Two miles west on the former Staunton-to-Parkersburg Turnpike stood Camp Allegheny, the highest Civil War fortification east of the Mississippi, where rolling meadows and broad views masked a punishing winter climate. The turnpike, completed in 1839, was intended to strengthen Virginia by retaining and increasing its western population, clearing and settling extensive territory, and adding revenue in the central mountain region. In 1861, the road became a strategic objective for both armies. Confederates fortified Camp Allegheny above the turnpike to block advances into the Shenandoah Valley after Union victories at Rich Mountain and Corricks Ford in July 1861, and they held this vital position during Gen. Robert E. Lee's attack on nearby Cheat Mountain that September. The garrison under Edward "Old Allegheny" Johnson was attacked by Federals led by Gen. Robert Milroy on December 13, 1861, and the Confederate defenders won one of the hardest fought battles of the war's first year. Southern soldiers then endured a terrible winter there as disease swept the exposed camp and killed scores of men whose unmarked graves remain scattered across the mountaintop. In April 1862, Confederate survivors abandoned Camp Allegheny and retreated east on the turnpike toward Staunton before joining Gen. T.J. "Stonewall" Jackson. The combined force marched west again and defeated Union forces under Milroy at McDowell on May 8, 1862. Although western Virginia remained in Union hands, Jackson's Valley campaign continued and ended in June with victories at Port Republic and Cross Keys.