Romney Expedition

Mort Kuiser's depiction of the march to Romney

One hundred and fifty years ago today Stonewall Jackson, Confederate commander in the Shenandoah Valley, set out on an expedition towards Romney, West Virginia. He planned to use his 11,000 men from his old brigade and Loring's division to attack the enemy forces in what is now West Virginia, and drive them from the state. On the first night of the advance they hit bad winter weather, and the troops suffered greatly. One officer wrote, "The road was almost an uninterrupted sheet of ice, rendering it almost impossible for man or beast to travel, while by moonlight the beards of the men, matted with ice, glistened like crystals…"