#149 STONEWALL IN THE VALLEY: A DAY OF MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

The Civil War & Reconstruction

Richard Youngdahl

History

4.8 • 4.8K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2016

⏱️ 36 minutes

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Summary

In which we look at the events of Saturday May 24, 1862- the day sandwiched in between the battles at Front Royal and Winchester during Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in to episode number 149 of our Civil War Podcast.
0:29.9	I'm Rich. And I'm Tracy. Hello y'all. Welcome to the podcast. Last week we looked at the
0:36.6	engagement at Front Royal and Stonewall Jackson's victory there on Friday, May 23rd, 1862. At a cost
0:44.9	of 36 killed and wounded, Jackson had inflicted 773 casualties on the Federals, of which 691 were
0:54.2	prisoners of war. The Confederates had taken a large amount of quartermaster and commissary stores
1:00.2	at Front Royal and it came away with two fine parrot rifle guns. Most importantly though, Stonewall
1:07.1	had turned Banks flank and opened the way to Winchester. That night as Nathaniel Banks over in
1:14.2	Strasburg tried to make sense of what had happened on his flank, Stonewall Jackson, after his victory
1:20.7	at Front Royal had an opportunity to achieve that most elusive of Civil War tasks, the complete
1:27.4	destruction of an enemy force. With his victory at Front Royal, Jackson had neatly turned in Nathaniel
1:34.2	Banks flank, but now to catch and destroy Banks, Stonewall would need to ring every bit out of
1:41.2	the advantage he had won on May 23rd. Students of the Valley campaign therefore pay particular
1:48.6	attention to the events of the next day, Saturday, May 24th. They pay particular attention to the
1:55.4	events of that Saturday because what happened on that day would determine whether Stonewall would
2:01.0	be able to catch and destroy Banks. The arena in which Jackson opposed Nathaniel Banks on that
2:07.8	Saturday has been called the Operational Triangle. If you look at a map, you can find Front Royal,
2:15.6	Strasburg and Winchester and clearly see that the Triangle was a road network. Winchester
2:23.4	represented the apex of the Triangle, Strasburg the Western base, and Front Royal the Eastern.
2:30.7	On the western side of the Triangle was the excellent,
2:33.8	macadamized Valley Turnpike that ran 18 miles from Strasburg to Winchester.
2:40.7	On the eastern side of the Triangle was the Front Royal Winchester Turnpike, a good but
2:46.7	curvy, macadamized road stretching 19 miles between the two towns. Then the base of the Triangle
	...

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