Action of Toms Brook

Early in Oct. 1864, Union Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan’s Army of the Shenandoah moved north from Harrisonburg toward Winchester, destroying barns, mills, and crops. Confederate cavalry from Lt. Gen. Jubal Early’s corps skirmished with Federal detachments to impede their operations. Sheridan, growing frustrated, ordered an attack. In the action near Toms Brook on 9 Oct., Union Brig. Gen. George Custer routed his West Point friend Brig. Gen. Thomas Rosser about two miles west of here, while Union Brig. Gen. Wesley Merritt bested Brig. Gen. Lunsford Lomax here along the Valley Turnpike. The Confederate retreat became known as the “Woodstock Races.”