Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1901-10-24
The Battle of Cedar Creek

Thrty-seven years ago, ON the 18th Of
October 1854 the battle of Cedar Creek
in the Shenandoah Valley OF Virginia vas
fought. 1t was the battle which gave Gen.
Philip Sheridan his greatest fame. In the
dramatic interest of it's main features
the surprise of the Union army in the carly
morning; the rout of division after divs-
ion and corps after corps, attacked as the
men in blue rolled half awake out of their
shelter tents and before they had time TO
form for effective resistance the plumber
of the Union camps by the poorly clad
and worse shod Confederates; the stand
of a single infantry division and the Union
cavalry; the arrival of Gen Sheridan; the
rally of the retreating troops; the forma-
ton of a new battle line upon the line of
Getty's division the advance of
Shoridans army ever the field
which the greater part of that
army had given up for lost; the clash
of the hostile lines in fresh and final
breaking from left to right in utter rout;
the recapture of the camps and the Union
guns that had been lost in the morning,
and the capture of as many more
OF Early's guns, and of thousands
of prisoners as the night fell on the re-
gained held-this battle is surpassed by
no battle of The Civil War.
Ten regiments of Vermont volunteers took
part in the battle-the Second, Third
Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eleventh consti-
tuting the First Vermont Brigade; the
Eighth. which was part Of the Second Brig
ade commanded by Col. Stephen Thomas)
of Dwight's division of the Nineteenth
Corps; the Tenth regiment, attached to
the First Brigade of the Third division Of
the Sixth corps, and the First Vermont
Cavalry, of the Second Brigade Command
ed by Col William Wells) of Casters di-
vision of the cavalry corps. Not one Of
these regiments lost its colors or it's or
ganization at any time during the day;
ana each contributed important service in
stubborn resistance and stout fighting, to
the grand result. Their losses aggre gat e 4
100, almost wholly of killed and wounded
Vermont share in the battle was thus not
u small one, and it fitting that this
| battle should be selected as the subject of
the great military painting in the State
| House at Montpelier.
! 1t Is not one of the battles on which
Southern orators are wont to dwell; but
at a recent reunion of Confederate veter-
ans, at Cedar Mountain, Virginia, the
main literary feature of the occasion was
a description of the Battle of Cedar Creek,
read by Major Grimsey, who commanded
one of Early's cavalry regiments in that
battle, A native Vermonter Mr.. George
Drury whose father, the late Lieut.. f. n.
| Drury of Nergennes, was an officer in tn
| Old Second Vermont liz es within ten miles
of Cedar Mountain and was at the pains
To obtain and copy Majol Grmsley's paper
for the FREE RESS, feeling rightly as
sured that it would interest the many Old
soldiers among our readers, and others
whose minds go back to the exciting times
of the Civil War as its anniversaries re-
turn.
The paper is printed in another part OF
this issue of the FREE PRESS We do
not perceive that 1t adds anything of i'm
portance to the history Of the battle. Aside
from the description Of the personal eN-
periences of its writer, it's statements of
facts appear to have been taken chiefly
from Jubal A. Early's Memoir in which
that brave but headstrcng and opinion