The First Battle of Kernstown

The low, marshy ground stretching to the distant road lay uncontested during the five-hour artillery duel that opened the First Battle of Kernstown. At 2:00 p.m., 900 Virginians marched from the leafless woods across the road toward this position in a Confederate attack led by Col. Samuel Fulkerson, a lawyer from Abingdon, VA, acting on orders received directly from Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson to turn an enemy battery on Pritchard's Hill. To shield his men from sixteen opposing cannon, Fulkerson formed the 37th Virginia and the 23rd Virginia in a line 80 yards across and 200 yards deep, with 600 Virginians moving with him on his white horse and the 33rd Virginia following 150 yards behind. As the head of the 37th Virginia passed this position, the tail of the 33rd Virginia crossed the distant road into the field. Union artillery tore gaps in the deep Confederate ranks, and when Fulkerson shifted left, the exposed flanks suffered even heavier cannon fire. Unable to reach the base of Pritchard's Hill, Fulkerson turned west 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, and one company from Fulkerson's hometown lost 24 men. Fulkerson, praised for leading with desperate courage and regarded as a great favorite of Jackson, died three months later at Gaines' Mill, a loss that moved Jackson to tears. During the charge, Edward Lindsey Clarke and his brother Clordoma of the 23rd Virginia were wounded by shell fragments, but both survived their injuries and the rest of the war.

Virginia · United States