Skirmish Report! Federals Take the Kern Farm (Romney) - Day 1 - 4:00 p.m.

At 3:00 p.m., the Federal cavalry that had been at the Taylor farm since morning began to advance on the Confederates across the Northwest Turnpike at Kern.

The Federals closed in through some corn stubble on the north side of the road and the Confederate horsemen fired the first shots of the campaign.

A field officer galloped up from Romney town to support the embattled Federals, who were outnumbered by the Confederates at Kern.

The support wasn't enough and the Federals broke and fled to the rear, but coming up behind the fleeing men was a larger body of cavalry guiding center on the Northwest Turnpike.

The Federals came into range and the Confederate cavalrymen again opened fire, starting a brisk skirmish on the road in front of the Kern Farm.

Outnumbered, the Confederates began taking too many losses and retreated to the rear and then withdrew up the Northwest Turnpike towards Frenchburg.

Confederates left one dead on the field and one man captured. They carried off one prisoner from the initial attack. The Confederate prisoner was identified as being from Company "A" of Ashby's Cavalry. The Federal prisoner was identified as a member of Company "A," 1st Virginia Cavalry (US). Total casualties in the engagement were estimated at 20-25.

Note: The Skirmish was run completely under artificial intelligence (AI). The only human intervention was when the Confederates reached their casualty limit under the rules and were given the retreat order to end the skirmish.