Kammala wannan jumla: A ƙarshen Yuni, 1861, Hotchkiss ya sanya hannu a matsayin mai ɗaukar kaya na Confederate don ɗaukar kayayyaki ga Churchville Cavalry a Rich Mountain, West Virginia. Hotchkiss ya ba da sabis a matsayin mai taswirar zuwa Brig. Janar Richard B. Garnett, wanda brigade Confederate ke aiki a yammacin Virginia. Hotchkiss ya yi aiki a Rich Mountain kuma ya kirkiro taswira don yakin da Janar Robert E. Lee ya shirya a tsaunuka. Ya ɗauki ɗan gajeren izinin likita bayan da ya kamu da cutar typhoid, amma ya koma aiki a watan Maris na 1862 a matsayin babban injiniyan injiniya na Gundumar Valley, yana ba da rahoto ga Maj. Janar Stonewall Jackson. Bayan shan kashi na farko a yakin Kernstown a lokacin mulkinsa
1862 Valley Campaign, a ranar 26 ga Maris, 1862, Jackson ya kira Hotchkiss zuwa hedkwatarsa a Narrow Passage kusa da Woodstock kuma ya umurce shi da ya "yi min taswirar kwarin, daga Harper's Ferry zuwa Lexington, yana nuna duk wuraren da ake kaiwa hari da tsaro [sic] a waɗannan wuraren. " Hotchkiss ta nan da nan shawarar shi ne cewa Jackson ta line a kan Stony Creek a Woodstock ya indefensible, da kuma cewa Jackson ya kamata janye zuwa Rude ta Hill, a defensible kananan promontory kudu na Mt. Jackson. - Ka yi haƙuri. Ya kasance a Rude's Hill cewa Jackson ya sake tsara umurninsa don sauran nasararsa na 1862 a kan Shenandoah Valley.