Originally a waist- to shoulder-high farm fence built from stones cleared from fields with limestone outcroppings in the Shenandoah Valley, the stone wall ran east-west to the top of Sandy Ridge. In the late afternoon of March 23, 1862, the first Southern regiment to reach the wall met advancing Northern troops, and the sound of musketry drew more Southern units until several brigades had gathered behind the wall, including most of the Stonewall Brigade, then under Brigadier General Richard B. Garnett. Eventually about 1,700 men stood several rows deep there, and for about an hour the Southern defenders held the Northern forces at bay in a static fight so loud that a few days later Stonewall Jackson said he did not recollect ever having heard such a roar of musketry.
