As part of the opening moves of the Gettysburg Campaign, Confederate General Richard S. Ewell's corps attacked Union forces holding Winchester, Virginia. The battle, which climaxed over the following two days, cleared the Shenandoah Valley of Federal troops and let Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia march north virtually unopposed toward Pennsylvania.
Winchester, Virginia, changed hands so many times during the Civil War that residents joked they no longer bothered unpacking. On June 13, 1863, it happened again, but this time with consequences that would echo for weeks. Richard Ewell, who had inherited Stonewall Jackson's old corps after Jackson's death at Chancellorsville two months earlier, moved against the 7,000 Union soldiers of General Robert Milroy holding the town.
Ewell's opening assault on June 13 pinned Milroy in place while Confederate units maneuvered to cut off his retreat. The Union commander, slow to recognize the danger, waited too long to withdraw. When he finally tried to escape north on the night of June 14-15, Confederate troops ambushed his column at Stephenson's Depot, capturing nearly 4,000 men along with wagons, artillery, and supplies.
The victory was more than tactical. It swept the Shenandoah Valley clean of major Union forces, giving Lee an open corridor to march his army into Pennsylvania undetected for crucial days. Three weeks later, that army would collide with the Army of the Potomac at a small crossroads town called Gettysburg.
Key people: Richard S. Ewell, Robert Milroy, Robert E. Lee