Port Republic was a Civil War engagement fought in Virginia, 1862. It was a Confederate victory.
Maj. Gen. T.J. Jackson concentrated his forces east of the South Fork of the Shenandoah against the isolated brigades of Tyler and Carroll of Shields's division, Brig. Gen. Erastus Tyler commanding. Confederate assaults across the bottomland were repulsed with heavy casualties, but a flanking column turned the Union left flank at the Coaling. Union counterattacks failed to reestablish the line, and Tyler was forced to retreat. Confederate forces at Cross Keys marched to join Jackson at Port Republic burning the North River Bridge behind them. Frémont's army arrived too late to assist Tyler and Carroll and watched helplessly from across the rain-swollen river. After these dual defeats at Cross Keys and Port Republic, the Union armies retreated, leaving Jackson in control of the upper and middle Shenandoah Valley and freeing his army to reinforce Lee before Richmond.
On June 9, 1862, troops clashed near Port Republic in Rockingham County, Virginia, a chapter in Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's Shenandoah Valley campaign during the American Civil War. Two stubborn armies collided there with a ferocity that made the encounter the deadliest one Jackson's Army of the Valley endured throughout its campaign. Coupled with the fight at Cross Keys a day earlier, this engagement sealed Jackson's triumph in the Valley, pushing Union forces into retreat. With that success secured, Jackson was able to move his men to bolster Gen. Robert E. Lee ahead of the Seven Days Battles near Richmond, Virginia.
Under cover of darkness on June 8 and into the early hours of June 9, 1862, Brig. Gen. Charles S. Winder pulled his Stonewall Brigade back from its exposed post near Bogota, the sprawling house belonging to Jacob Strayer, and brought it home to Jackson's division waiting at Port Republic. There, Confederate engineers labored to span the South Fork of the Shenandoah River, lashing together a makeshift crossing built from wagons. Command fell to Winder's men to lead the coming strike against Union forces stationed on the river's eastern bank.
Meanwhile, to hold off Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont's approaching troops at Cross Keys, Brig. Gen. Isaac R. Trimble's brigade stayed behind alongside portions of Col. John M. Patton, Jr.'s command, buying time for the remainder of Maj. Gen. Richard S. Ewell's division to reach Port Republic and back up Winder's planned assault.
On the Union side, Brig. Gen. Erastus B. Tyler linked his brigade with Col. Samuel Carroll's, positioning both north of Lewiston along the Luray Road, while the balance of Maj. Gen. James Shields's division remained scattered across the mud-choked roads leading toward Luray. Taking charge on the ground, Tyler pushed forward as dawn broke on June 9, moving his men into position near Lewiston. He fixed his left flank around a battery stationed at the Lewiston Coaling, stretching his infantry line westward along Lewiston Lane until it met the South Fork close to Lewis's Mill. Artillery bolstered the right and center of his formation, sixteen guns total, rounding out his defensive arrangement.
By 5 a.m. Winder's brigade had made it across the river and formed up to strike eastward through the lowland. Two of his regiments, the 2nd and 4th Virginia, were dispatched into the woods to swing around the Union line and hit the Coaling from the flank. As the main Confederate line pushed forward, Union artillery fire proved so punishing that the advance stalled entirely. Confederate guns rolled onto the open plain to answer, but found themselves outmatched and had to pull back to less exposed ground. Ewell's brigades were called up quickly to get across the river. Because the Union guns at the Coaling looked so formidable, Jackson dispatched Richard Taylor's brigade, the Louisiana Tigers among them, off to the right through the woods to bolster the flanking effort struggling through dense brush.
Winder pushed his brigade forward again against the Union right and center, suffering steep losses in the process. Tyler shifted two regiments from the Coaling over to his right flank and struck back, pushing the Confederates rearward almost half a mile. During this same stretch of fighting, the earliest Confederate regiments tested the Coaling's defenses and were turned away.
The opposition proved tougher than expected, so Jackson directed whatever Ewell troops remained north of Port Republic to cross both rivers and set fire to the North Fork bridge. As these fresh troops reached Winder, his line stiffened and the Union counterattack lost momentum. Meanwhile Taylor's men worked their way through the woods opposite the Coaling and struck hard, seizing the hill along with five cannon. Tyler answered at once, throwing his reserves into a counterattack, and his men wrestled the position back through brutal close combat. Taylor then moved one regiment far to the right to get around the Union flank, and the Confederates surged forward once more, this time capturing the Coaling for good. The five guns taken there were turned on the remaining Union troops. Once the Coaling fell, holding the line along Lewiston Lane became impossible, and around 10:30 a.m. Tyler pulled his men back. Jackson then called for his whole force to move forward.
A fresh brigade under William B. Taliaferro arrived from Port Republic and chased the retreating Union soldiers several miles up the Luray Road, sweeping up several hundred prisoners along the way. The Confederates held the field when the fighting ended. Just past noon, Frémont's army started forming along the South Fork's west bank, arriving too late to help Tyler's beaten command, and could only look on from across the flooded river. Frémont posted artillery on the bluffs above to harass the Confederates from there. Jackson pulled his army back gradually along a narrow woodland road and gathered his forces near Mt. Vernon Furnace. He anticipated that Frémont might cross the river to attack the next day, but Frémont instead pulled back toward Harrisonburg overnight.
Following the twin losses at Cross Keys and Port Republic, Union forces pulled back, ceding the upper and middle Shenandoah Valley to Jackson. This left his troops free to march east and bolster Lee's defense of Richmond during the Seven Days Battles.
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