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Front Royal – Monuments and Markers – 1862 Valley Campaign

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Two Civil War Trails wayside markers are on Richardson’s Hill on the north side of Front Royal, Virgina. (see map below) The “Kenly Makes His Stand” marker tells of the defense of the hill during “Stonewall” Jackson’s attack in 1862, while the “Execution of Mosby’s Rangers” tells of an incident in the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign.

This is stop 7 on the Civil War Trails tour of the Battle of Front Royal. (next stop – The Bridges)

From the “Kenly Makes His Stand” marker:

Richardson’s Hill

Kenly Makes His Stand

— Battle of Front Royal, May 23, 1862 —

Directly in front of you is the “commanding height” where Union Col. John H. Kenly made his last attempt to hold Front Royal. Atop Richardson’s Hill—this “cherty” ridge, as Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson called it—Kenly posted the two-gun section of Knap’s Battery E, Pennsylvania Light Artillery. The two ten-pounder Parrott rifled cannons, commanded by Lt. Charles Atwell, pinned down the Confederates on the plain below while Kenly’s infantry gathered here to support the guns.

Kenly realized that the Union occupation of Front Royal was essential to protect the left flank of Gen. Nathaniel Banks’s main army at Strasburg. “I prepared to hold the position as long as possible,” Kenly later wrote, “for I was certain that if I did not check Jackson’s advance … Banks was lost.” In a momentary stroke of good luck, two companies of the 5th New York Cavalry arrived from Strasburg to augment Kenly’s infantry.

Col. Bradley T. Johnson, comanding the Confederate attackers, soon countered Kenly’s deployment. While the 1st Maryland infantry (CSA) and Maj. Chatham Roberdeau Wheat’s battalion returned fire from behind the stone wall below Richardson’s Hill, the 6th Louisiana Infantry flanked the Union position to the west. In addition, Lt. Col. Thomas S. Flournoy’s 6th Virginia Cavalry threatened the Federal rear. Kenly, about to be surrounded, ordered a retreat north across the forks of the Shenandoah River.

Caption to the drawing:
A war time engraving of Front Royal

Captions to the photos:
Colonel John H. Kenly (top)
Lieutenant Charles Atwell (bottom)

 

From the “Execution of Mosby’s Rangers” marker

Execution of Mosby’s Rangers

“The ‘dark day’ of 1864”

— Mosby’s Confederacy —

“Mosby will hang ten of you for every one of us!” were William Thomas Overby’s last words to his executioners before the rope tightened around his neck here on Richardson’s Hill. This was the final scene of a tragedy that began less than two hours earlier when Union cavalrymen captured six of Lt. Col. John S. Mosby’s Rangers a few miles south of Front Royal on September 23, 1864. Believing that Mosby’s men had killed a Union officer after he surrendered, the Federals executed them in retaliation.

Capt. Samuel F. Chapman, commanding a detachment of the Rangers, had split his force in two to attack what he thought was an unguarded ambulance train. On discovering that in fact two Union cavalry divisions trailed the train, Chapman tried to call off the attack, but it was too late. The Federals quickly encircled the Rangers; most of them cut their way out and escaped (allegedly killing the captured Union officer in the process), but six were ridden down and taken to Front Royal. Gen. Alfred T. A. Torbert, the senior Union officer, probably approved the executions, although Mosby blamed Gen. George A. Custer and promised vengeance on Custer’s men.

Four of Mosby’s men were shot, but two including Overby were hanged, having refused to reveal the location of Mosby’s headquarters. Near Berryville a month and a half later, on November 7, Mosby ordered the execution of seven captured Federals, most of them from Custer’s command, in retribution.

From the sidebar:

One of the men executed, 17-year-old Henry Rhodes, was not a Ranger but a Front Royal boy who had long dreamed of joining them. When Chapman led his men through town that morning, Rhodes resisted no longer but rode a neighbor’s horse into battle. He was captured when his mount collapsed, brought to a field just south of here, and shot down in sight of his mother.

From the captions to the photos (left to right)

William Thomas Overby, Captain Sam Chapman, Thomas Anderson and Lucien Love

Location of the Richardson’s Hill wayside markers

The markers are on the north side of Front Royal on the west side of N. Royal Avenue just north of W. 15th Street. (38°56’11.3″N 78°11’40.7″W)