Highland County Chamber of Commerce, Monterey VA

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McDowell Heritage Days: May 2012 (alternate years from 2001)

"Quilters at McDowell Days" by David Allen

The Battle of McDowell - May 8, 1862

On May 8, 1862 about 9,000 Rebel soldiers and an almost equal number of Yankees converged on Robert Sitlington's farm and the little village of McDowell. The year had opened with Union and Confederate forces jockeying for position throughout the western part of Virginia and West Virginia. The Shenandoah Valley, known as the "Breadbasket of the Confederacy," held provisions for the Southern army and also had Staunton, a large supply center and transportation network where two major roads and a railroad crossed.

Months earlier, General Stonewall Jackson had stated, "If this valley is lost, Virginia is lost." It was in McDowell on the slopes of Sitlington Hill, that Federal troops moving toward Staunton were successfully repelled by the Confederates. In a little more than four hours, 180 men lay dead and many of the more than 600 wounded were being tended in makeshift hospitals established in the Presbyterian Church and in local homes.

Federal troops retired beyond McDowell, and Jackson's army took up the pursuit the next day, leaving behind a detachment of cavalry and the VMI Cadet Battalion to guard the wounded Federal prisoners.

This battle was the first Confederate victory in Jackson's Valley Campaign. It forced Milroy and Schenck out of the Valley, preventing them and the rest of Fremont's command from uniting with Banks's force, thus relieving the pressure on Richmond. It kept the "Breadbasket" for the South, and it left Jackson free to operate against his enemies separately, a key to his success in the Shenandoah Valley in the months that followed.

On May 9 he announced the outcome with a one-sentence massage to General Cooper in Richmond: "God blessed our arms with victory at McDowell yesterday."

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Events include:

Living history and Battle of McDowell re-enactments

Lectures and readings by well-known Civil War authors

Talks on the Civil War era: everyday life, its medicine, the role of women, Civil War dress and manners, and anecdotal stories of Civil War era personalities.

Horse-drawn wagon tours of the military camps

Craft demonstrations such as blacksmithing, quilting, churning and weaving all center at the historic McDowell Presbyterian Church.

Visit their web site for more information.

Every other year, on the first weekend in May, the small village of McDowell, Virginia, transforms itself and reappears as it was in May of 1862.

The Highland Historical Society and the Highland County Chamber of Commerce sponsor The McDowell Battlefield Heritage Days.

The event draws re-enactors (by invitation only) and visitors from all over the United States. As the "Federal troops" occupy the village, "local townspeople" interact with the "occupiers."

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