Page News & Courier
Heritage and Heraldry
Price’s Mill – witness to the last days of the 1862 Valley Campaign
Article of August 10, 2000
In the aftermath of the victories at Front Royal and Winchester, Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s Army was suddenly in retreat.
While one Union army under Gen. John C. Fremont was bearing down from the North through Shenandoah County on the west side of the Massanutten Mountain, another (a “division” consisting of two brigades under Colonels Samuel S. Carroll and Erastus B. Tyler) under Gen. James Shields was pressing toward the Page Valley. If Shields could move quickly enough and strike across the Luray/New Market Gap to overtake Jackson’s force, he and Fremont could unite and attack with a numerically superior force. Accordingly, Jackson made a rapid retreat along the Valley Pike (current U.S. Rt. 11) toward Harrisonburg.
In order to delay Shields’ advance, Jackson ordered his cavalry commander, Col. Turner Ashby, to destroy both the White House and Columbia bridges in the Page Valley. In addition to the successful burning of the bridges by June 2, Shields’ advance was also plagued by heavy rains that swelled the South Fork of the Shenandoah and turned the rough pikes through the Page Valley into a veritable quagmire. To make matters worse, the lack of supplies in Shields’ army severely hampered morale – while all suffered from the lack of rations, many marched without shoes.
Ultimately, Shields was delayed for three days and was forced to abandon the plan of crossing the Massanutten and uniting with Fremont. By June 7, elements of Shields’ army began moving toward Port Republic and crossed Naked Creek. The following day, elements of Shields’ command, under Col. Carroll, came within a “breath” of capturing “Stonewall” at the town of Port Republic. However, the little effort was greatly overshadowed by the defeat of Fremont at Cross Keys on the same day.
On June 9, Shields’ army was given a chance at Jackson’s army, but also failed and was left to reel in retreat along the path by which it had advanced.
Ultimately, Shields’ command suffered over 1,103 casualties. The 66h Ohio Infantry, which retreated to and made bivouac in the immediate area around Price’s Mill on the evening of June 9, had suffered the second highest number of casualties of all the Union regiments at Port Republic, numbering well over 200 men killed, wounded, and captured or missing.
As Shields’ defeated columns returned to march back through the streets of Luray, one member of the 66th Ohio recalled that “The female portion of the community seemed to enjoy our defeat – hugely! You could see them skipping from door to door happy as larks over the defeat of Shields’ men.” Shields’ army remained in the area of Luray for only a few more days before retreating out of the Valley altogether via Front Royal.
While a later mill now stands near the site of the two previous Price’s Mills, the first original mill was constructed by the Price family early in the 1800s. It is likely that the first mill was destroyed during the period known as the “Burning,” when Union soldiers entered Page County and continued their devastation of the central Shenandoah Valley in October 1864. The mill was replaced after the war by another version.
“Captain” Joseph M. Price, the second generation of Price family mill operators and the owner of the mill at the time of the war, rests in the nearby cemetery overlooking what later became known as the Verbena Mills/Farms.
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