Two New Skirmishes in the Shenandoah?

Two previously unexplored skirmishes conducted during Robert Patterson’s short-lived campaign in the lower Shenandoah Valley have recently come to my attention. One, near Martinsburg on July 11, 1861, resulted in the death of private Isaac Sly of the 28th New York Infantry Regiment. The other occurred near Bunker Hill on July 15, 1861.

Unfortunately, information on these skirmishes is difficult to come by, and both rely almost entirely on Union accounts. Over the next few weeks, I will be doing a deep dive on these skirmishes to see if they merit inclusion in our encyclopedia–if there is enough information out there to write a detailed and comprehensive account from both Northern and Southern perspectives.

This research will be published exclusively for our Substack and Patreon members. Any battle pages that result from this research will, of course, be free and available to the public. If you’d like to support our work here at Spirit of ’61, please consider becoming a member. Every dollar goes toward uncovering and preserving the history of early Civil War Virginia.