On March 23, 1862, the opening conflict of the famous Valley Campaign began on the adjoining Glass and Pritchard farms. The fighting started early in the morning on the Pritchard Farm and ended on the Glass Farm at the close of day. Acting on faulty intelligence that his small army outnumbered the Northern forces at Winchester, Southern commander Major General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson moved to strike his opponents and prevent Northern reinforcements from leaving the Valley to aid McClellan's army on the Peninsula. In fact, the Northern forces outnumbered his two-to-one. Although the 1st Battle of Kernstown was a Northern victory, the South gained much, because President Lincoln, fearing for the safety of Washington, D.C., diverted 35,000 troops from the campaign against Richmond to defend the approaches to the Northern capital from the Valley. This redeployment set the stage for "Stonewall" Jackson's enormously successful Shenandoah Valley Campaign.
