The Second Battle of Kernstown

On the night of July 23-24, 1864, Colonel James A. Mulligan’s Union command of 1,800 men encamped on these heights. After Confederate cavalry drove Union cavalry back toward Kernstown on the morning of the 24th, Mulligan deployed two cannon on this hill to check the Confederate advance, then moved his small command forward to support Union cavalry south of Kernstown. Major General George Crook, doubting reports that Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early’s entire Confederate army was present, ordered an attack. Rutherford B. Hayes led 1,300 Ohioans and West Virginians into position on the east side of the Valley Pike in coordination with Mulligan, but Major General John C. Breckinridge’s Confederates soon advanced from behind the ridge to the east, struck Hayes in flank and rear, and threw most of his troops into confusion. Hayes rallied as many men as he could on Pritchard’s Hill while Mulligan’s men briefly stood along the lane at the foot of the hill. From the hill, Hayes saw the 13th West Virginia Infantry fighting alone in an orchard to the east and sent his aide, Lieutenant William McKinley, to order the regiment’s withdrawal. McKinley rode through heavy artillery and rifle fire, reached the regiment, and delivered the order; the 13th West Virginia fired one last volley and retreated to Winchester. As the last Union troops left Pritchard’s Hill, Breckinridge’s victorious troops surged up the eastern slope. The battle also involved brigade leaders of note under Breckinridge, including Colonel George S. Patton, grandfather of the later World War II general of the same name, Colonel Augustus Forsberg, one of the few Swedish-born Confederates to achieve high rank, and Colonel Thomas Smith, son of Virginia Governor and Confederate Brigadier General William “Extra Billy” Smith. Hayes, born in Delaware, Ohio, in 1822, had entered service as a major in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry in 1861, returned after being badly wounded at South Mountain in 1862, led troops successfully in the 1864 Valley Campaign, and later became president after the disputed election of 1876. McKinley enlisted in the 23rd Ohio in 1861 as an 18-year-old private, rose to major by the end of the war, was elected president in 1896 and 1900, and was assassinated in 1901.

Winchester, Virginia · United States