McDowell

Joining forces with Brig. Gen. Edward "Allegheny" Johnson's Army of the Northwest in early May, 1862, Maj. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson moved to McDowell, Virginia to intercept the army of Maj. Gen. John C. Fremont gathering west of there. Late in the afternoon of May 8, the head of Jackson's infantry column took a position on Sitlington's Hill, a mile-long rocky spur overlooking the Union camp beside the Bull Pasture River. The brigades of Brig. Gens. Robert H. Milroy and Robert C. Schenck attacked Jackson and Johnson using the cover of ravines and woods. The Federals were repulsed after severe fighting lasting four hours. After the battle, Milroy and Schenck withdrew to the west, freeing up Jackson’s army to return to the Shenandoah Valley. Jackson's victory at McDowell set the stage for his hard-marching, hard-fighting 1862 campaign that, over the next month, kept Union troops penned up in the Valley.