The Battle of Cross Keys was fought on June 8, 1862, in Rockingham County, Virginia, as part of Confederate Army Maj. Gen. Thomas J.

The army of Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont, about 15,000 strong, moved south on the Valley Pike and reached the vicinity of Harrisonburg on June 6.

Jackson determined to check Frémont's advance at Mill Creek, while meeting Shields on the east bank of the South Fork of the Shenandoah River.

[4] Early in the morning on June 8, Frémont's men encountered the Confederate advanced guard near Cross Keys Tavern.

[5] Colonel Samuel S. Carroll, at the head of a regiment of Union cavalry, supported by an artillery battery and a brigade of infantry, was sent ahead by Shields to secure the North River Bridge at Port Republic.

Shortly after dawn (June 8), Carroll scattered the Confederate pickets, forded the South River, and dashed into Port Republic.

Jackson directed the defense, ordering Captain William T. Poague's battery to unlimber on the north bank.

Col. Samuel V. Fulkerson led his 37th Virginia Infantry in a charge across the bridge, where the gun at the opposite end was firing on them with grape shot, to drive the Union cavalry out of the town.

Three Confederate batteries unlimbered on the bluffs east of Port Republic on the north bank of the South Fork and fired on the retreating Federals.

[9] Frémont determined to advance his battle line with the evident intention of enveloping the Confederate position, assumed to be behind Mill Creek.

The Confederates were mostly armed with smoothbore muskets, which they loaded with buck and ball shot, and the effect at such close range was completely devastating; Stahel lost 300 men in a matter of moments and the remainder of the green, untested soldiers fled in panic.

Different accounts of the battle place various estimates at how close Trimble was to Stahel when his men opened fire, but 40 yards seems to be a probable distance.

The entire episode lasted no more than a minute as the amount of smoke from 1,300 muskets firing quickly made it impossible to see anything and most of the Confederates got off no more than one shot before Stahel's brigade broke and ran.

A Union regiment counterattacked briefly, striking the left flank of the 16th Mississippi, but was forced back in desperate fighting.

[12] Seemingly paralyzed by the decimation of Stahel's brigade on his left, Frémont was unable to mount a coordinated attack.

He ordered Schenck's brigade forward to find the Confederate left flank south of Union Church.

Frémont withdrew his force to Keezletown Road, placing his artillery on the heights to his rear (Oak Ridge).

[14] At dusk, Trimble pushed his battle line forward to within a quarter mile of the Union position, anticipating a night assault.

The trust joined with a local retired surgeon, Irvin Hess, and his wife to purchase the property at auction.