Battle
At around 3 a.m. the Union vanguard led by Capt. Thomas Kerr encountered and captured the first Confederate pickets north of Moorefield. After the pickets were sent to the rear, Averell rode up and prepared for his attack, placing Maj. Thomas Gibson in the center along the Moorefield road. Two columns under Col. William Powell formed on the flanks of Gibson. Kerr again led the vanguard. With his line formed Averell ordered the attack. Gibson's column immediately smashed into the Bradley Johnson camp. Most of Johnson's men were asleep and woke up only in time to be taken prisoner or rush off in full retreat. The commotion of Johnson's retreating men was enough to awake the men in McCausland's camp on the other side of the river who were able to form a line and meet Gibson's advance at the river. Averell had anticipated meeting resistance at the river and thus sent his two flanking columns to cross up and down stream respectively of Gibson's crossing. The right and left columns crossed and poured into the flanks of the hastily formed Confederate line causing it to break into retreat. The pursuing Federals encountered Brig. Gen. William Jackson's cavalry on the Winchester Pike east of Moorefield. Jackson tried to bring his guns up to fire on the Federals, but because the routed Confederates were so interspersed among them he could not get a shot off before they were overrun and captured. This action, maintaining surprise and momentum, reflects tactics learned by Union commanders from encounters with Confederate Major General Thomas Jackson's forces.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Moorefield
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—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
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