On June 6–7, 1862, the Pennsylvania Bucktails — formally the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves — collided with Stonewall Jackson’s rearguard in the tangled woods outside Harrisonburg, Virginia. Led by the indomitable Colonel Thomas L. Kane, the regiment of frontier marksmen plunged into a sudden, close‑quarters fight against the Louisiana Tigers, a clash fought at brutal range beneath the forest canopy.
Though not an assault on fixed defenses, the encounter was a violent meeting engagement that revealed the deadly unpredictability of Valley warfare, where visibility vanished in the timber and entire companies stumbled into combat at a few paces. A postwar engraving preserves the moment the Bucktails surged forward, capturing the raw courage of volunteer soldiers who met Jackson’s retreating columns with fearless aggression.
Image via LOC
