Battle of Cedar Creek

Background

By autumn 1864 the Shenandoah Valley mattered to both sides. It fed Lee's army at Petersburg, and Grant had ordered the Union armies to destroy the Confederate armies and cut Lee's supply routes. In June Lee created the Army of the Valley from the Second Corps under Jubal Early, who won at Lynchburg, Second Kernstown and Monocacy and threatened Washington at Fort Stevens. Philip Sheridan took over the Army of the Shenandoah in August, beat Early at Third Winchester and Fisher's Hill in September, and then carried out what became known as the Burning, destroying crops, mills and barns between 26 September and 8 October.

Early was reinforced by Kershaw's division and by Rosser's cavalry, but Custer and Merritt routed the Confederate cavalry at Tom's Brook on 9 October. Sheridan decided the Valley threat was over, sent a raid towards Gordonsville and ordered the VI Corps towards Alexandria, only to recall it on 13 October when Early shelled the XIX Corps camps at Hupp's Hill. On 15 October Sheridan left for Washington. Early used signals that suggested Longstreet was coming from Petersburg, which kept Union cavalry nearby. On 17–18 October his second-in-command, Gordon, climbed Massanutten Mountain, saw that the Union left on Cedar Creek was exposed, and found a narrow trail along the North Fork of the Shenandoah. Early adopted his plan for a three-column attack at dawn.

The armies

Early's army was small and tired. It had five infantry divisions (Ramseur, Pegram, Gordon, under Evans for the flank march, Wharton and Kershaw) and two cavalry divisions under Lomax and Rosser. Numbers disagree: about 21,000 in the American Battlefield Trust and Wikipedia, but 15,265 engaged in the National Park Service count, and one study has about 14,000 effectives. Gordon was Early's second-in-command and the architect of the plan.

The Union army had about 31,600 to 31,900 men: Wright's VI Corps (about 8,500 infantry, commanded in the morning by Ricketts), Emory's XIX Corps (about 8,700, thought less disciplined than the VI), Crook's Army of West Virginia (about 4,000 plus a 1,000-man provisional division) and Torbert's Cavalry Corps of about 7,500 under Merritt, Powell and Custer, armed largely with Spencer carbines. Wright was commanding because Sheridan was away. The camps lay behind Cedar Creek around Belle Grove, with Crook's corps on the left, nearest the North Fork.

The battle

Night march (18–19 October). Gordon's column left at about 20:00 on 18 October, in single file and in silence. Wharton's and Kershaw's columns set out about 01:00, with Early riding with Kershaw. By 03:30 all columns were in place, hidden by dense fog. About 04:00 Rosser skirmished with Custer near Cupp's Mill.

The surprise (about 05:00–07:30). At about 05:00 Kershaw attacked Thoburn's division of the Army of West Virginia, and the surprise was nearly complete. Thoburn was mortally wounded and only nine of sixteen guns were saved. Hayes's division was overrun by Gordon's column, and the XIX Corps was attacked less than an hour into the battle. Wright was wounded in a bayonet charge. About 05:15 Early joined Wharton's column. The Confederates took many Union guns; Du Pont's battery saved nine of sixteen, and the Army of West Virginia lost 540 captured or missing, and 790 of the XIX Corps' 2,383 casualties were captured or missing. Early joined Gordon between 07:00 and 07:30 and took overall command. Between 07:30 and 08:00 Kershaw and Evans attacked the VI Corps; Ricketts was wounded, and Getty and Lewis Grant took over the corps and his division.

Early halts (about 10:00 onwards). By about 10:00 Early had driven seven Union divisions from their camps and claimed 1,300 prisoners and 24 guns, according to his own claim as reported in s1. The VI and XIX Corps each lost more than 2,000 men over the day. He halted to reorganise. Between about 11:30 and 13:00 he resumed the attack and stopped again. Gordon blamed the halt for a lost opportunity to destroy the Union army.

Sheridan's ride (about 06:00–10:30). Sheridan, at Winchester, heard the guns at about 06:00 and rode out around 09:00. He reached the field at about 10:30. His presence rallied the retreating troops, and the front stabilised enough for the afternoon counterattack.

The counterattack (about 16:00 onwards). Just before 16:00 the Union counterattack began. Merritt's cavalry charges were at first repulsed, and Charles Russell Lowell was mortally wounded. Custer moved on the Cedar Creek bridge, threatening the Confederate rear. Gordon's division broke, the rout spread, and Ramseur was mortally wounded and captured by the 1st Vermont Cavalry.

Rout (about 17:30 to dark). By about 17:30 the last Confederate units (Wharton, Pegram and Wofford's brigade) had crossed Cedar Creek. A small bridge south of Strasburg collapsed, so Confederates abandoned captured Union guns, wagons and much of their own transport. The pursuit ended at nightfall and Early's army retreated south before dawn. Ten of the 21 Medals of Honor awarded for Cedar Creek went to cavalrymen.

Aftermath

The Union official count was 5,665 casualties (644 killed, 3,430 wounded, 1,591 captured or missing). The Confederate estimate is 2,910, with about 300 wagons and ambulances and 43 guns lost. Brigade commanders Bidwell and Lowell died for the Union, and Ramseur for the Confederacy.

The battle ruined Early's army. It never again threatened Washington or the North from the Valley, which ceased to feed Lee. Custer defeated Early at Waynesboro on 2 March 1865 and the Army of the Valley ceased to exist. Along with Winchester and Fisher's Hill, the victory helped Lincoln's re-election in November 1864. Early's reputation fell; Gordon blamed his midday halt.

Sheridan's fame, already considerable, was fixed by Thomas Buchanan Read's poem Sheridan's Ride, and he later became Commanding General of the US Army. An equestrian statue by Gutzon Borglum, dedicated in 1908, stands in Washington. Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park was established in 2002 and covers about 3,700 acres.

Wargaming it

Cedar Creek offers two games in one: a dawn surprise in which the Union is the passive player, and an afternoon reversal. At regiment or brigade scale, with about 30,000 men on one side and 15,000 to 21,000 on the other, it fits a large table. The Union camps, with the exposed left on the North Fork side held by Crook's Army of West Virginia, give a clear set-up; Gordon's flank march can be pre-plotted on a hidden map.

Key decisions are Early's. Does he stop to reorganise at 10:00 and again at 13:00, and what would pushing on have cost? Players can roll to see when Sheridan arrives and how many broken units rally. The cavalry, with Spencer carbines on the Union side and Rosser and Lomax on the other, offers a scenario of its own, and the Cedar Creek bridge and the south of Strasburg collapse give the Confederate retreat a choke point.

What-ifs: Early pushes on at 10:00, as Gordon wanted; Sheridan is delayed; Wright holds the VI Corps together longer. Treat the morning as a hard scenario for the Union player, and balance the afternoon with the lost momentum. Since strengths vary so much, a balanced game might set the Confederates at 15,000 and treat the 21,000 figure as an upper bound.

Maps and pictures