VA -- Port Republic battlefield:
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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- PTREP_050619_01.JPG: The Frank Kemper House.
When Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood's 1716 expedition first laid claim to the Shenandoah Valley, the area had already been used for centuries by Native Americans. The town of Port Republic was laid off into lots and chartered by an 1802 act of the Virginia Assembly. John Carthrae Jr., son of a colonial landowner here, platted the village whose layout has changed little in the ensuing years.
By 1832, Port Republic had become a thriving industrial town and shipping port. The millraces supported a foundry, a tannery, grist mills, a woolen mill, sawmills, a copper, a tilt-hammer shop, a tinner, boot and shoe factories, weavers, a saddler, a cabinet maker, a turner, a chairmaker, blacksmiths, stores, and other small industries and artisans.
The village's location where two tributary rivers converge to form the Shenandoah made it a transportation hub. As a result, the seven roads leading into Port were used to bring goods from farms, forests, and mines. One hundred yards south of here, raw products and manufactured goods were loaded onto flat-bottomed boats and transported north.
This, the home of Benjamin Franklin Kemper and his wife, Eliza Holbrook, was built in the 1830s. Here, Kemper kept the account books for the mill across the street and operated an inn and tavern for boatmen. On June 6, 1862, Confederate general Turner Ashby was killed in a skirmish on the outskirts of Harrisonburg. Grieving comrades carried his body to this house where ladies of the village prepared it for burial. Townspeople and soldiers filed by a window to view the body of Ashby, the gallant cavalry officer known as the Knight of the Confederacy. General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, who was headquartered in the village, entered the room to pay his respects. Since 1993, the house has been owned by the Society of Port Republic Preservationists and is used as the Port Republic Museum.
- PTREP_050619_23.JPG: Madison Hall.
The crest of the hill was the site of Madison Hall, built in the mid-1700s for John Madison, the first Court Clerk of Augusta County, which originally included this area of Rockingham County within its frontier boundaries. In response to the presence of unfriendly Indians in the area during the French and Indian War, he built a fortified structure on the corner of the property. Madison's son, James, would become president of William and Mary College in 1777 and the first Bishop of the Episcopal Church of Virginia in 1785. John Madison's cousin was the father of another James Madison who would become President of the United States.
By June 1862, Madison Hall had become the home of Dr. George W. Kemper, Sr. and was serving as Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's headquarters. On the morning of June 8, as Jackson prepared for a quiet Sabbath, he was confronted with an emergency. Advance Union raiders had surprised the ill-discipline Confederate pickets and entered Port. Jackson galloped through the village, pausing at the church on Main Street to admonish one of his staff for cursing. He slipped across the covered bridge on North River with moments to spare, rallied his forces on the far shore, and pushed them into the village to rout the invaders.
As Col. Samuel Sprigg Carroll's Union cavalry charged up Main Street, a skirmish developed. Here on the grounds of Madison Hall, two dozen infantrymen and some raw artillery recruits, under the heroic direction of Confederate Capt. Samuel J.C. Moore, made a brief, brave stand that protected the army's valuable wagon trains and herds of cattle spread behind the house. There is no reliable casualty list from the skirmish, but area diaries recall the excitement, pandemonium, and heroics as civilians sought safety and the Yankees were driving from the village.
In June 1864, Madison Hall was occupied by Union general David Hunter and his staff while their squads were detailed to destroy the industries in Port Republic. It served as the residence of four consecutive generations of the Kemper family until it was sold in 1908.
The sign showed a picture of the "original" Madison Hall and gives the dates 1751-1915. Presumably, it was torn down and replaced by the current structure at that point.
- PTREP_050619_47.JPG: We're looking up the hill toward the "Coaling" now. The house wasn't there during the battle.
- PTREP_050619_66.JPG: The central battlefield site for the Battle of Port Republic is this area, known as "The Coaling". By the Civil War, this area was nearly devoid of trees, the timber having been used for the production of charcoal. This was the key Federal artillery position during the Battle of Port Republic.
Federal commander Brigadier General Erastus Tyler stretched his 3,000 infantry and 3 batteries of artillery in a line from a spur of the Blue Ridge Mountains on your left, along the "Coaling," then 3/4 mile to your right, to the South Fork of the Shenandoah River. It would prove a strong position.
On the early morning of June 9, 1862, Confederate Major General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, victorious the day before at Cross Keys, attacked the Federal line. His leading unit, the famous "Stonewall Brigade," was easily repulsed two times by a "galling fire of musketry and canister."
Following this reverse, the Federals on your right counter-attacked, pushing the Confederates back nearly 1/2 mile. At this point, Jackson's position was precarious. Fortunately for him, fresh Confederate units were now approaching the field.
- PTREP_050619_80.JPG: The woman on the right runs the Port Republic Museum in the Kemper house. She and her mother also own the white house behind them. This is the one you see well from the top of the Coaling. During the battle, the Lewiston House stood where their house does. During the battle, the initial Federal line ran through the Lewiston property all the way to the river, and fighting swirled around the house much of the morning.
- Wikipedia Description: Battle of Port Republic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Battle of Port Republic was fought on June 9, 1862, in Rockingham County, Virginia, as part of Confederate States Army Major General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's Campaign through the Shenandoah Valley during the American Civil War. Port Republic was a fierce contest between two equally determined foes and was the most costly battle fought by Jackson's Army of the Valley during its campaign.
During the night of June 8 to June 9, 1862, Charles S. Winder's Stonewall Brigade was withdrawn from its forward position near Bogota (a large house owned by Gabriel Jones) and rejoined Jackson's division at Port Republic. Confederate pioneers built a bridge of wagons across the South Fork of the Shenandoah River at Port Republic. Winder's brigade was assigned the task of spearheading the assault against Union forces east of the river. Isaac R. Trimble's brigade and elements of Patton's were left to delay John C. Frémont's forces at Cross Keys, while the rest of Richard S. Ewell's division marched to Port Republic to be in position to support Winder's attack.
Brig. Gen. Erastus B. Tyler's brigade joined Col. Samuel Carroll's brigade north of Lewiston on the Luray Road. The rest of James Shields's division was strung out along the muddy roads back to Luray. General Tyler, in command on the field, advanced at dawn of June 9 to the vicinity of Lewiston. He anchored the left of his line on a battery positioned on the Lewiston Coaling, extending his infantry west along Lewiston Lane to the South Fork near the site of Lewis' Mill. The right and center were supported by artillery (16 guns in all).
Winder's brigade crossed the river by 5 a.m. and deployed to attack east across the bottomland. Winder sent two regiments (2nd Virginia and 4th Virginia) into the woods to flank the Union line and assault the Coaling. When the main Confederate battle line advanced, it came under heavy fire from the Union artillery and was soon pinned down. Confederate batteries were brought forward onto the plain but were outgunned and forced to seek safer positions. Ewell's brigades were hurried forward to cross the river. Seeing the strength of the Union artillery at the Coaling, Jackson sent Richard Taylor's brigade to the right into the woods to support the flanking column that was attempting to advance through the thick underbrush.
Winder's brigade renewed its assault on the Union right and center, taking heavy casualties. General Tyler moved two regiments from the Coaling to his right and launched a counterattack, driving Confederate forces back nearly half a mile. While this was occurring, the first Confederate regiments probed the defenses of the Coaling, but were repulsed.
Finding resistance more fierce than anticipated, Jackson ordered the last of Ewell's forces still north of Port Republic to cross the rivers and burn the North Fork bridge. These reinforcements began to reach Winder, strengthening his line and stopping the Union counterattack. Taylor's brigade reached a position in the woods across from the Coaling and launched a fierce attack, which carried the hill, capturing five guns. Tyler immediately responded with a counterattack, using his reserves. These regiments, in hand-to-hand fighting, retook the position. Taylor shifted a regiment to the far right to outflank the Union battle line. The Confederate attack again surged forward to capture the Coaling. Five captured guns were turned against the rest of the Union line. With the loss of the Coaling, the Union position along Lewiston Lane became untenable, and Tyler ordered a withdrawal about 10:30 a.m. Jackson ordered a general advance.
William B. Taliaferro's fresh Confederate brigade arrived from Port Republic and pressed the retreating Federals for several miles north along the Luray Road, taking several hundred prisoners. The Confederate army was left in possession of the field. Shortly after noon, Frémont's army began to deploy on the west bank of the South Fork, too late to aid Tyler's defeated command, and watched helplessly from across the rain-swollen river. Frémont deployed artillery on the high bluffs to harass the Confederate forces. Jackson gradually withdrew along a narrow road through the woods and concentrated his army in the vicinity of Mt. Vernon Furnace. Jackson expected Frémont to cross the river and attack him on the following day, but during the night Frémont withdrew toward Harrisonburg.
After the dual defeats at Cross Keys and Port Republic, the Union armies retreated, leaving Jackson in control of the upper and middle Shenandoah Valley and freeing his army to reinforce Robert E. Lee before Richmond in the Seven Days Battles.
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