First Kernstown | Mar 23, 1862

First Kernstown | March 23, 1862

The Union defensive line placed by Col. Nathan Kimball on the north edge of Kernstown straddled the Valley Turnpike as it approached Winchester, four miles north. Kimball placed his artillery on Pritchard’s Hill, an open elevation just north of the Pritchard-Grim estate. Maj. Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson placed Col. Samuel Fulkerson’s brigade, supported by the Stonewall Brigade under Brig. Gen. Richard Garnett, on a wooded rise near the Glass farm known as Sandy Ridge. Jackson’s position threatened Kimball’s line until Col. Erastus Tyler’s brigade arrived on the Cedar Creek Grade Road. Outnumbered and out of ammunition, Jackson’s line fell back in the early evening.