Richardson’s Hill
Kenly Makes His Stand
Directly in front of you is the “commanding height” where Union Col. John H. Kenly made his last attempt to hold Front Royal. Atop Richardson’s Hill—this “cherty” ridge, as
Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson
called it—Kenly posted the two-gun
section of Knap s Battery E, Pennsylvania Light Artillery. The two
ten-pounder Parrott rifled cannons,
commanded by Lt. Charles Atwell,
pinned down the Confederates on the plain below while Kenly’s infantry gathered here to support the guns.
Kenly realized that the Union
occupation of Front Royal was
essential to protect the left flank of
Gen. Nathaniel Banks’s main army
at Strasburg. “I prepared to hold the position as long as possible,”
Kenly later wrote, “for I was certain that if I did not check Jackson’s
advance ... Banks was lost.” In a momentary stroke of good luck, two
companies of the 5th New York Cavalry arrived from Strasburg to augment Kenly’s infantry.
Col. Bradley T. Johnson, comanding the Confederate attackers, soon countered Kenly’s deployment.
While the 1st Maryland infantry
(CSA) and Maj. Chatham Roberdeau Wheat’s battalion returned fire from behind the stone wall below
Richardson’s Hill, the 6th Louisiana Infantry flanked the Union position to the west. In addition, Lt. Col. Thomas S. Flournoy's 6th Virginia
Cavalry threatened the Federal rear.
Kenly, about to be surrounded,
ordered a retreat north across the forks of the Shenandoah River.
Marker is on North Royal Avenue north of West 14th Street (U.S. 340), on the left when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
