. Battles and leaders of the Civil War : being for the most part contributions by Union and Confederate officers . enable the enemy quickly to concentrate any neededforce at Staunton, at Lynchburg, at Christiansburg, or at Wytheville to over-power the column. The Union army would be committed to a whole sea-son of marching in the mountains, while the Confederates could concentratethe needed force and quickly return it to Richmond when its work was done,making but a brief episode in a larger campaign. But the plan was not i A continuation of MeClellan in West Virginia. See Vol. I., p. 126.—Edit
. Battles and leaders of the Civil War : being for the most part contributions by Union and Confederate officers . enable the enemy quickly to concentrate any neededforce at Staunton, at Lynchburg, at Christiansburg, or at Wytheville to over-power the column. The Union army would be committed to a whole sea-son of marching in the mountains, while the Confederates could concentratethe needed force and quickly return it to Richmond when its work was done,making but a brief episode in a larger campaign. But the plan was not i A continuation of MeClellan in West Virginia. See Vol. I., p. 126.—Editors. 278 IVEST VIRGINIA OPERATIONS UNDER FREMONT. 279 destined to be thoroughly tried. Stonewall Jackson, after his defeat byKimball at Kernstown, March 23d, had retired to the Upper ShenandoahValley with his division, numbering about 10,000 men; Ewell was wait-ing to cooperate with him. with his division, at the gaps of the BlueRidge on the east, and General Edward Johnson was near Staunton with asimilar force facing Mil-roy. In April GeneralBanks, commanding theNational forces in theShenandoah VaUey, had. ascended it as faras Harrisonburg,and Jackson ob-served him fromSwift Run Gap inthe Blue Ridge, on the road from Harrisonburg to Gordonsville. Milroy also pushed eastwardfrom Cheat Mountain summit, in which high regions winter still lingered, andhad made his way through snows and rains to McDowell, ten miles east ofMonterey, at the crossing of Bull Pasture River, where he threatened Staun-ton. But Banks was thought to be in too exposed a position, and wasdirected by the War Department to fall back to Strasburg, and on the 5th ofMay had gone as far as New Market. Blenkers division had not yet reachedFremont, who was waiting for it at Petersburg. Jackson saw his opportu-nity and determined to join General Johnson by a rapid march to Staun-ton, to overwhelm Milroy first and then return to his own operations in theShenandoah. & Moving with great celerity, he attacked Milroy at
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