The Battle of Cross Keys:  A Synopsis 

The aftermath of Nathaniel Banks’ defeat at Winchester on May 25th, 1862, roused the Lincoln administration to action.  With Stonewall Jackson rampaging through the lower Shenandoah Valley to within a few miles of the Potomac at Harper’s Ferry, half of Irwin McDowell’s corps marched west from Fredericksburg, threading its way through the Manassas Gap in the Blue Ridge mountains.   Meanwhile, John C. Fremont’s “Mountain Department” troops advanced eastward across the Alleghenies from Moorefield (West Virginia).  The two forces formed the jaws of a pincer designed to meet at Strasburg on the Valley Pike, cutting off Jackson’s Valley Army from its line of communications.  But a combination of poor mountain roads, poor intelligence, and Confederate resistance delayed the Yankees and enabled Jackson’s hard marching troops to escape south before the jaws could close.  Fremont gave chase via the Valley Pike, while James Shields’ division of McDowell’s corps moved up the less negotiable Luray Valley east of the Massanutten.