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- Feb 23, 2013
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Part V - Aftermath and Legacy of the Battle of Cedar Creek
Phil Sheridan stands at left in a post-battle photo taken in early 1865 along with his chief-of-staff Brig. Gen. James Forsyth, and cavalry commanders Maj. Gen. Wesley Merritt, Brig. Gen. Thomas Devin, and Maj. Gen. George A. Custer.
It was the Union cause in general and Gen. Phil Sheridan in particular that profited most from the overwhelming Federal victory at Cedar Creek: only three weeks later Abraham Lincoln won a landslide victory over his Democratic opponent, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan and "Sheridan's Ride" propelled him to the first rank of Grant's subordinates, right alongside William T. Sherman and David Farragut. Following the battle the Confederacy never attempted to regain control of the Shenandoah Valley; most surviving units were withdrawn to assist in the defense of Petersburg. John B. Gordon was promoted to lead the skeleton-like remains of the Second Corps in Lee's army, while Jubal Early was left with the thankless task of trying to defend with only exhausted cavalry what was left in the Valley. Ultimately, he was smashed by the division of George Custer in the Feb., 1865, Battle of Waynesboro.
As Civil War battles went, Cedar Creek had been a middling affair, only about 31,000 Federals with some 90 cannon versus 21,000 Confederates with less than half as many guns. It wasn't even the largest battle in the Shenandoah - Third Winchester or Opequon the preceding month was slightly larger in terms of men engaged - but it had been bigger than any of the battles of Stonewall Jackson's legendary Valley Campaign two years previously.
Immediately following the battle darkness brought an end to the Federal pursuit, but an outpost was established on Hupp's Hill in the unlikely event Early should ever return and make a similar attempt. A short loop trail leads to trenches and redoubts seen here that were dug by the Union VI Corps which remain in the small regional park.
As usually occurred in the wake of any Civil War battle, all public buildings and many houses in the area as well were pressed into use as hospitals for both sides. Middleton had been surrounded by the worst of the fighting and all its churches like the one below became scenes of death and suffering as they had two years earlier after one of Stonewall Jackson's victories here. Wayside Inn above had been used throughout the war as quarters for generals of both sides and it too became a hospital; in a private house still standing just across the street Union Col. Charles Russel Lowell died of his wounds. For more on Wayside Inn, Col. Russel, and artist-correspondent James E. Taylor please see: http://civilwartalk.com/threads/wayside-inn-middleton-virginia-sleep-where-generals-slept.118333/
The dead of both sides had been buried where they fell, but post-war Federals were removed to Winchester's National Cemetery which had been established on the battlefield of Opequon or Third Winchester where they remain today. Confederate dead from the vicinity including those from several other engagements like Fisher's Hill were relocated in either Winchester's Stonewall Cemetery or the small Strasburg Cemetery seen below with Massanutten Mountain looming in the background.
Visiting the Battlefield Today
Cedar Creek can be a confusing site to visit: although it is considered to be a unit of the National Park Service there is in fact NO park there and the sprawling battle site covers land that is alternately: threatened by urban sprawl emanating from Winchester only a dozen miles away and local quarrying operations that have already obliterated the camp sites of the VI Corps and Union cavalry; hemmed in by I-81 which borders the area to the southeast paralleling U.S. 11 (the Valley Turnpike of the Civil War) and has destroyed part of the VIII Corps camp sites; and protected by a bewildering variety of preservationist organizations like the National Trust and Belle Grove Plantation and the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation.
The NPS maintains a small and almost invisible office in a tiny strip mall in downtown Middleton which contains information, sells books, and is home to an excellent electric fiber-optic map of the battle. Another more obvious visitor station is in a converted residence right on U.S. 11 near the heart of the battlefield and is run by the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation; in fact NPS ranger-led tours of the battlefield originate there. Probably the closest thing to an actual visitor center and museum, however, can be found at the Hupp's Hill Cedar Creek Museum pictured above; formerly called the Stonewall Jackson Museum it has been re-done to better interpret the entire war in the Shenandoah and the Battle of Cedar Creek in particular and features interpretive exhibits, battlefield relics, and artifacts like weapons and ammunition used by both sides.
The map above does NOT correspond to the excellent one provided by the NPS at either their office or that of the Cedar Creek Foundation, or the Foundation's excellent Self-Guided Tour booklet; rather it is provided here to give an idea of my photographs and their relation to each other and the battlefield. Numbers relate to and are in the order I have posted them in this thread and include:
1. Hupp's Hill - before the battle a Confederate observation post and battery site for guns firing on the Union camps beyond Cedar Creek; subsequently site of Federal VI Corps trenches which remain.
2. Hilltop where Thoburn's division of VIII Corps was driven from and Thoburn killed.
3. 128th New York Monument on U.S. 11 (the Valley Turnpike); park here for:
4. Trailhead leading to XIX Corps trenches.
5. Belle Grove Plantation - Headquarters of Wright and Sheridan and where Ramseur died; after the battle the surrounding fields were covered with captured Confederate prisoners and their equipment.
6. Center of the battlefield containing a group of markers and monuments near the wartime Heater House and scene of annual reenactment of the battle.
7. Middletown Cemetery where the stand of Getty's VI Corps division bought time which possibly saved the Union army.
8. Miller's House and Mill ruins - center of the Confederate line in the afternoon near where Ramseur was mortally wounded.
9. Sheridan's Winchester quarters from which he began his famous "ride" to the battlefield.
10. Charles Russel Lowell monument and The Wayside Inn; across the street is the private residence where Lowell died.
11. North Carolina monument dedicated to Ramseur located at the entrance to Belle Grove Plantation.
12. Spengler's (or Spangler's) Mill, now a restaurant where the bridge was blocked allowing virtually all of Early's artillery and trains to be captured by pursuing Union cavalry.
13. Middletown churches used as hospitals after the battle.
14. Strasburg Cemetery and monument dedicated to the unknown Confederate dead buried there.
Note that this map contains both the Oct. 19 battle at Cedar Creek and the earlier Sept. 22 Fisher's Hill which appears at the left.
Redbud in the Spring at Hupp's Hill above and near Cedar Creek below.
Phil Sheridan stands at left in a post-battle photo taken in early 1865 along with his chief-of-staff Brig. Gen. James Forsyth, and cavalry commanders Maj. Gen. Wesley Merritt, Brig. Gen. Thomas Devin, and Maj. Gen. George A. Custer.
It was the Union cause in general and Gen. Phil Sheridan in particular that profited most from the overwhelming Federal victory at Cedar Creek: only three weeks later Abraham Lincoln won a landslide victory over his Democratic opponent, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan and "Sheridan's Ride" propelled him to the first rank of Grant's subordinates, right alongside William T. Sherman and David Farragut. Following the battle the Confederacy never attempted to regain control of the Shenandoah Valley; most surviving units were withdrawn to assist in the defense of Petersburg. John B. Gordon was promoted to lead the skeleton-like remains of the Second Corps in Lee's army, while Jubal Early was left with the thankless task of trying to defend with only exhausted cavalry what was left in the Valley. Ultimately, he was smashed by the division of George Custer in the Feb., 1865, Battle of Waynesboro.
As Civil War battles went, Cedar Creek had been a middling affair, only about 31,000 Federals with some 90 cannon versus 21,000 Confederates with less than half as many guns. It wasn't even the largest battle in the Shenandoah - Third Winchester or Opequon the preceding month was slightly larger in terms of men engaged - but it had been bigger than any of the battles of Stonewall Jackson's legendary Valley Campaign two years previously.
Immediately following the battle darkness brought an end to the Federal pursuit, but an outpost was established on Hupp's Hill in the unlikely event Early should ever return and make a similar attempt. A short loop trail leads to trenches and redoubts seen here that were dug by the Union VI Corps which remain in the small regional park.
As usually occurred in the wake of any Civil War battle, all public buildings and many houses in the area as well were pressed into use as hospitals for both sides. Middleton had been surrounded by the worst of the fighting and all its churches like the one below became scenes of death and suffering as they had two years earlier after one of Stonewall Jackson's victories here. Wayside Inn above had been used throughout the war as quarters for generals of both sides and it too became a hospital; in a private house still standing just across the street Union Col. Charles Russel Lowell died of his wounds. For more on Wayside Inn, Col. Russel, and artist-correspondent James E. Taylor please see: http://civilwartalk.com/threads/wayside-inn-middleton-virginia-sleep-where-generals-slept.118333/
The dead of both sides had been buried where they fell, but post-war Federals were removed to Winchester's National Cemetery which had been established on the battlefield of Opequon or Third Winchester where they remain today. Confederate dead from the vicinity including those from several other engagements like Fisher's Hill were relocated in either Winchester's Stonewall Cemetery or the small Strasburg Cemetery seen below with Massanutten Mountain looming in the background.
Visiting the Battlefield Today
Cedar Creek can be a confusing site to visit: although it is considered to be a unit of the National Park Service there is in fact NO park there and the sprawling battle site covers land that is alternately: threatened by urban sprawl emanating from Winchester only a dozen miles away and local quarrying operations that have already obliterated the camp sites of the VI Corps and Union cavalry; hemmed in by I-81 which borders the area to the southeast paralleling U.S. 11 (the Valley Turnpike of the Civil War) and has destroyed part of the VIII Corps camp sites; and protected by a bewildering variety of preservationist organizations like the National Trust and Belle Grove Plantation and the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation.
The NPS maintains a small and almost invisible office in a tiny strip mall in downtown Middleton which contains information, sells books, and is home to an excellent electric fiber-optic map of the battle. Another more obvious visitor station is in a converted residence right on U.S. 11 near the heart of the battlefield and is run by the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation; in fact NPS ranger-led tours of the battlefield originate there. Probably the closest thing to an actual visitor center and museum, however, can be found at the Hupp's Hill Cedar Creek Museum pictured above; formerly called the Stonewall Jackson Museum it has been re-done to better interpret the entire war in the Shenandoah and the Battle of Cedar Creek in particular and features interpretive exhibits, battlefield relics, and artifacts like weapons and ammunition used by both sides.
The map above does NOT correspond to the excellent one provided by the NPS at either their office or that of the Cedar Creek Foundation, or the Foundation's excellent Self-Guided Tour booklet; rather it is provided here to give an idea of my photographs and their relation to each other and the battlefield. Numbers relate to and are in the order I have posted them in this thread and include:
1. Hupp's Hill - before the battle a Confederate observation post and battery site for guns firing on the Union camps beyond Cedar Creek; subsequently site of Federal VI Corps trenches which remain.
2. Hilltop where Thoburn's division of VIII Corps was driven from and Thoburn killed.
3. 128th New York Monument on U.S. 11 (the Valley Turnpike); park here for:
4. Trailhead leading to XIX Corps trenches.
5. Belle Grove Plantation - Headquarters of Wright and Sheridan and where Ramseur died; after the battle the surrounding fields were covered with captured Confederate prisoners and their equipment.
6. Center of the battlefield containing a group of markers and monuments near the wartime Heater House and scene of annual reenactment of the battle.
7. Middletown Cemetery where the stand of Getty's VI Corps division bought time which possibly saved the Union army.
8. Miller's House and Mill ruins - center of the Confederate line in the afternoon near where Ramseur was mortally wounded.
9. Sheridan's Winchester quarters from which he began his famous "ride" to the battlefield.
10. Charles Russel Lowell monument and The Wayside Inn; across the street is the private residence where Lowell died.
11. North Carolina monument dedicated to Ramseur located at the entrance to Belle Grove Plantation.
12. Spengler's (or Spangler's) Mill, now a restaurant where the bridge was blocked allowing virtually all of Early's artillery and trains to be captured by pursuing Union cavalry.
13. Middletown churches used as hospitals after the battle.
14. Strasburg Cemetery and monument dedicated to the unknown Confederate dead buried there.
Note that this map contains both the Oct. 19 battle at Cedar Creek and the earlier Sept. 22 Fisher's Hill which appears at the left.
Redbud in the Spring at Hupp's Hill above and near Cedar Creek below.
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