Early on the morning of July 24, Union Col. James Mulligan's small infantry division moved to support Brig. Gen. Alfred Duffié's Union cavalry division, but accurate fire from the Confederate sharpshooters of Maj. Gen. John Gordon's division drove it back from the Union defensive line along the stone wall by Pritchard's Lane. Mulligan's troops skirmished throughout the day with Gordon's men in Barton's Woods to the south. Later that afternoon, Union commander Bvt. Maj. Gen. George Crook ordered Mulligan to attack Gordon again in conjunction with Col. Rutherford Hayes, who was to strike Gordon's right flank from the east side of the Valley Pike. As the small Union assault force moved forward, Confederate commanding Gen. Jubal Early launched a general attack, ordering Maj. Gen. John Breckinridge to lead the onslaught while Brig. Gen. Gabriel Wharton's division hit the left flank of Crook's line and routed Hayes' brigade, and Maj. Gen. Stephen Ramseur's division advanced along the Middle Road to the west. Overwhelmed, Mulligan's troops fell back behind the stone wall along Pritchard's Lane and contested Gordon's advance as Confederate sharpshooters moved ahead of the Southern line, some crawling forward and taking shelter in the creek bed while the main battle line crossed the open fields south of the stream. In a brief but furious fight between Gordon and Mulligan, with Breckinridge and Ramseur attacking both Union flanks, sharpshooters from Georgia and Virginia mortally wounded Mulligan as he rallied his men, ending Union resistance at the Second Battle of Kernstown. Confederate infantry then crossed the wall, surged up the hill, and pursued the defeated Union troops through Winchester to Stephenson's Depot, where they halted and camped for the night. Jubal Early's success as commander of the Army of the Valley District cleared the way for his second incursion north of the Potomac River in less than one month, and on July 30, 1864, his cavalry under Gen. John McCausland burned Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, in retaliation for the burning of civilian homes in Jefferson County by Union Gen. David Hunter. Although Crook had proved himself a competent leader, at Kernstown he badly misread Early's intentions and was soundly defeated; he later redeemed his reputation at Winchester and Fisher's Hill in September 1864 and gained fame in the West as one of the army's premier Indian fighters.
