Second Battle of Winchester

After Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's victory at Chancellorsville in May 1863, he led the Army of Northern Virginia into the Shenandoah Valley and then north through Maryland into Pennsylvania, while Union Gen. George G. Meade, who replaced Gen. Joseph Hooker on June 28, pursued with the Army of the Potomac and Confederate cavalry commander Gen. J.E.B. Stuart cut Federal communications, rail lines, and captured supplies. To clear the route north for the rest of Lee's infantry, Gen. Jubal A. Early's division of Gen. Richard S. Ewell's corps attacked the forts guarding Winchester. After Early captured West Fort on June 14, 1863, Union Capt. Frederick W. Alexander's Baltimore Light Artillery at Star Fort opened fire and drove the Confederate gunners in West Fort to cover, encouraging the defenders of Fort Milroy and Col. Andrew T. McReynolds's brigade in the nearby rifle pits, while Lt. Peter Leary helped keep the battery firing. These efforts failed against superior Confederate numbers and the lack of any hope for reinforcements, and Union Gen. Robert H. Milroy chose to withdraw from Winchester. The evacuation ended several miles north at Stephenson's Depot on June 15, when Confederate Gen. Edward Johnson's division intercepted the retreating Federals and captured half of them. The campaign then continued north until the armies collided at Gettysburg on July 1 in a battle neither commander had planned to fight there, and after three days the defeated Confederates retreated across the Potomac River into Virginia on July 14.

Virginia · United States