The Second Battle of Kernstown

Late in the afternoon on July 24, 1864, 1,800 Union soldiers under Colonel James A. Mulligan fell back to this lane as Major General John B. Gordon’s Confederate force attacked from beyond Opequon Church. Mulligan briefly held off Gordon, but Major General John C. Breckinridge’s flank attack struck from the east side of the Valley Pike while sharpshooters from Major General Stephen D. Ramseur’s command attacked Mulligan’s right flank beyond the wheelwright shop. As the Union line crumbled, Mulligan rode behind the 23rd Illinois Infantry, his old Irish Brigade, and ordered a fighting withdrawal as Confederates closed in from all sides. When he rose in his saddle to cheer his men, Confederate sharpshooters concealed in the streambed shot him, and two more bullets struck him as his soldiers rushed to his side. The sharpshooters also killed Lieutenant James Nugent, Mulligan’s 19-year-old brother-in-law, who had been carrying the regimental colors. Mulligan’s men tried to carry him from the field, but many fell under heavy Confederate musketry, and he ordered, “Lay me down and save the flag.” Confederate soldiers later carried the mortally wounded Mulligan into the Pritchard House, where he died two days later. The victorious Confederates swept up Pritchard’s Hill and through Winchester, driving the entire Union army back in confusion to Bunker Hill, West Virginia. The Union army lost 1,200 men, while Early suffered only 200 casualties, and one Virginia veteran called the Second Battle of Kernstown “the most easily won battle of the war.”

Winchester, Virginia · United States