On March 23, 1862, the opening conflict of the Civil War’s Valley Campaign began on the adjoining Glass and Pritchard farms, starting early in the morning on the Pritchard Farm and concluding on the Glass Farm at the end of the day with the loss of sunlight. General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson commanded the Confederate troops in the First Battle of Kernstown, the opening battle of his Shenandoah Valley Campaign and his only tactical defeat, with Brigadier General Richard B. Garnett as his second in command. In desperation, Garnett ordered his soldiers to withdraw without Jackson’s permission. Colonel Nathan Kimball commanded the Union troops with an infantry division twice the size of the Southern forces, and Colonel Erastus B. Tyler, commanding Union infantry in Winchester, was dispatched by Kimball to capture enemy artillery.
