In 1996, Congress designated eight counties as the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District to preserve and interpret the region's Civil War battlefields and related historic sites, an effort led by the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, which includes Port Republic among more than 20 battlefields in its work. After Confederate cavalry leader Gen. Turner Ashby was killed in a skirmish outside Harrisonburg on June 6, 1862, his body was brought to the Frank Kemper House in Port Republic to be prepared for burial. His death contributed to Stonewall Jackson nearly being captured near Port Republic two days later, when demoralized Confederate cavalry allowed Union horsemen and artillery to dash into town without warning, forcing Jackson to gallop to safety through the covered bridge over the North River as a Federal shell crashed above his head, and then narrowly escape again after mistaking a Union cannon for his own and urging it across the river before Confederate reinforcements charged back through the bridge and drove out the Federals. On June 9, 1862, after defeating the Federals at Cross Keys the previous day, Jackson turned against the other Union force east of Port Republic. Although moving his men proved difficult and the Confederates were outnumbered as the fighting opened on the plain two miles beyond town, the compact Union line under Gen. Erastus Tyler stretched from the river to the Coaling, an open crest lined with artillery that dominated the field. Early Confederate assaults across the bottomland and against the height were repulsed with heavy casualties, but Gen. Richard Taylor's Louisianan brigade eventually overran the Union guns in vicious hand-to-hand fighting and captured the position. Union counterattacks failed to retake the Coaling, Frémont's command could not reinforce Tyler because the Confederates had burned the North Bridge behind them, and the Federals withdrew north, ending Jackson's Valley Campaign. During that campaign, from March 23 to June 9, 1862, Jackson sought to divert Federal forces from Richmond while Union armies threatened the Confederate capital from the southeast, the north, and elsewhere in Virginia. After an initial setback at First Kernstown, he moved south, paused at Conrad's Store, feinted east in early May, then struck west to defeat Federal troops at McDowell. Returning to the main Valley, he united with Gen. Richard Ewell, marched north to win at Front Royal and First Winchester, advanced toward Harper's Ferry, escaped converging Union armies pursuing him on both sides of Massanutten Mountain, then turned southeast at Harrisonburg to defeat the Federals at Cross Keys and Port Republic before moving east to join Gen. Robert E. Lee in front of Richmond. The campaign tied up 60,000 Union troops, helped save Richmond, and infused new hope and enthusiasm for the Confederate cause.