Battle of Cedar Creek The Battle of Cedar Creek , or Battle of Belle Grove , fought October 19 , 1864 , was the culminating battle of the Valley Campaigns of 1864 during the American Civil War . Confederate Lt . Gen . Jubal Early launched a surprise attack against the encamped army of Union Maj . Gen . Philip Sheridan , across Cedar Creek , northeast of Strasburg , Virginia . During the morning fighting , seven Union infantry divisions were forced to fall back and lost numerous prisoners and cannons . Early failed to continue his attack north of Middletown , and Sheridan , dramatically riding to the battlefield from Winchester , was able to rally his troops to hold a new defensive line . A Union counterattack that afternoon routed Early ' s army . At the conclusion of this battle , the final Confederate invasion of the North was effectively ended . The Confederacy was never again able to threaten Washington , D . C . , through the Shenandoah Valley , nor protect one of its key economic bases in Virginia . The stunning Union victory aided the reelection of Abraham Lincoln and won Sheridan lasting fame . Background . Grant ' s strategy in 1864 . At the beginning of 1864 , Ulysses S . Grant was promoted to lieutenant general and given command of all Union armies . He chose to make his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac , although Maj . Gen . George G . Meade remained the actual commander of that army . He left Maj . Gen . William Tecumseh Sherman in command of most of the western armies . Grant understood the concept of total war and believed , along with Sherman and President Abraham Lincoln , that only the utter defeat of Confederate forces and their economic base would bring an end to the war . Therefore , scorched earth tactics would be required in some important theaters . He devised a coordinated strategy that would strike at the heart of the Confederacy from multiple directions : Grant , Meade , and Maj . Gen . Benjamin Butler against Robert E . Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia near Richmond ; Sherman to invade Georgia and capture Atlanta ; and Maj . Gen . Nathaniel P . Banks to capture Mobile , Alabama . Shenandoah Valley . The final coordinated offensive was to be conducted by Maj . Gen . Franz Sigel through the Shenandoah Valley . During the Civil War , the Valley was one of the most important geographic features of Virginia . The watershed of the Shenandoah River passed between the Blue Ridge Mountains on the east and the Allegheny Mountains to the west , extending 165 miles southwest from the Potomac River at Shepherdstown and Harpers Ferry , at an average width of 25 miles . By the conventions of local residents , the " upper Valley " referred to the southwestern end , which had a generally higher elevation than the lower Valley to the northeast . Moving " up the Valley " meant traveling southwest , for instance . Between the North and South Forks of the Shenandoah River , Massanutten Mountain soared 2 , 900 feet and separated the Valley into two halves for about 50 miles , from Strasburg to Harrisonburg . During the 19th century , there was but a single road that crossed over the mountain , from New Market to Luray . The Valley offered two strategic advantages to the Confederates . First , a Northern army invading Virginia could be subjected to Confederate flanking attacks pouring through the many wind gaps across the Blue Ridge . Second , the Valley offered a protected corridor that allowed Confederate armies to head north into Pennsylvania unimpeded , and a hard - surfaced road , the Valley Pike ( current U . S . Route 11 ) , allowed relatively swift movement ; this was the route taken by Lee to invade the North in the Gettysburg Campaign of 1863 . In contrast , the orientation of the Valley offered little advantage to a Northern army headed toward Richmond . But denying the Valley to the Confederacy would be a significant blow . It was an agriculturally rich area — the 2 . 5 million bushels of wheat produced in 1860 , for example , accounted for about 19 % of the crop in the entire state and the Valley was also rich in livestock — that was used to provision Virginia ' s armies and the Confederate capital of Richmond . ( Mark Grimsley , writing in " The Hard Hand of War " , argues that by 1864 Lee was receiving most of his supplies from the Deep South , so that the agricultural importance of the Valley has been overstated . The Union wanted to control it to close the invasion route to the North and to deny the use of its supplies to guerrillas operating in the area . ) If the Federals could capture Staunton in the upper Valley , they would threaten the vital Virginia and Tennessee Railroad , which ran from Richmond to the Mississippi River . Sigel and Hunter . Sigel , in command of the Department of West Virginia , had orders from Grant to move " up the Valley " with 10 , 000 men to destroy the railroad center at Lynchburg . Sigel ' s force was quickly intercepted by 4 , 000 Confederate troops under Maj . Gen . John C . Breckenridge , and defeated at the Battle of New Market on May 15 . He retreated to Strasburg and was replaced by Maj . Gen . David Hunter . Hunter resumed the Union offensive and defeated Brig . Gen . William E . " Grumble " Jones , who was killed in the Battle of Piedmont on June 6 . Hunter occupied Staunton and joined with Brig . Gen . George Crook . His force of 20 , 000 men , ordered by Grant to live off the land , began a campaign of destruction . Early ' s campaign . Gen . Robert E . Lee , whose Army of Northern Virginia was being maneuvered by Grant into a siege around Richmond and Petersburg , was also concerned about Hunter ' s advances in the Valley . He sent his Second Corps , now designated the Army of the Valley , under Jubal Early to sweep Union forces from the Valley and , if possible , to menace Washington , D . C . , hoping to compel Grant to dilute his forces around Petersburg . Early was operating in the shadow of Thomas J . " Stonewall " Jackson , whose 1862 Valley Campaign against superior forces was fabled in Confederate history . Early got off to a good start . He drove down the Valley without opposition , bypassed Harpers Ferry , crossed the Potomac River , and advanced into Maryland . Grant dispatched a corps under Maj . Gen . Horatio G . Wright and other troops under Crook to reinforce Washington and pursue Early . Early defeated a smaller force under Maj . Gen . Lew Wallace in the Battle of Monocacy on July 9 , but this battle delayed his progress enough to allow time for the reinforcement of the defenses of Washington . Early attempted some tentative attacks against Fort Stevens ( July 11 – 12 ) on the northern outskirts of Washington , but then withdrew to Virginia . A number of small battles ensued as the Union pursued , including the defeat of Crook at the Second Battle of Kernstown on July 24 . Sheridan ' s campaign . Grant decided that Early ' s threat had to be eliminated , particularly in the wake of a cavalry raid that burned Chambersburg . He saw that Washington had to be heavily defended as long as Early was still on the loose . One problem was that Early ' s moves cut through four federal departments . Grant considered unity of command to be essential and recommended George Meade for the position , but Lincoln vetoed that because Radicals had launched a major political attack on Meade . Grant ' s next choice was a man aggressive enough to defeat Early : Philip Sheridan , the cavalry commander of the Army of the Potomac . Sheridan took command of all forces in West Virginia , western Maryland , and the Shenandoah Valley , the Middle Military Division ; his field army was called the Army of the Shenandoah . Sheridan initially started slowly , primarily because the impending presidential election of 1864 demanded a cautious approach , avoiding any disaster that might lead to the defeat of Abraham Lincoln . After a month of maneuvering with a few small battles between Sheridan and Early , the Confederates became complacent about the threat . Robert E . Lee ordered Maj . Gen . Joseph B . Kershaw ' s division to return to Richmond on September 16 . Sheridan reacted immediately and struck Early with his entire force near Winchester , on September 19 . The Battle of Opequon ( the Third Battle of Winchester ) was the largest of the campaign and Early sustained ruinous casualties . His army retreated to the south , taking up defensive positions on a long ridge called Fisher ' s Hill . Although this position was theoretically nearly impregnable , Early lacked the manpower to hold the entire line in strength . Sheridan hit Early in a flanking attack on September 22 , again routing the Confederates , who retreated to Waynesboro . With Early damaged and pinned down , the Valley lay open to the Union . And because of Sherman ' s capture of Atlanta , Lincoln ' s re - election now seemed assured . Sheridan pulled back slowly down the Valley and conducted a scorched earth campaign that would foreshadow Sherman ' s March to the Sea in November . The goal was to deny the Confederacy the means of feeding its armies in Virginia , and Sheridan ' s army did so aggressively , burning crops , barns , mills , and factories . The operation , conducted primarily from September 26 to October 8 , has been known to locals ever since as " the Burning " or " Red October " . It encompassed the area of Harrisonburg , Port Republic , Staunton , and Waynesboro . Early was reinforced by the return of Kershaw ' s division and the arrival of Maj . Gen . Thomas L . Rosser ' s cavalry division . As Sheridan began to withdraw down the Valley and Early began to pursue , Union cavalry defeated Rosser at Tom ' s Brook on October 9 . The Union army encamped north of Cedar Creek , in parts of Frederick , Shenandoah , and Warren counties . Prelude to battle . Believing that Early could no longer muster attacks after more than a month of battling , Sheridan ordered the VI Corps under Maj . Gen . Horatio G . Wright to return to the Petersburg siege lines . However , Early ' s troops arrived at Hupp ' s Hill , just north of Strasburg , on October 13 , deployed in battle formation , and began shelling Federal camps around Belle Grove plantation . Col . Joseph Thoburn ' s Union division moved forward to silence the guns and engaged in a sharp fight with Kershaw ' s division , resulting in 209 Union casualties , 182 Confederate . Sheridan recalled Wright ' s corps , which by this time had reached Ashby ' s Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains . He departed on October 16 for a conference in Washington with Secretary of War Edwin M . Stanton , accompanied by his Cavalry Corps as far as Front Royal , intending that those two divisions would then raid the Virginia Central Railroad . However , Sheridan changed his plan when he was notified that Early was sending wig - wag signals implying that Lt . Gen . James Longstreet ' s corps might join him from Petersburg . This was disinformation on Early ' s part , hoping that it would induce the Federals to withdraw down the Valley , but instead Sheridan brought all of his forces back to the camps along Cedar Creek . In a letter of October 12 , 1864 , Lee told Early , " You had better move against him and endeavor to crush him . . . . I do not think Sheridan ' s infantry or cavalry numerically as large as you suppose . " Early examined the Union position behind Cedar Creek and found an opening . Expecting an attack across the open valley floor to the west , the Union left relied on natural obstacles for cover . Furthermore , Sheridan expected each of his subordinate commands to provide for its own security , using pickets deployed well forward of their camps . General Crook ' s army was not accustomed to that practice and discounted Sheridan ' s guidance , leaving the Union left more vulnerable . Early ' s choice was either to retire from the area to replenish his dwindling supplies or to attack . He chose boldness and planned an assault on superior forces , using surprise to his advantage — cross the North Fork of the Shenandoah River and Cedar Creek to attack the Union left , rolling up the line and defeating each part in detail . On October 18 , the eve of battle , Sheridan was spending the night in Winchester , on his way back from the Washington conference . Maj . Gen . Horatio G . Wright was in temporary command of the Army of the Shenandoah . Opposing forces . Union . Sheridan ' s Army of the Shenandoah consisted of 31 , 610 men ( effectives ) and 90 artillery pieces , organized as follows : Confederate . Early ' s Army of the Valley consisted of 21 , 102 men ( effectives ) and more than 40 artillery pieces , organized as follows : Battle . Confederate attacks . Early ' s men began to form into three columns on the evening of October 18 . Gordon ' s column ( the divisions of Ramseur , Pegram , and Evans ) , with the farthest to march , departed just after it became dark , about 8 p . m . They stealthily followed a narrow path ( a " pig path " ) between the Shenandoah and the nose of Massanutten Mountain , previously scouted by Gordon and mapmaker , Maj . Jedediah Hotchkiss . The path required single file passage in places , and did not support the movement of artillery . The columns of Wharton and Kershaw departed at about 1 a . m . on October 19 , and all three columns of infantry were in position by 3 : 30 a . m . Rosser ' s cavalry prepared to advance along the western side of the valley to attack in the vicinity of Cupp ' s Ford . ( The 300 - man cavalry brigade of Col . William H . Payne , Rosser ' s division , was assigned to lead Gordon ' s men to the battle and then break off in an attempt to reach Belle Grove and capture General Sheridan from his headquarters . The Confederates were unaware that Sheridan was not present that morning . ) Lomax ' s cavalry was to advance on the Front Royal – Winchester Road to cut off any Union withdrawal in the area of Newtown ( current Stephens City ) . Surprise was virtually complete and most of the Army of West Virginia troops were caught unprepared in their camps . The Confederates ' quiet approach was complemented by the presence of heavy fog . Kershaw ' s Division attacked the trenches of Col . Joseph Thoburn ' s division at 5 a . m . A few minutes later , Gordon ' s column attacked the position of Col . Rutherford B . Hayes ' s division . Crook ' s division - sized " army " was overwhelmed and many fled , half - dressed , in panic . A brigade under Col . Thomas Wildes was one of the more alert units , and it conducted a fighting withdrawal over 30 minutes to the Valley Pike . Heroic leadership by Capt . Henry A . du Pont , acting chief of Crook ' s artillery , saved nine of his sixteen cannons while he kept them in action , stalling the Confederate advance , eventually establishing a rallying point for the Union north of Middletown . ( Du Pont later received the Medal of Honor and a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel in the regular army for his efforts . ) At the XIX Corps camps , General Emory reacted to the sounds of battle and Crook ' s fleeing men entering his lines by reorienting his lines to face Gordon ' s oncoming attack . In doing so , he removed a covering force that was protecting a bridge over Cedar Creek , allowing Wharton ' s column to move forward unimpeded at 5 : 40 a . m . Col . Wildes ' s brigade of Crook ' s army was ordered by Emory to stop its withdrawal , turn around , and attack the advancing Confederates to buy more time for reorienting the Union lines . General Wright accompanied Wildes and received a painful wound to his chin . The XIX Corps brigade of Col . Stephen Thomas made a similar gallant stand for over 30 minutes while McMillan ' s division withdrew through the thin lines of Grover ' s division . These actions around Belle Grove delayed the Confederates enough that most of the headquarters units and supply trains were able to withdraw to safety and the VI Corps could prepare a better defense on the high ground just northwest of the plantation . The three divisions of the VI Corps were able to establish proper defensive lines . Kiefer ' s division aligned itself with Cedar Creek , but as retreating XIX Corps soldiers flowed through , they were unable to hold their position and withdrew to just west of Meadow Brook . Elements of McMillan ' s division and Merritt ' s cavalry extended their line to the west . At 7 : 15 a . m . , Kershaw ' s Division hit the line hard , gradually forcing it back . Wheaton ' s division , just to the north , was similarly forced back by Gordon ' s continued attack . The two Union divisions eventually linked up about a mile to the northeast , joining with Getty ' s division , which was pulling back from a fierce fight at the Middletown cemetery . Getty had originally marched his division toward the sound of battle , but when Wheaton withdrew , his men were unsupported . Briefly defending a slight rise south of Middletown , at 8 a . m . he moved his division to the town cemetery , on a hill to the west . For over an hour , Getty ' s division defended this position against assaults from four Confederate divisions . Jubal Early assumed by the ferocity of the defense that he was fighting the entire VI Corps . He allowed himself to become distracted , which diluted the momentum of the overall Confederate attack . Directing all of his artillery to concentrate on the cemetery position for 30 minutes , he was able to dislodge Getty ' s division , ordered to withdraw to the main Federal line , now being formed about a mile to the north , by temporary commander Brig . Gen . Lewis A . Grant . ( The VI Corps ' temporary commander , Brig . Gen . James B . Ricketts , had been wounded and Getty assumed corps command . ) Sheridan ' s Ride . Sheridan was at Winchester at the start of the battle . At 6 a . m . , pickets south of Winchester reported back that they heard the distant sounds of artillery . Not expecting any significant action from Early that day , Sheridan dismissed the report . As additional reports arrived , he assumed it was " Grover ' s division banging away at the enemy simply to find out what he was up to , " but he ordered his horse , Rienzi , to be saddled and ate a quick breakfast . At 9 a . m . he departed with three staff officers , and soon he was joined by a 300 - man cavalry escort , and with them he rode aggressively to his command . He noticed that the sounds of battle were increasing in volume quickly , so he inferred that his army was retreating in his direction . At Newtown , he ordered a young officer from Crook ' s staff , Capt . William McKinley , to set up a line that would intercept stragglers and send them back to the battlefield . He reached the battle about 10 : 30 a . m . and began to rally his men to complete the defensive line north of Middletown that General Wright had begun to organize . His presence electrified the Union soldiers and he shouted , " Come on back , boys ! Give ' em hell , God damn ' em ! We ' ll make coffee out of Cedar Creek tonight ! " General Sheridan wrote in his official report an account of the famous ride : Thomas Buchanan Read wrote a popular poem , " Sheridan ' s Ride " , to commemorate Sheridan ' s exploit . The general took notice of the widespread public acclaim by renaming his horse " Winchester " . In 1908 , Gutzon Borglum created an equestrian statue of Sheridan and Winchester riding to Cedar Creek , which stands in Sheridan Circle , Washington , D . C . The " fatal halt " . Fortunately for Sheridan , Early ' s men were too occupied to take notice of the Union general ' s dramatic arrival ; they were hungry and exhausted and fell out of their ranks to pillage supplies from the Union camps . By 10 a . m . , Jubal Early had developed a stunning Confederate victory , capturing 1 , 300 Union prisoners , 24 cannons , and driving seven infantry divisions off the field with a smaller force . But rather than exploiting his victory , Early ordered a halt in his offensive to reorganize , a decision for which he later received criticism from his surviving subordinates . John B . Gordon wrote years later , " My heart went into my boots . Visions of the fatal halt on the first day at Gettysburg , and of the whole day ' s hesitation to permit an assault on Grant ' s exposed flank on the 6th of May in The Wilderness rose before me . " Early wrote to Robert E . Lee , " So many of our men had stopped in the camp to plunder ( in which I am sorry to say that officers participated ) , the country was so open , and the enemy ' s cavalry so strong , that I did not deem it prudent to press further , especially as Lomax had not come up . " The two armies stood about a mile apart in lines perpendicular to the Valley Pike . At 1 p . m . Early gave a halfhearted order to Gordon to attack the Union line , but " not if he found the enemy ' s line too strong to attack with success . " Gordon ' s division moved forward against the XIX Corps , with Kershaw and Ramseur ready to support them , but after firing a heavy volley into the Union line , they withdrew . Union counterattack . Sheridan ' s boast about making coffee from Cedar Creek that evening meant that he was immediately contemplating a counterattack . He placed a cavalry division on each end of the line , which was made up of Wright ' s VI Corps and Emory ' s XIX Corps . Crook ' s Army of West Virginia was in reserve . While his cavalry pressed both of Early ' s flanks , Sheridan planned for the XIX Corps to execute a " left half - wheel " to the southeast , pivoting on Getty ' s VI Corps division , and driving the Confederates into the Pike . The main attack began at 4 p . m . , meeting significant Confederate resistance north of Middletown for about an hour . Early ' s left flank began to crumble and Custer ' s cavalry raced into the Confederate rear . Many of the Confederate soldiers panicked as they envisioned their escape route across Cedar Creek being blocked by the Federal cavalrymen who had been so successful during the campaign . After the breakthrough on the Union right , Sheridan stepped up the pressure with an attack on Ramseur ' s Division . General Ramseur was mortally wounded and his men joined the retreat . Although the Confederate artillery made a few delaying stands along the way , Early had lost control of his army . The situation worsened for the Confederates when a small bridge on the Valley Pike collapsed , making it impossible to cross with wagons or artillery over " No Name Creek " south of Strasburg . Early ' s army was forced to abandon all of the captured Union guns and wagons from the morning attack , as well as most of their own . Sheridan ' s pursuit ended at nightfall . The retreating Confederate soldiers gathered temporarily on Fisher ' s Hill and then the army retired the following day to New Market . Aftermath . Casualties for the Union totaled 5 , 665 ( 644 killed , 3 , 430 wounded , 1 , 591 missing ) . Confederate casualties are only estimates , about 2 , 910 ( 320 killed , 1 , 540 wounded , 1 , 050 missing ) . In addition to the mortal wounding of Confederate general Ramseur ( who died at Belle Grove in the company of Union officers who were former colleagues and friends ) , two Union brigadier generals were killed at Cedar Creek : Daniel D . Bidwell and Charles R . Lowell , Jr . The battle was a crushing defeat for the Confederates . They were never again able to threaten the northern states through the Shenandoah Valley , nor protect the economic base in the Valley . In fact , Early still had the problem of feeding his own army . The reelection of Abraham Lincoln was materially aided by this victory and Phil Sheridan earned lasting fame . Ulysses S . Grant ordered a 100 - gun salute be fired in his honor at Petersburg and he was rewarded with a promotion to major general in the regular army . Jubal Early told Jed Hotchkiss that night that the " fatal halt " was because , " the Yankees got whipped and we got scared . " But he soon became bitter about his defeat , heaping blame on his soldiers . He wrote to Robert E . Lee , " but for " their " bad conduct " I " should have defeated Sheridan ' s whole force . " Three days after the battle he addressed his army : " Many of you , including some commissioned officers , yielded to a disgraceful propensity for plunder . . . . Subsequently those who had remained at their post , seeing their ranks thinned by the absence of the plunderer . . . yielded to a needless panic and fled the field in confusion . " Early ' s military career was effectively ended . His surviving units returned to the Army of Northern Virginia in Petersburg that December . He was left for the winter with a command of fewer than 3 , 000 men at Waynesboro . On March 2 , 1865 , Sheridan marched his command to join Grant in Petersburg and Custer ' s cavalry division routed Early ' s small command along the way . Early escaped with a small escort and spent the next two weeks running from Federal patrols before reporting to Lee ' s headquarters . On March 30 , Lee told him to go home . Medals of Honor . Twelve Union enlisted men and nine officers received the Medal of Honor for their actions in the Battle of Cedar Creek . One of the officers was a captain of the 5th U . S . Artillery and future U . S . Senator , Henry A . du Pont . Preserving the Cedar Creek Battlefield . More than of the Cedar Creek Battlefield are preserved as part of the Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park , a partnership park , with much of the land owned by nonprofit preservation groups , including the National Trust for Historic Preservation , the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation , Belle Grove Plantation , the Potomac Conservancy , and the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation . In addition , nonprofit groups such as the Civil War Trust have contributed substantial funding toward protection of these lands . In May 2008 , the Frederick County Board of Supervisors voted to allow Carmeuse Lime and Stone to expand its existing operation on the Cedar Creek Battlefield . The vote permits Carmeuse to mine of core battlefield land at Cedar Creek . In response to this decision , an alliance of national and local preservation groups formed the Cedar Creek and Belle Grove Coalition to increase public awareness about the impact of the new mining on the battlefield , as well as to promote future preservation efforts at Cedar Creek . The 1st Vermont Brigade ' s actions in the battle are commemorated by a large wall - sized painting in the Cedar Creek Room on the second floor of the Vermont State House in Montpelier . In 1997 , proposed highway construction threatened a Virginia ridge where the 8th Vermont Regiment , commanded by Stephen Thomas , lost nearly two - thirds of its men in a heroic early morning stand . The proposal prompted the Vermont State Legislature to adopt a resolution stating that more Vermont units took part in this battle than in any other in the war and asking Virginia to prevent building on the ridge .