Skirmish at Sir Johns Run

Skirmish at Sir Johns Run. "We leveled our pieces and blazed away". , On January 1, 1862, Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson led four brigades west from Winchester, Va., to secure Romney in the fertile South Branch Valley on the North Western Turnpike. He attacked and occupied Bath on January 4 and shelled Hancock, Md.; he marched into Romney on January 14. Despite atrocious winter weather, Jackson's men destroyed telegraph lines and 100 miles of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad track. Leaving Gen. William W. Loring's brigades in Romney, Jackson led the Stonewall Brigade back to Winchester on January 23, Loring followed on January 31, and the Federals reoccupied Romney on February 7., After Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's force captured Bath (present-day Berkeley Springs) on January 4, 1862, the Federal garrison retreated here to escape across the Potomac River ford to Maryland. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station servicing Bath was located here at Sir Johns Run. The ford is directly in front of you, with a culvert under the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal across the river that allowed passage to a road leading to Hancock, Maryland., At first, the 39th Illinois Infantry at the 84th and 110th Pennsylvania Infantry tried to make a stand against the Confederates after reinforcements arrived from the 13th Indiana Infantry, protected by the narrow defile through which the road to Sir Johns Run passed. But with night falling and ammunition low, a retreat was ordered. The Indiana regiment reboarded its train and headed west for Great Cacapon. The Pennsylvanians marched down the railroad to cross the Potomac downstream at Hancock. The Illinois men plunged into the ice-choke river here to cross, and during the long march to Hancock, soaking west uniforms froze on the suffering Union soldiers., The 21st Virginia Infantry cautiously advanced into Sir Johns Run at nightfall, just missing Sgt. John Ripple and Capt. Joseph Hooker of the 39th Illinois, the last Union soldiers supervising the retreat. The Confederates tore up the river. A brief- fire-fight erupted as both sides exchanged shots., The Confederate assault on Bath, while successful, did not satisfy Jackson since the Union garrison had escaped. After shelling Hancock the next day, Jackson marched his men back through Morgan County and then west to Romney., "We leveled our pieces and blazed away as though we had thousands of backing. They dropped their bars and picks, returned the fire with a volley which made the hill look like lightning bugs, and rained the balls around us in the showers." , , Capt. Joseph Hooker, Co. E, 39th Illinois Infantry