HistoryNet's America's Civil War: Front Royal Was the Key to the Shenandoah Valley claims that the valley was vital both strategically and agriculturally to Major Gen. Stonewall Jackson during the early 1862. If he loses this valley, then Virginia would be lost, as well as the Confederacy. This valley was very important to the Confederacy due to the Massanutten Mountain where it bisected the valley into two and it is the key to Massanutten of Front Royal.