John Brown Video

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The Valley Campaign Tour - Day 5

On the fifth day, which was the last day of our tour, we started out by going to the Turner Ashby Monument, where he was shot. Daddy did a talk on Turner Ashby's life and his service in the war.

Then we went to Washington & Lee Chapel, which was where Lee was president of the university after the war, and he is buried under the chapel. Then we went to the Stonewall Jackson House in Lexington, which was where Jackson and Anna lived in Lexington while he taught at the Virginia Military Institute. It was the only house he ever owned.

Then we went to VMI, and a cadet led a tour of VMI and told us about the buildings and such. During lunch at the Memorial Gardens in VMI, Daddy did a talk on State's Rights. If you ever go there, beware of a replica of Michelangelo's David, which they told us about on the tour. Then we went to Jackson's Grave in Lexington, and Daddy talked about Jackson's character there. Then we went to the closing dinner, where Joshua did a talk on the rest of the Civil War, and Daddy talked about the consequences of the Civil War.

Stonewall Jackson's grave marker

Four Cannons the cadets used for artillery practice when Jackson taught there. They were name Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (Jackson's statue is in the background)

A statue of George Washington

The Cadet that did our tour at VMI

Daddy talking at the Ashby Monument

The Valley Campaign Tour - Day 4

On the fourth day, we started by going to the New Market Battlefield. This was not in Jackson's 1862 Valley campaign, but we went there because the VMI cadets fought there and the museum was highly recommended. Daddy did a talk on Economics Before the Civil War before our tour. Then the tour guide came out, and marched us to the battlefield, where she told us about the battle.

This battlefield was one of the nicest we went to, mostly because a couple hundred of the VMI cadets fought there, and they turned the tide of the battle, and now VMI takes care of and owns the battlefield. The battle was between General John Breckenridge for the Confederates, and General Franz Sigel for the Unions. The middle of the Confederates was caving in, so they put in the cadets to sure it up. The Unions had about twice as many men as the Confederates, but by Sigel's poor handling of them, only half of them were fighting the Confederates.

He got excited, and since he was a German immigrant, he started to give his commands in German. He gave the command to charge, but because of this, only one regiment got the order to charge, and so they charged, and the rest of the regiments followed in a broken and disorderly manner. Breckenridge ordered his men to charge too, and they advanced in a steady organized line, and drove the Unions away.

Then we went to Prospect Hill Cemetery in Front Royal, where we could see all around us, and Joshua described the battle of Front Royal. He also did a talk on the battle of Winchester, which was between Front Royal and the next battle, where Jackson routed what was left of Bank's army at Winchester. We also stopped at Bel Aire, which was Lucy Buck's home, since Rachel read some excerpts from her diary on the way to Front Royal and Daddy talked about some of her character qualities, like courage and hospitality.

Then we went to Cross Keys, which was just a field, most of which was being farmed and you could not go in it. There, Joshua gave a talk on the battle, and Daddy gave a talk on Richard Ewell. Then we went to the Frank Kemper House, which is where Turner Ashby's body was viewed after his death, and it was near Jackson's Headquarters while his army was in Port Republic.

The tour guide also talked about a Union Calvary raid there just before the battle of Port Republic and they almost captured Stonewall Jackson, and probably would have if he had not been in his blue US Army uniform, which made them think he was a federal officer.

After that, we went to a hill called the "Coaling" (because they burned wood to make charcoal there), which was important in the battle of Port Republic. The Union had some cannons up there, and once the Confederates took it after a few charges the Union retreated. It was the last battle in Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862. Afterwards, Lee called him to Richmond to help participate in the battle of the Seven Days.

An original sword in the Frank Kemper House

Daddy talking at the Coaling

Joshua talking at Prospect Hill Cemetery

A barn which was subjected to crossfire at the battle of New Market

My Replica Pistol

The Valley Campaign Tour - Day 2

Yesterday was the first day of touring. We started by going to Harper's Ferry. Harper's Ferry was where John Brown did they raid which was used to galvanize the North to start the Civil War. Back then, Harper's Ferry was an armory, which was recommended by George Washington in 1792.

John Brown's plan was that with his 21 men, he would surprise the guards, capture the guns, and he thought that during the night 200 slaves would join him from the surrounding plantations. There were 100,000 weapons stored there, so he planned to go to the mountains and defend them from the army, and when he had enough slaves he would march through the South freeing the slaves. This did not work, for a few different reasons. One was that he did not think about transportation for the weapons. Another was that the force of 21 men he attacked with was the largest he had commanded in his life. He could not have commanded 100,000 slaves. Another was that he could not teach 100,000 slaves to load guns who had never used one before. Another was food for his army. Another large one was that the reason he thought the slaves would join him was from reading books like Uncle Tom's Cabin. Most of the slaves would probably have sided with their master's, not John Brown.

But, he did not make it that far. He and his men were staying in a farmhouse in Maryland which was close to Harper's Ferry. On October 16, 1859, he attacked Harper's Ferry. He crossed the railroad bridge, and captured the guards for the armory stationed at the bridge. Of his 21 men, 16 were whites, and 5 were blacks. He decided to station himself in the engine house, which was used to house the fire engines, and also as a guard house. It was pretty small:
He sent out his men to get hostages, which he thought would be useful. He got about 60 hostages. He had his men spread out through the armory buildings. Then at 2:00 in the morning, the train came through. He decided to stop it so the news would not get through, and also to get more hostages. In the shooting, the first victim of the attack was killed, Hayward Shepherd, the baggage master of the train, who was a free black man. So in the raid to free all of the blacks, the first man killed was one who was already free.

But a doctor got away and called out the militia from the surrounding towns. As said before, John Brown's men were spread out pretty thinly. When the militia came, they gathered in two buildings, which were cut off from each other. In the engine house, John Brown only had 4 men with him. The other building, they soon evacuated, and a few swam across the river, and got away. The militiamen did not attack John Brown's fort, which is what the engine house is called now.

The next day 88 marines came under the command of Robert E. Lee, with J.E.B Stuart as his aide. The militiamen had gotten drunk during the night at the tavern, so Lee commanded it shut down. He asked them if they wanted to attack first, but they said no. So Stuart went up under a flag of truce to ask for the surrender. They refused, as was expected, so Stuart stepped back and waved his hat. This was the signal, so the marines charged. They had brought sledges, but the door had been barricaded, and John Brown had tied ropes, so that if they hit the door, it would just bounce back. So they got a ladder, and using it as a battering ram, they made a hole that was big enough for one man to get through. The first man through was an officer, and he went at John Brown. He tried to cut off his head, but missed and cut his cheek. Then he tried to stab him, but the sword was only a dress sword, and it bent. They ended up capturing them with only one killed and one wounded. All of them were sentenced to be hung, and John Brown was kept in the jail for a month before he was killed. In this time, the Northern press made him a hero, when really he was probably insane.

Next we went to the Jackson Headquarters in Winchester. They had a lot of artifacts from Stonewall Jackson's life, such as his prayer book and field glasses. Then we went to Kernstown, which was the only tactical defeat in Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862 but it was strategic victory, since the goal of the campaign was to prevent Banks from reinforcing McClellan. He was misinformed by his calvary, and thought that he outnumbered the Unions, when really he was outnumbered by them. His men fought bravely, but they were finally driven back by the superior numbers. This was all that we did today.

The Valley Campaign Tour - Day 2

Harper's Ferry

Jackson's Headquarters

Kernstown Battlefield

The Valley Campaign Tour - Day 1

On Sunday night, we left from our Sunday evening service about 8:45 pm, and we arrived at our Grandparent condo on Massanutten mountain at about 2:00 am. The next morning, Joshua, Mommy, and I went to scout out some of the battlefields, and also to get Joshua a calvary slouch hat. The first store we went to, we bought some prizes for the tour treasure hunt we made, but it did not have any slouch hats. Then we went to another civil war store, but the only slouch hats they had were too big for him. Then we went to the Hall of Valor museum shop to get a film so that we could preview it, to decide if we could watch it in the bus or not.

Then we went to Front Royal to decide which stops on the driving tour we should go to. We were planning to get back to the condo in time to go to the hotel by 3:00, but we were late, so we did not get to the hotel until 4:30, which is when we wanted to get to the Golden Corral to set up for our after dinner talks. Daddy did a talk giving an overview of American history leading up to the Civil War, and then I showed how to load a Colt .44 army pistol, and then Joshua did a talk on the weapons of the civil war and an overview of the week. Then Daddy did a thumbnail sketch of the people he is going to talk about this week. Then all of the people went back to the hotel, and Joshua and Stephen Breagy were testing the sound to make sure it worked. Then we got ready for bed. We have a few people from another family and Ryan Glick, our tour bus coordinator, staying with Joshua and I, and Mommy and Daddy were staying in an adjoining room. Rachel is staying in the room with some of the Breagy ladies and another of our friends. Some pictures:

Massanutten Mountain

Daddy speaking

A Monument at New Market that we saw

People Listening

Stephen videotaping

Shenendoah Valley Tour

Stonewall Jackson

We are going on a tour of Stonewall Jackson Campaign of 1862 in the Shenandoah Valley, VA. It will be like a mini Faith and Freedom Tour, but with my father and brother Joshua as speakers. My father will be talking about the importance and significance of the events, and the character of some of the men involved, and Joshua will be describing the battles. I will try to do a post for each day of the tour. You can read some other posts on our blog about the Civil War here. One of the sites with information about the Valley Campaign of 1862 is shenandoahatwar.org

Allegany Mountains

The Mistakes of the Federal Commanders at Cross Keys and Port Republic

Stonewall Jackson

by Joshua Horn
from Conquering the Valley by Robert Krick

On June 8th, 1862, the Confederate army in the Shenandoah Valley, commanded by Stonewall Jackson, was camped near Port Republic, a small village near the convergence of South River and North River into the South Fork of the Shenandoah. Two Federal armies commanded by Maj. Gen. John C. Fremont and Maj. Gen. James Shields respectively were converging on Jackson from two different directions. Richard Ewell, Jackson's second in command, faced Fremont north of Port Republic, near a small crossroads called Cross Keys, and Shield's army was preparing to move toward Jackson at Port Republic from the east. In the next two days, June 8th and 9th, the Confederates fought and won two battles. If the Confederates had lost these battles, Richmond would have been captured, and the war would have been over. These victories were won primarily because of the mistakes that the Union Generals made. We will now look at those mistakes in detail.

On June 8th the Federal army under Fremont moved out to attack Ewell, whose troops were placed in a strong position on a wooded hill overlooking a stream. General Trimble, commanding the brigade on the right, obtained permission from Ewell to advance his troops to a strong position across the creek. Soon after he moved there, they saw a single Union regiment, the 8th New York, moving toward them across the field. The Federals advanced and drove in the Confederate skirmishers. Skirmishers are a thin line of men in front of a larger body, to alert the main body of any enemies that are ahead. As the Federals marched across the field, suddenly the hidden Confederates jumped up from behind a wooden fence and poured in a volley. The 8th NY was destroyed. They suffered more than 250 casualties, making that volley one of the deadliest in the entire war. This regiment suffered these loses because of a simple mistake that their commanding officer made. He should have sent ahead two or more companies as skirmishers. If the 8th NY would have done this, they would have been alerted of the presence of Confederates ahead, and would not have suffered these terrible casualties.


On the center and left, after heavy artillery duel, two Union brigades moved forward and engaged in a firefight with the Confederates. By this time Fremont's left was being driven back by repeated attacks by Trimble, and he decided to stop the attack after a short time. This was virtually the end of the battle of Cross Keys. Fremont attacked the left and center very badly. There was no chance that the Unions could take the Confederate's strong position on the ridge by simply marching up to it and opening fire. Fremont was too cautious in his attack. He should have attempted a flanking movement, or at least charged the Confederate line vigorously. He did nether, and consequently lost the battle of Cross Keys.

A Civil War Battle

On the night of June 7/8, Jackson decided to pull Ewell from in front of the defeated Fremont, and concentrate his entire army on the advance force of Shield's army, under the command of General Erastus B. Tyler. On the morning of June 8th, Jackson's army began to move slowly across a rickety wagon bridge built during the night. The soldiers could only cross in single file, and so the troops were very slow in crossing. As soon as the Stonewall Brigade crossed the bridge, Jackson sent them forward. Tyler had placed his cannons in a very good position on a hill called the Coaling. There they could sweep the plain below across which the Confederates were advancing. Jackson split the Stonewall Brigade into two groups, sending half to capture the Coaling, and half to make a feint on the plain. Tyler therefore moved his troops into position between the Coaling and the Shenandoah River. This was a mistake. Instead of positioning his troops to resist the Confederate feint, he should have put many more troops to guard the Coaling.

The next problem is that Tyler used his reserves, the 84th and 110th Pennsylvania, unwisely. As the Confederates attacked different portions of the line, he moved the reserves to the threatened part of his line. But when the reinforcements reached the threatened part, the crisis was already over. Therefore when the Confederates attacked the Coaling in strength, the reserves were on the other side of the battlefield. If the 84th and 110th PA had been on the scene, the Confederates would probably have lost the battle. Tyler did not realize that the Coaling was the key to the location, and so he did not focus his reserves on that area.


The last mistake that the Union generals made at the battles of Cross Keys and Port Republic was Fremont's. After Jackson pulled back Ewell's troops from in front of Fremont, he pursued very slowly. The troops and officers even had time to make breakfast. They did not march the five miles to Port Republic until noon, and by then the Confederates had burned the bridge over the North River, which meant that Fremont was stranded on the other side within sight of Tyler's retreated army. If Fremont had pursued vigorously, the Federals could have easily destroyed Jackson's army, which was having trouble enough with just Tyler. This one mistake of not pursuing cost the Unions the battle.


We have just examined five of the Union commander's mistakes at the battles of Port Republic and Cross Keys. These are that the 8th New York Regiment moved toward the Confederate position without skirmishers, that Fremont did not attack Ewell's center vigorously, that General Tyler did not put enough troops on the Coaling, misused his reserves, and finally Fremont pursued the Confederates slowly. These mistakes resulted in the defeat of the Federal armies, which greatly outnumbered Jackson. This defeat had great implications on the war. At this time as Jackson was fighting in the Shenandoah Valley, Gen. George B. McClellan was sieging Lee at Richmond. If Jackson had been defeated at Port Republic, he could not have reinforced Lee and defeated McClellan during the Seven Day's battle. If Fremont and Tyler had defeated Jackson, the war would have ended much sooner. The battles of Port Republic and Cross Keys are great examples of how little things can have great impact.



1 Krick, Robert K. Conquering the Valley (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2002) p. 179