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“Jackson and
Crutchfield were mutually guilty of a blunder at Front
Royal. The Stonewall Brigade and Jackson’s own batteries
had remained at Asbury Chapel, four miles south of town.
Jackson intended for them to drive into Front Royal on the
main road once the fighting got underway. |
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no one gave Winder specific instructions, and the youthful
cavalryman that Jackson dispatched to bring up the
reserves succumbed to panic in what was his first battle
and fled the area.” Stonewall Jackson by James I.
Robertson, Jr., p. 397. This was the reason there were no
rifled bored canons available to reach Richardson’s Hill
over a mile away. |
Sign at Prospect
Hill Cemetery
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This was the
first Confederate Artillery position. From this elevation
Colonel Stapleton Crutchfield, General Jackson’s Chief of
Artillery, posted his first cannons that arrived on the
field of battle. The Confederates’ smoothbore cannons were
the first to arrive which were totally outranged by the
Union rifled guns firing from Richardson’s Hill on the
north side of town. |
Lieutenant Samuel Simpson, a scout with the 7th Virginia
Cavalry and a native of Warren County, directed Colonel
Crutchfield to an unknown path to the west which would
give the Confederate Artillery a better shot at Colonel
Kenly’s Federal guns. The second site chosen by Lieutenant
Simpson is today’s Randolph Macon Academy. Local lore has
it that General Jackson directed a portion of the battle
from this location.
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Click here to view
The Prospect Hill Cemetery Sign
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Events on
Prospect Hill Cemetery
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this elevation the First Maryland (CSA) and Louisiana
Infantry advanced towards Front Royal. It was during this
advance that unsuspecting Union Pickets were captured and
revealed that they were with the First Maryland (USA).
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Colonel John R. Kenly commanded these Federal troops
from Maryland. Kenly was ordered to hold Front Royal
with approximately a thousand men and a section of
artillery with two ten-pounder Parrotts. His duty was to
protect the supplies at this point, the railroad and
bridges over the Shenandoah River. As the remaining
companies of Union pickets retreated toward town, the
Confederate Artillery was called to the front.
It was on this hill that Stonewall Jackson's Chief of
Artillery, Colonel Stapleton Crutchfield planted his first
battery. Unfortunately, the first guns to arrive were of
the smooth bore type and did not have the distance to
effectively reach the Union guns on Richardson's Hill, one
and three-quarters miles away.
Again, Lieutenant Simpson's knowledge of the area,
conducted Crutchfield's Artillery around the western hill
of town by a route concealed by woods, to a ridge on which
Randolph Macon Academy now stands. It was 3:30 p.m.
before Crutchfield was able to get a rifled cannon into
position to reply to the Federal Battery.
In 1867, the Ladies' Warren Memorial Association dedicated
themselves to the task of collecting the Confederate dead
buried in Warren County and placing them in a circular lot
on this hill. This Solitary commemorative is called
"Soldiers' Circle". |
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Next Stop 4 The Court House
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[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Departure- Visitor Center ] [ Stop 1 Asbury Chapel ] [ Stop 2 Belle Boyd ] [ Stop 3 Prospect Hill ] [ Stop 4 Court House ] [ Stop 5 Bel Air ] [ Stop 6 Rose Hill ] [ Stop 7 Richardson's Hill ] [ Stop 8 Bridges ] [ Stop 9 Guard Hill ] [ Stop 10 Fairview ] [ Buckton Station ] [ "Stonewall" Jackson ] [ John S. Mosby ] [ Hotchkiss Statements ] [ Capture of the Flag ] [ Riverside ]
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