The Alabama in the Civil War Message Board

5th Alabama Infantry Regiment -2nd Kernstown

On July 24, 1864, Rodes’ Division took up line of march at about sun up in the direction of Winchester. The men arrived at Kernstown that afternoon during an engagement which was taking place with the Yankees and the rest of the Confederate Army. Initially they halted in Bartonsville and were held in reserve. After Wharton’s Division was ordered on a flanking movement to the right, Rodes’ Division was ordered up to take their place. They formed a line of battle to the right of the Pike and sent their Sharpshooters forward. The rest of the Division soon followed and soon came in sight of the enemy. After launching a devastating attack against the Federal infantry, General Early saw an opportunity to cut the Federal Cavalry off from the rest their army. He dispatched Rodes’ Division on a rapid overland trek to the Front Royal Road. General Rodes targeted the Hamilton farm as their destination, well to the rear of the Federal Cavalry. The Yankees were retreating and the men charged through some fields in an attempt to overtake them. The Federals ran through Winchester and five miles beyond with Rodes’ Division in hot pursuit, not more than half a mile behind them. The Yankees burned thirty or forty of their wagons and abandoned a few canons in their haste to retreat. In fact the Federal retreat route “was strewn with cannon boxes, wagons, ambulances, and old broken-down horses that were killed and left in the road.” Seventy-two wagons and twelve caissons soon filled the air with smoke and fire as Federals abandoned them to the enemy. Major Eugene Blackford noted “A perfect panic prevailed amongst them from the beginning and they drove like sheep….” Battle’s Brigade had continued forward in line of battle for more than eight miles. The men finally gave up the chase as darkness came, most being completely broken down. Everyone was disappointed that they had not caught the Federals because as Major Blackford would state, the rebels “were anxious to come up with the men who had been guilty of the fearful outrages we had all interrupted, during Hunter’s advance.” There would have been an awful reckoning, he declared zestfully, but at least there had been a glorious battle in which an enemy of 15,000 – 20,000 had been routed by a considerably smaller Confederate force with but 150 killed, wounded, and missing. The Federal casualties were almost 1200 men. The 5th Alabama Infantry Regiment’s only casualty during the Second Battle of Kernstown was the wounding of Private Benjamin F. Templin of Company F. The men fell back to Stephenson’s Depot and camped on the road to Jordan Springs after marching thirty miles that day. “It was scarcely safe to pass near the road for many of these (Union) wagons were of their Ordinance Train, and contained shell, which were bursting at intervals all night long.” wrote Major Blackford. “We bivouacked within a few hundred yards of one of these, which kept up an incessant fire all night, one fragment striking very near my horse, much to my disgust.”

A very heavy rain fell the next morning. After resting during the rain and receiving their rations, the men moved off at 3:00 P.M. and marched to Bunker Hill, reaching there at about 11:00 P.M. On July 26, 1864, the men began their march at day break, travelling through Darkesville and on to Martinsburg. The Yankee Cavalry had just left the town a few minutes before the Confederates got there. Camp was made a few miles beyond Martinsburg. A detail from the 5th Alabama was sent out to tear up the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road, “much to the disgust of the good Union people of the town, who showed their feelings by hearty curses upon the heads of our men,” wrote Major Blackford. They laboured throughout the night finding the work quite difficult due to the quality of the track. The Confederates ripped up fifteen miles of the newly re-laid railroad from Martinsburg to Harper’s Ferry. Fortunately, the army stayed in camp the following day and the men received a much welcomed rest. On July 28, 1864, General Battle returned to the Brigade and resumed command, after sufficiently recovering from his wounds received at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. The men were ordered to be ready to move at daylight the next morning. At dawn the next day, they were on the move again, marching to the Potomac River opposite Williamsport, Maryland. While the rest of the army made camp, the Sharpshooters and another Brigade were ordered to cross the river and returned with some captured stores.