Rude's Hill
Jackson in Shenandoah County, Virginia, United States, primarily known because it was a strategically placed elevation on which many Civil War events occurred.
It was named after the Danish Lutheran minister Anders Rudolph Rude,[2] who arrived in the US in 1836 and married the widow of the Steenbergen plantation.
[5] With Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks approaching with 20,000 troops, Jackson was planning to make a stand on Rude's Hill but his cavalry, under pressure of the Union's skirmishing advance on the 16th, had failed to destroy the gateway bridge over Mill Creek at Mt.
So Jackson withdrew south on April 17, but ultimately defeated Union generals in a series of moves and battles up and down the Shenandoah Valley from May to June, 1862.
Jackson's dispatches from this headquarters bore the dateline, “Rude’s Hill," a name that stuck due to its continuing role in the war.
On May 14, a delaying action was fought at Rude's Hill by elements of the Confederate 18th Virginia Cavalry, under the overall command of Col. John Imboden.
After losing the battle on May 15, Union General Franz Sigel managed to organize a rearguard on Rude's Hill, with infantry east of the turnpike, some cavalry west of the road and the artillery behind the line.
Weller's nearby Locust Grove house on Rude's Hill, where he was left for a period of time until his identity was subsequently discovered by Union General Sheridan's troops.
He was secreted away from Rude's Hill by a small band of Confederates when the Federals had temporarily left, thinking he was too incapacitated to move and thus did not need a guard.
[8] Later in November 1864 the hill overlooking the North Branch of the Shenandoah River and the Valley Turnpike again became a battlefield, as divisions of Philip Sheridan's Union cavalry engaged Confederate General Jubal A.
[9] Two of Sheridan's Union cavalry divisions pursued Early, who rallied and deployed his remaining Confederate infantry in line across the top of the hill on November 22, 1864.
Early then reteated from Rude's Hill to Harrisonburg, eventually retreating to the entrance of the Shenandoah Valley at Browns Gap in the Blue Ridge.
Along the way they encountered a Union cavalry guard and for reasons unknown revolvers were drawn and the Confederates robbed the Federals of their horses and property.
The men, fearful of retribution, went to the Union camp on Rude's Hill to explain the situation and return the horses and property, and were forgiven.
But the hill, which was such a strategic point on the Valley Pike, is barely discernible by passers-by in today's vehicles moving fast on paved roads.
