After driving Gen. Nathaniel Banks's Union army from the Shenandoah Valley in late May 1862, Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson faced converging Union forces as one army under Gen. John C. Frémont advanced from the north and another under Gen. James Shields moved toward the Page Valley. If Shields could overtake Jackson in the main valley, he could unite with Frémont and attack with superior strength, so Jackson retreated rapidly along the Valley Pike toward Harrisonburg and ordered the destruction of the White House and Columbia Bridge in the Page Valley to delay Shields's advance. The destruction delayed Shields for three days and forced him to abandon his plan to cross the Massanutten and join Frémont. By June 7, elements of Shields's army were moving toward Port Republic, crossing Naked Creek. In the days that followed, Jackson defeated the two armies in piecemeal fashion, first Frémont at Cross Keys on June 8 and then Shields at Port Republic on June 9. Both Federal armies retreated along the routes by which they had arrived, and when Shields's defeated army reached the area near Price's Mill, it halted and bivouacked before continuing to Luray on June 10 and to Front Royal a week later.