The Battle of McDowell
Heart of the Battlefield
The Confederate 12th Georgia Infantry Regiment held this exposed crest overlooking McDowell. Milroy’s Union troops assaulted this hilltop from two directions – on the left and the right. The Confederates held their ground against repeated attacks and suffered heavy losses. The Confederates took position along the ridge behind you, making an exposed angle in the line. At 9 p.m., the Union troops abandoned the slopes below this point and retreated. Stonewall Jackson had won the first hard battle of his Valley Campaign.
This concludes CWPT’s interpretive trail, thank you for your interest in battlefield preservation.
“I felt quite small in that fight the other day when the musket and cannon balls were flying around me as thick as hail and my best friends falling on both sides, dead & mortally wounded. Oh Dear, it is impossible for me to express my feelings. When the fight was over & I saw what was done, the teras came then free. Oh, that I never could behold such a sight again. To think it among civilized people; killing one another like beasts.”
Lt. Shepard Pryor, 12th Georgia
Marker can be reached from U.S. 250, on the right when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
