Hey everyone, welcome to episode number 307 of our Civil War Podcast.

My name is Rich.

And I'm Tracy.

Hello y'all.

Thanks for tuning into the podcast.

As you guys all recall, we used the last show to set the stage for the second battle

of Winchester.

As we said, Robert E. Lee planned to use the Shenandoah Valley as the route his army

would take to reach the Potomac River.

And so it was in the valley that Dick Yule would face his first testing as a core commander.

That's because the Federals were known to be holding the lower valley with large garrisons

at Winchester and Harper's Ferry and with smaller garrisons at Berryville and Martinsburg.

As the spearhead of Lee's forces, it was Yule's task to clear away those Yankees and

open the way down the Shenandoah Valley to the Potomac River.

Once the Confederates were across the Upper Potomac and into Maryland, it would be just

to short-march north to the Mason Dixon Line and Pennsylvania.

To open the way down the valley, Yule would have to capture Winchester.

The town, sitting as strides several important roads, was occupied by about 6,900 Federals

commanded by Major General Robert Milroy, whose iron-fisted rule distressed local Virginians

loyal to the Confederacy.

Once it became apparent that a large force of Confederates had crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains

and entered the valley, Abraham Lincoln and General-in-Chief Henry Hallack wanted Milroy

...