Although Kernstown Battlefield park is gated in the winter, you can visit from May to October and it is worth seeing. A number of historical markers interpret the site and volunteers staff a visitors center in one of the farm buildings. The farm itself is attractive, with green grass, curving lanes, and a large barn. All this is within walking distance of Creekside Station Shopping Center. The battlefield lies at the southwest boundary of the city of Winchester.
An interpretive marker tells us that "Fighting swirled around the home during the First and Second Battles of Kernstown, as it did during smaller engagements on June 13, 1863, and August 17, 1864." The Pritchard family took shelter in their cellar as battle raged around them.
When the fighting subsided, the home was used as a field hospital, and Helen Pritchard, a Unionist from New York, personally cared for many wounded Union soldiers in the house. “If it had not been for me,” she recalled, “they would have died...” After Second Kernstown, Confederate soldiers carried the mortally wounded Colonel James A. Mulligan of the Union army into the house. A Confederate surgeon offered what little medical care he could, and a priest from the Louisiana Tiger Brigade gave Mulligan his Last Rites. Two days after the battle, Mulligan died peacefully as Helen Pritchard cradled his head in her arms.
Pictured: Helen Johnston and son, Samuel Reese Pritchard, c. 1860
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