Ely's Brigade Actions in the Valley

Private William Allison Fleming, born near Fairmont, Virginia, in Marion County, enlisted in August 1861 and served in Company F, 12th Virginia Infantry (Union), later the 12th West Virginia. In January 1863, while camped in Winchester, he wrote home that General Milroy hoped General Jackson would attack and said Milroy would burn the city if forced to leave. During the Battle of 2nd Winchester, on June 10 and 11, Fleming's Company F and Companies I, C, and H were posted on Sandy Ridge about half a mile northwest of here and were ordered forward to guard a battery of artillery overnight. On June 13, General Gordon's Brigade of General Ewell's Corps attacked along Sandy Ridge, and as Gordon's skirmishers advanced and fired at the 12th, the regiment's inexperienced men asked whether the shots were minié balls, only to be told they were bullets. Back in the Valley, Fleming fought in the short but bloody Battle of Cool Spring on July 18, 1864, when Union General Horatio Wright failed to cross the Shenandoah River at Snicker's Gap and continue pursuing General Early's retreat; at the close of that battle, the 12th West Virginia was the last regiment covering the Union retreat eastward across the river. Less than a week later, on Sunday, July 24, Fleming and the 12th West Virginia, then in Colonel Thoburn's Division of General Crook's Army of the Kanawha, were suddenly ordered forward to attack on the Kernstown battlefield. As they moved through the woods on the western slope of Pritchard's Hill during berry season, the men stopped to pick berries until Colonel Ely shouted for them to keep in ranks. Crook had ordered Thoburn to attack the left flank of General Gordon's Confederate Division while ignoring reports that Confederate General Steven Ramseur's division was on Gordon's left. Crook then realized nearly too late that Thoburn's Division, with the 12th West Virginia in Colonel Ely's Brigade as its left-most unit about a hundred yards from here, was in danger of encirclement and ordered a withdrawal, leaving behind a skirmish line of 12th West Virginia soldiers, none from Company F, most of whom were killed or captured. The withdrawal exposed Colonel Mulligan's division's right flank and helped enable the Confederate rout of Crook's army. Fleming survived the war and was honorably discharged on June 6, 1865, at Richmond, Virginia.

Virginia · United States