Stonewall's Surprise

In the spring of 1862, U.S. Army Capt. Edward Hunt, an engineer, built a fortification on the hill where the Strasburg water tower now stands because it commanded the roads, the railroad, and the town, allowing the Federal army to guard the junction of the Manassas Gap Railroad and the Valley Turnpike at Strasburg. Union soldiers leveled the hilltop and built earthworks and artillery emplacements surrounded by trenches, and by May 15, 1862, the position was manned and named Banks's Fort for Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks, commander of the Union army there. Earlier that year, Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's army of about 4,600 had wintered at Winchester, while Banks's army began operations in the Shenandoah Valley to prevent a Confederate attack on Washington. Jackson aimed to defeat Banks and draw Union forces away from Richmond, and after several engagements in March and April, his outnumbered army marched east as if headed to Richmond to deceive Banks, then turned back into the Valley. Although Banks learned what had happened and continued to hold the fort, which Confederate scouts on Signal Knob had watched being built, Jackson surprised the Federals by marching north through the Luray Valley to Front Royal, which he attacked and occupied on May 23. He then turned toward Strasburg and the fort, prompting Banks to retreat to Winchester, where Jackson defeated him on May 25, after which Banks withdrew across the Potomac River. During the rest of the war, both Federal and Confederate forces briefly occupied Banks's Fort. Here Adam Keister, Sr. settled and made stoneware, beginning the Strasburg pottery industry; his descendant Cyrus Keister served as a bugler in Co. G., 4th Regiment Virginia Cavalry during the Civil War; and E.E. Keister bought the Strasburg News in 1912 and merged it with other newspapers to create the Northern Virginia Daily in 1932.

Strasburg, Virginia · United States