Kith & Kin
In the spring of 1862, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s 48-day Shenandoah Valley Campaign sought to retain control of the heart of the Confederacy. “If the Valley is lost, Virginia is lost,” he claimed, and many in the South believed if Virginia was lost, the Confederacy was doomed. Following a Confederate victory at McDowell on May 8, the second battle of the campaign, Union Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks, in control of the Northern Valley, sent 1,000 men under the command of Colonel John R. Kenly, mostly 1st Maryland Infantry USA, to Front Royal to cover his left flank.
On the morning of May 23, Jackson rode ahead of his 17,000-man army to scout a concealed route to Front Royal. With an
