Battle of Cedar Creek

A-56

In early Oct. 1864, portions of Union Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan's army bivouacked here on the hills and rolling farmland just north of Cedar Creek along the Valley Turnpike (present-day U.S. Rte. 11). Just before daybreak on 19 Oct., Confederate Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early's infantry divisions surprised and attacked the Federals, routing two of Sheridan's three infantry corps. Maj. Gen. Horatio G. Wright, commanding in Sheridan's absence, organized a retreat north. Sheridan arrived on the battlefield from Winchester by midmorning and rode along the front to rally his men. By late afternoon the Federals had counterattacked Early's left front and crushed the Confederate troops, who fled south.

Department of Historic Resources, 2000

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Cedar Creek Battlefield and Belle Grove, National Register of Historic Places Nomination File (34-002), DHR; Patricia L. Faust, ed., Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1986), 121; John S. Salmon, The Official Virginia Civil War Battlefield Guide (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, forthcoming).