The Battle of Cool Spring, also known as Castleman's Ferry, Island Ford, Parker's Ford, and Snicker's Ferry, was a battle in the American Civil War fought July 17–18, 1864, in Clarke County, Virginia, as part of the Valley Campaigns of 1864. The battle was a Confederate victory.
After the Battle of Fort Stevens on July 11, a Union column, consisting of the VI Corps and elements of the XIX Corps under Maj. Gen. Horatio Wright, pursued Lt. Gen. Jubal Early's Army of the Valley northwestward as it withdrew from the environs of Washington, D.C., through Loudoun County, Virginia. On July 15, Wright's force was joined by elements of Brig. Gen. George Crook's command, which had accompanied Maj. Gen. David Hunter during his retreat through West Virginia following the Battle of Lynchburg on June 18.
After two brief engagements in Loudoun County at Heaton's Crossroads (present day Purcellville) and Woodgrove on July 16, Early's main force crossed west over the Blue Ridge Mountains at Snickers Gap and established themselves around Berryville. To cover his rear, Early left substantial rearguard forces at main river crossings of the Shenandoah River. On July 17, the Union cavalry passed westward through Snicker's Gap and unsuccessfully attempted to force passage of the river at Castleman's Ferry (Snicker's Ford).
The following day, Union Generals Crook and Wright arrived at Snicker's Gap and determined to attack what they mistakenly thought was a light picket line of Confederates along the river, left to cover Early's retreat up the Valley. Instead of allowing his cavalry to cross the river and reconnoiter the Confederate positions to confirm this assumption, he dispatched them to Ashby's Gap to attack Early's supply train, which was traveling to the south of Early's main army. Wright then developed a plan where a small Federal force would cross the river northward, downstream from the main crossing at Castleman's Ferry and flank the Confederate position. Gen. Crook assigned Col. Joseph Thoburn to this task.
At 3 p.m., Thoburn crossed the Shenandoah below Castleman's Ferry, at Judge Richard Parker's Ford, quickly driving off a small force of Confederate pickets. The pickets quickly alerted their commanders, Maj. Gens. John B. Gordon and John C. Breckinridge, of the Federal advance. Gordon responded by moving a division to the vicinity of the ford, using a small ridge that lay between him and the Federals to screen his movements. Breckinridge ordered Brig. Gen. Gabriel C. Wharton and Maj. Gen. Robert E. Rodes to the ford; they deployed along Gordon's left flank, with Wharton forming the center. Wharton's sharpshooters quickly drove back Thoburn's skirmishers who occupied a valley between the ridge on which the Confederates were lined and the high ground along the riverbank where the first of two federal lines was formed in front of a stone fence. A reserve line was located on the low sunken bank of the river behind the stone fence, well protected and concealed from the Confederates.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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