The First Battle of Kernstown

During the First Battle of Kernstown, a five-hour artillery duel left the low, marshy ground here uncontested until 2:00 P.M., when 900 Virginians under Colonel Samuel V. Fulkerson advanced from woods across the road to attack a Union battery on Pritchard’s Hill under orders from General “Stonewall” Jackson. To shield his men from sixteen opposing cannon, Fulkerson formed the 37th Virginia and 23rd Virginia in ranks 80 yards wide and 200 yards deep, with 600 Virginians moving with him and the 33rd Virginia following 150 yards behind. Union artillery tore through the deep Confederate formation as it crossed the field, and when Fulkerson shifted left, the exposed flanks suffered even more under the cannon fire. Unable to reach the base of Pritchard’s Hill, he turned his men westward across Middle Road and up the wooded edge of Sandy Ridge. Perhaps as many as 80 Confederates were killed and wounded in the daring but fruitless assault, including heavy losses in one company from Fulkerson’s hometown. Fulkerson, praised for leading with desperate courage and regarded as a favorite of Jackson, was later killed at Gaines’ Mill three months after Kernstown, and two brothers in the 23rd Virginia, Edward Lindsey Clarke and Clordoma Clarke, were wounded in the charge but survived their injuries and the rest of the war.

Winchester, Virginia · United States