In order to avoid the Union picket posts on the main road south of Front Royal, Jackson chose to march his men up a steep, winding path, called Snake Road by the locals, about a mile south of the town. Soon after 1 p.m., Johnson's Marylanders, no doubt exhausted after their climb, crested the last wooded hill that led into Front Royal and drove out a nest of Federals who were quietly resting at the head of Snake Road. After a few minutes of skirmishing, the Confederates were met by a 'rather well-looking woman,' the famous Southern spy Belle Boyd, a citizen of Front Royal, who was drawn by the fire and who extolled the men to 'charge right down and [you will] catch them all.' Believing Boyd's story, Jackson ordered Johnson, Wheat and Taylor to do just that while he brought up the rest of his army.

Front Royal was less than a mile to their front. Another half mile or so beyond the hamlet, up the main road atop Richardson's Hill, was Kenly's main camp. Beyond that was the confluence of the North and South forks of the Shenandoah River. A bridge spanned each fork, and a viaduct of the Manassas Gap Railroad crossed the South Fork and headed west to Strasburg, where Banks' headquarters was located. The Federal garrison at Front Royal consisted of 16 companies of infantry–nine from the 1st Maryland, three from the 2nd Massachusetts, two from the 29th Pennsylvania and one each from the 3rd Wisconsin and the 27th Indiana. They were supported by two companies of New York cavalry, a section of guns from the Pennsylvania Light Artillery and a company of engineers. All told, there were about 1,100 Federal soldiers in and around the town.

The Marylanders and the Tigers were ordered to drive down the hill and storm Front Royal while Taylor brought up the rest of his brigade. Wheat, excited by the order and no doubt wanting to vindicate himself after Somerville, charged down the left side of the road and was the first Confederate to enter the town. He'shot by like a rocket,' Colonel Johnson reported. 'His red cap gleaming, revolver in hand, and got in first, throwing his shots right and left.' Lucy Rebecca Buck, the daughter of a respected landowner in Front Royal, remembered the initial clash between Federal and Confederate forces at Front Royal: 'Going to the door we saw the Yankees scampering over the meadow below our house….By this time some scattered parties of Confederate infantry came up and charged their ranks, after firing one volley they wheeled about–every man for himself they scampered out of town like a flock of sheep–such an undignified exodus was never witnessed before.'

Once the Federals were driven from Front Royal, Wheat and Johnson, supported by the 6th Louisiana, ordered their men to head for the main Federal camp, located on a commanding hill north of the town. As the emboldened Confederates approached a ridgeline that fronted Richardson's Hill, however, they were forced to the ground by two Parrott rifles and several companies of infantry firing down from the fortified encampment.

Wheat ordered his Tigers to take cover around Rose Hill Manor, a large brick-and-wood structure about 250 yards to the right front of the Federal line, where, according to Lucy Buck, 'a good deal of fighting was done.' Before long, Jackson himself arrived on the scene with Captain James Carrington's Charlottesville Artillery and posted it atop a hill to Wheat's right rear. With Wheat's Tigers and Johnson's Marylanders pinned down, General Taylor recommended a double envelopment. While Wheat's and Johnson's men continued to fix Kenly's position in front and Carrington's battery provided support, Taylor pointed out, he could sweep his 7th, 8th and 9th Louisiana regiments to the far right, past Johnson's Marylanders, and cross the relatively unguarded railroad trestle that spanned the South Fork, getting in Kenly's rear. As they did so, Colonel Isaac G. Seymour's 6th Louisiana Regiment would sweep to the left, making a dash for the South Fork Bridge immediately behind Kenly's camp and drawing the Federals' fire. Without hesitation, and no doubt impressed by the Louisianian's enterprise, Jackson nodded in approval, and Taylor launched his first major attack of the war.

From his hilltop bastion, Kenly watched helplessly as the Pelican Staters worked their way around his position. He decided to order his men to torch the camp and retreat across both branches of the Shenandoah before they were completely cut off. Once across the North Branch, Kenly ordered the bridge burned and established a new line along the riverbank, anchored by the precipitous Guard Hill, to hold back the enemy as long as possible while he alerted Banks to the threat.

On the heels of Kenly's retreating Federals, Johnson's Marylanders charged up Richardson's Hill and through the burning camp, snagging a few prisoners and crossing over the South Fork Bridge. Advancing another 400 yards up the road, they were stopped cold by Kenly's new line atop Guard Hill and by the burning North Fork Bridge. They were soon joined by Taylor and his Louisiana regiments, who were just crossing the South Fork.

With the low-lying North Fork Bridge on fire, overlooked by Federal artillery posted atop Guard Hill, and with no sign of reinforcements, Taylor rode back to meet with Jackson, who had just crossed the South Fork Bridge. Surveying the scene, Jackson resolved to continue the attack. He would march across the North Fork Bridge–burning or not–and drive the enemy into the ground.

Fortuitously, at that moment, Wheat was slowly escorting his desperadoes through the destroyed Federal camp and across the South Fork Bridge. Jackson determined to use the Tigers to lead the attack and ordered them to pass through the Marylanders and take the burning bridge.

Ewell's adjutant, Captain Campbell Brown, remembered: 'I shall never forget the style in which Wheat's Battalion passed us as we stood on the road. [Wheat] was riding full gallop, yelling at the top of his voice; his big sergeant-major running at top speed just after him, calling upon the men to come on; and they strung out according to their speed and'stomach for the fight,' following after, all running; all yelling; all looking like fight. Their peculiar Zouave dress, light striped, baggy pants, bronzed and desperate faces and wild excitement made up a glorious picture. Wheat himself looked in a fight as handsome as any man I ever saw.'

With Wheat in the lead, the Tigers descended the road toward the river's edge, stormed across the bridge through the flames, and secured the other side in the face of the enemy's desperate fire. The Tigers were soon joined by Taylor and the remainder of the Louisiana Brigade, who quickly put out the blaze. The span was saved, 'but it was rather a near thing,' Taylor later recalled. 'My horse and clothing were scorched, and many men burned their hands severely while throwing brands into the river.'

With the North Fork Bridge now in Confederate hands, Jackson ordered Johnson's Marylanders and Taylor's Louisianians to push up the road and through the wooded gap to dislodge the Federals. In the meantime, Colonel Flournoy's 6th Virginia Cavalry attacked the Federals from the rear, unhinged their line and forced them to retreat farther up the road toward Winchester. 'The pursuit begun was kept up vigorously,' Jackson's aide, Lieutenant Henry Kyd Douglas, remembered. 'There was much handsome work done by Flournoy's cavalry, with good results.' By late afternoon, the mounted Virginians ran down what was left of Kenly's doomed command near Cedarville, capturing the whole lot, including the regiment's colors and the colonel himself.

While the cavalry and the 1st Maryland pursued Kenly, the New Orleans Tigers were recuperating along the shady banks of the North Fork when they heard a train whistle coming from the direction of Manassas Gap. Earlier in the day, Flournoy's cavalry had cut the telegraph lines between Strasburg and Manassas, and the engineer of the Federal train, which consisted of two locomotives, three passenger and 50 freight cars, apparently had no idea that the town had been filibustered by Jackson's army.

Sensing an opportunity for more glory for his men, Wheat quickly roused his Tigers up from their late-afternoon snooze and ordered them to charge the mov-ing train. Swarming up the embankment and across the flat land, the Tigers hopped aboard the locomotive, threw its wholly surprised driver to the ground, and brought the train to a stop. When the former wharf rats opened the cars, they were pleasantly surprised to find more than $300,000 worth of commissary and quartermaster stores packed inside.

All told, the battle for Front Royal cost Banks about 900 casualties–750 prisoners, 32 killed and 122 wounded–and Jackson only 36, mostly from Flournoy's cavalry. With Front Royal saved, Jackson was able to turn Banks from his position at Strasburg, hit him at Middletown and push him out of Winchester, thus recapturing, for the time being, the Shenandoah Valley.

Lincoln's reaction was to send McDowell's force after Jackson, thus ending any chances of its supporting McClellan at Richmond. Deprived of reinforcements, McClellan's drive toward Richmond ground to a halt, and the Union's best chance of ending the war with a quick, decisive victory was lost. In more ways than one, Front Royal had indeed been the key.

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This article was written by Gary Schreckengost and originally appeared in the January 2000 issue of America's Civil War magazine.

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