The Shenandoah Valley Campaign

Admin Posts : 75 Join date : 2014-08-18

The Shenandoah Valley stretches approximately 165 miles from Lexington, Virginia to the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers at Harpers Ferry. It has a huge agricultural and strategic importance for both the Union and the Confederacy - both sides are acutely aware of this as winter gives way to milder weather as spring approaches.

On the one hand the Valley is regarded as the main food procurement area of the Confederacy. It's fertile farmlands furnish a substantial amount of food to Southern soldiers and civilians alike. As many of the residents are pacifist Quakers or Dunkers, it enjoys continued agricultural production, unlike other areas in the South that lost labour to the war effort with men joining the military. The top two wheat-producing counties in the Valley are the Augusta County and the Rockingham County, both of them more than deserved the nickname of the "Breadbasket of the Confederacy". A tremendous amount of grain from the Shenandoah Valley is processed in Richmond in eight mills, including the Gallego Mill, the largest. To give you an example of the productivity of the Valley: In Year 2 during only one three-week period a Confederate purchasing agent bought 32,000 pounds of corn from just one single Valley farmer. Other Virginia farmers in the Shenandoah Valley are just as productive. From 1860 onward Shenandoah Valley grain, livestock, iron, wool and leather were making a strong contribution as it fed, clothed and provided materials to help keep the Confederate war machine - as well as the civilian population - alive.

On the other hand it's the location of the Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry - giving anyone who holds it the ability to not only properly store and produce large calibre arms (like cannons and howitzers) but also to manufacture and store small calibre arms (like musket rifles and revolving pistols) as well as ammunition and other military equipment. Additionally, the Valley has tremendous strategic importance as troops and supplies moving through the Valley are screened from enemy view by concealing mountain ranges.

  Confederate Army Objectives & Benefits:

   - deny the Federal Army access to the food resources for both men and beast at all costs

   - fight and push back the Federal Army

   - prevent the destruction of any food sources and infrastructure that are essential to the Rebel cause

   - occupy, hold and defend the Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry

   - prevent the destruction of the iron factories in the region

   - capturing the Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry enables the acquisition of Confederate units with:
      ✒ "US 1855 Harpers Ferry Rifled Musket {.58}" [Percussion Lock] + Socket Bayonet → for Infantry
      ✒ "US 1855 Harpers Ferry Rifled Carbine/Musketoon {.58}" [Percussion Lock] → for Cavalry / Artillery
      ✒ US 1841 Cannon / 6-pounder Gun {6 lb.} [Smoothbore]
      ✒ US 1841 Howitzer / 6-pounder Howitzer {6 lb.} [Smoothbore]
      ✒ {.58} Ammunition is readily available
      ✒ Percussion Caps are readily available
      ✒ Black Powder is readily available
      ✒ Solid Shot Ammunition is readily available
      ✒ Shrapnel Ammunition is readily available
      ✒ Cannister Ammunition is readily available

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