Rose Hill

Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's Maryland and Louisiana troops steadily pushed Col. John R. Kenly's 1st Maryland Infantry (US) north through occasional fierce street fighting until Union artillery and infantry on Richardson's Hill opened fire and halted them at this point. Col. Bradley T. Johnson quickly reorganized the Confederate line, placing the 1st Maryland Infantry (CSA) on the right and Maj. Chatham Roberdeau Wheat's battalion on the left. Entering the meadow, the Confederates found a stone wall running east to west near the foot of Richardson's Hill and lay behind it while Union shells swept the open ground before them. The cannon fire passed over Rose Hill, home of the widow Richardson and her three daughters, and according to Sue Richardson's diary, the bombardment frightened her mother so badly that she became ill as soldiers filled the yard and Major Wheat gave orders there while the family fed hundreds of soldiers that night. Confederate artillery on the Randolph Macon Academy ridge west of Front Royal stood too far away to silence the Union guns, and the Southern advance stopped for the time being.

Front Royal, Virginia · United States