Battles of Falling Waters

Battles of Falling Waters. “A splendid falls”. , During the Civil War, the strategically important Valley Turnpike crossed the stream just above the small waterfall here. Two battles were fought nearby. The first occurred on July 2, 1861, half a mile south on the Porterfield Farm. On the morning of July 2, 1861, Federal troops under General Robert Patterson crossed the Potomac River from Maryland and marched south toward Martinsburg. Colonel Thomas J. Jackson (soon to be nicknamed “Stonewall”) ordered his command northward from the town, fought a brief delaying action on the farm, and then fell back. Because this stream was the last body of water encountered by the Federals before engaging the Confederates, the fight was named for Falling Waters, following the Union convention of naming battles for natural features., The second engagement took place after the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, when part of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia retreated over a pontoon bridge that crossed the Potomac River approximately 150 feet south of the mouth of this stream. On the morning of July 14, after most of the troops had crossed, Union cavalrymen attacked two infantry divisions still on the Maryland side of the river. This fight, which is also known as Falling Waters, resulted in the capture of a large number of Confederates and the mortal wounding of Confederate General James J. Pettigrew, whose troops had participated in Pickett’s Charge in Gettysburg., During the war, a gristmill stood here. The large railroad bridge and embankment were built after the war., "We had ... left the bridge there while we were [marching to Pennsylvania]; but the enemy's cavalry had ... had cut the bridge loose, and a great many pontoons had floated off; consequently we had to build some rough ones [to cross back over]. ... Then the good ones we saved and the sixteen new ones made twenty-six in all. It took all of them to reach across the river." , Pvt. John O. Casler, 33rd Virginia Infantry, Stonewall Brigade, “Well I’ll tell you we are down in old Virginie near a place called Falling Waters, so called on account of a splendid falls nearby. They say the water falls from a height of 45 or 50 feet over the rocks making a beautiful waterfall.” , Sgt. Andrew Malseed, 23rd Penn. Volunteer Infantry, June 19, 1861, (captions) , "Rebel pontoons at Falling Waters," Alfred Waud sketch, July 1863 Courtesy Library of Congress , Falling Waters , Gen. James J. Pettigrew, posthumous portrait, Courtesy University of North Carolina