After driving Gen. Nathaniel Banks's Union army from the Shenandoah Valley in late May 1862, Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's "foot cavalry" faced two new threats as one Union army under Gen. John C. Frémont approached from the north and another under Gen. James Shields moved toward the Page Valley. If Shields could overtake Jackson in the main valley, he and Frémont could unite and attack with a superior force, so Jackson made a rapid retreat along the Valley Pike toward Harrisonburg and ordered the destruction of the White House and Columbia Bridges in the Page Valley to delay Shields's advance. The destruction of the bridges delayed Shields for three days and forced him to abandon plans to cross the Massanutten and unite with Frémont. By June 7, elements of Shields's army began moving toward Port Republic, crossing Naked Creek along the road nearby. 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.