Military
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Winchester’s location at the north end of the Shenandoah Valley made it strategically important during the Civil War. Roads from the city led north and east, threatening Washington, D.C., while the Valley Turnpike led south and west, endangering the breadbasket of the Confederacy. As the war ebbed and flowed through the city, Winchester endured a seemingly endless series of occupations and evacuations. Stonewall Jackson made his headquarters there during the winter of 1861–1862, and he fought the Valley’s first major battle at Kernstown, just south of the city, on March 23, 1862. Bloody clashes continued through the years until Union Gen. Philip Sheridan’s army drove Confederate Gen. Jubal Early’s troops out of Winchester for the last time on September 19, 1864.
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Winchester, Virginia · United States
