Jordan Springs
Healing Springs
During the Civil War, both United States and Confederate forces used Jordan Springs resort as a hospital at different times. Wounded and sick Confederate soldiers from the Antietam and Gettysburg battlefields came to the springs—although Martinsburg, W.Va., was closer—because Confederate sympathies were stronger here. When soldiers died, they were buried on the resort grounds, and in 1866, their remains were reinterred in the Stonewall Cemetery in Winchester.
The resort suspended normal operations during the war. Confederate Gen. Edward “Allegheny” Johnson stopped here for directions to Stephenson Depot during the Second Battle of Winchester, June 14-15, 1863. Johnson had been ordered there to block Union Gen. Robert Milroy’s retreat from Winchester. Members of the Jordan family, strong Confederate sympathizers, guided the Confederates to the bridge over the tracks at Stephenson Depot. Johnson’s men reached the bridge in the predawn darkness, just in time to hold it against the retreating Federals. About 100 men were killed and wounded, and about 4,000 Union soldiers surrendered, the largest Federal capitulation of the war to that point. Afterward, the Confederate officers rode back to Jordan Springs for breakfast.
(Sidebar): Branch Jordan opened the original White Sulfur Springs Resort here early in the 1800s; Virginia Indians had used the healing springs for generations. In 1855, Edwin C. Jordan, a nephew of Branch Jordan, opened the second, larger hotel. It burned in 1888, and the present hotel opened in 1894.
Marker is on Jordan Springs Road (County Route 664), on the right when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
