in Buchanan.
June 15	Hunter moved between the Peaks of Otter to Liberty. Breckinridge sent Imboden’s Cavalry to join McCausland.
June 16	Breckinridge and his division arrived in Lynchburg. Major General D.H. Hill and Brigadier General Harry T. Hays, both in town without commands, volunteer to help with the defense. A defensive line was built southwest of the city. Averell skirmished with McCausland at New London, driving him out in the evening.
June 17-18	Battle of Lynchburg Early traveled ahead of his troops and arrived in Lynchburg shortly after midnight. Hunter’s 16,600 men threaten the city. Orignially only defended by Breckinridge, it was reinforced by Early’s Corps to a strength of over 14,000. Hunter withdrew after probing attacks convinced him he could not take the city.
June 19-21	Hunter, running low on supplies, retreated toward West Virginia. Early pursued for three days as far as Salem before calling off the chase.
June 22	Early gave his men a day’s rest at Salem.

 

After this short pause, Early resumed the march, beginning his Invasion of the North (see timeline).