The Shenandoah Valley and the Civil War

Virginia was arguably the most important Confederate state. It was the most populous with over 1.5 million residents. Virginia was also the wealthiest state, thanks in large part to its industrial base. Virginia was the industrial hub of the Confederacy and it equaled the output of all other Confederate states combined.

Being the northernmost Confederate state, and a state of such importance to the South’s war effort, the majority of the Civil War was fought on Virginia soil. The Civil War Sites Advisory Commission classified 384 Civil War engagements as “principal battles.” Of those battles, 123 occurred in Virginia. Tennessee comes in a distant second with 38 principal battles.

Some of the most fierce fighting in Virginia occurred in the Shenandoah Valley. For this reason, the valley attracts history buffs from far and wide who visit the battlefields scattered throughout the region.

The Breadbasket of the Confederacy

Favorable growing conditions made the Shenandoah Valley vital to the southern states during the Civil War. Known as the “Breadbasket of the Confederacy,” region farmers kept the rebel forces fed until Union general Philip Sheridan put an end to much of the Confederacy’s food supply in what came to be known as “The Burning.” Beginning on September 26, 1864, Sheridan’s troops marched for thirteen days from Staunton to Strasburg. The men destroyed railroad tracks, drove off and killed livestock, and burned houses, barns and fields. In short, they destroyed anything of value to the Confederate army, and inflicted untold hardship on the local populace.

Until that point, the armies had, for the most part, spared civilians much of the horror of the war. But in an effort to bring the conflict to a rapid close, Union general Ulysses S. Grant adopted a “total war” strategy.

The Burning

A historical marker in the Hupp’s Hill Civil War Park in Strasburg summarized the Union’s new way of doing things:

Over a thousand mills and barns packed with the fall harvest were torched and thousands of head of livestock were scattered, confiscated, or killed as per Union General Grant’s order to so desolate the Valley that “a crow flying over it will have to bring its own provender.” The devastation not only crippled Confederate military supply lines but also had a horrific effect on the home front.

Sheridan carried out Grant’s orders and left a smoldering, barren path of countryside seventy miles long and twenty-five miles wide. In Sheridan’s report to Grant he said:

I have destroyed over 2,000 barns filled with wheat, hay and farming implements; over seventy mills, filled with flour and wheat; have driven in front of the army over 4,000 head of stock, and have killed and issued to the troops not less than 3,000 sheep.

Sheridan did extend some mercy toward local civilians; he prohibited his soldiers from engaging in looting and ordered them to spare the properties of orphans, single women and widows.

Many of those tasked with carrying out Sheridan’s callous orders where traumatized by the pain they inflicted upon civilians. Colonel James H. Kidd, after setting fire to a mill in Port Republic, recalled:

What I saw there is burned into my memory. The anguish pictured in their faces would have melted any heart not seared by the horrors and ‘necessities’ of war. It was too much for me, and at the first moment that duty would permit I hurried from the scene.

Residual Energy

One with an interest in the paranormal would have to wonder how Sheridan’s hellish burning campaign, with the anguish it unleashed, affected the area. Surely it left behind a dark imprint that those who are sensitive to such energies can feel to this day. Couple that with the many battles and blood spilled from Winchester to Lexington, and you have an area ripe for paranormal activity. In my book Haunted Shenandoah Valley, I cover many strange tales from the valley and showcase the restless spirits that wander the area.

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