Campaign in the Snow

After Confederate setbacks in western Virginia in the summer of 1861, Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson opened a winter campaign on January 1, 1862, with 8,500 men and 26 cannons to disrupt Federal control west of the Alleghenies by seizing Bath and Romney, threatening Cumberland, Maryland, and advancing toward Parkersburg along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. His forces endured freezing rain and snow, and about 2,000 soldiers were lost to sickness and disease rather than combat. Jackson took Bath after three running battles and shelling Hancock, Maryland, across the Potomac River. As his men advanced on Romney, they suffered the campaign’s worst day on January 7 while hauling guns and wagons over icy roads, with broken arms and legs adding to their misery. The Federal garrison evacuated Romney on January 10, and the exhausted Confederates entered the town unopposed on January 14. Although the campaign succeeded, illness left many men unfit for further service, and disputes between Jackson and his subordinates William W. Loring and Richard B. Garnett divided and demoralized the command. Jackson gave up plans to attack Cumberland and move farther west, marched the Stonewall Brigade back to Winchester on January 23, and Confederate authorities then ordered Loring’s brigades evacuated from Romney, undoing a month of hardship and hard-won gains.

Bath (Berkeley Springs), West Virginia · United States