Battle of Moorefield (Oldfields)

Averell’s Union cavalry attacked McCausland’s Confederate cavalry returning from the burning of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. The Confederates were surprised in their camps at dawn, and over 400 were captured.

Double Toll Gate

Early turned back Union cavalry east of Winchester attempting to cut the Valley Pike. Both armies continued moving south.

Guard Hill

Confederate reinforcements under Richard Anderson moved north to join Early around Winchester and ran into Merritt’s Union cavalry division north of Front Royal. Union cavalry under George Custer captured over 300 Confederates in a sudden attack. The remaining Union infantry at the Cedar Creek bivouac began their retreat to Winchester at dusk.

Summit Point

Early attacked the Union infantry at Cameron’s Depot with Rodes’ Division while Anderson struck the cavalry at Summit Point, north of Berryville. Sheridan continued to withdraw from Charles Town to Halltown.

Smithfield Crossing

Union cavalry were driven back from an attempted crossing of the Opequon, but a follow up attack by infantry restored the Union line along the creek.

Battle of Berryville

Kershaw’s Confederate Infantry Division attacked Thoburn’s Division of Brevet Major General George Crook’s Army of West Virginia at Berryville. Kershaw drove in Thoburn’s flank before the rest of the Crook’s men restored the position. Overnight Early reinforced Kershaw with the rest of the army but decided in the morning that the Union defences were too tough to attack.

Crook’s Army of West Virginia – also known as the 8th Corps – had fought in western Virginia for most of the war and now make up one of Sheridan’s three infantry corps. Crook had been roomates with Sheridan at West Point, and remained friends.

Third Battle of Winchester (Opequon)

Sheridan attacked west from Berryville, hoping to catch Early’s scattered army and defeat it in detail. But delays from trying to move three army corps up the narrow Berryville canyon gave Early time to force march his scattered infantry and reconcentrate east of Winchester.

The fight went on all day. Confederate General Robert Rodes and Union General David Russel were killed within a short distance of each other as the fighting seesawed back and forth.By late afternoon Crook’s two divisions outflanked the main Confederate line on the north and Union cavalry overran Early’s line north of Winchester in a thundering saber charge, the largest of the war. Early’s line collapsed and his army retreated through Winchester and south twenty miles to Fisher’s Hill.

Sheridan lost 5,000 men, about 12% of his army. Early lost 3,500, but these were over 25% of his smaller force. It was the bloodiest battle fought in the Shenandoah Valley.

Battle of Fisher’s Hill

Crook’s plan worked perfectly. While most of Sheridan’s men kept the attention of the Confederate defenders by preparing to make a frontal assault, Crook’s corps worked its way along the densely wooded mountain on the Confederate flank. In the afternoon they charged down the mountainside “like an avalanch.” The Confederate line unraveled in panic.

The rest of the Union line launched their assault against rapidly emptying Confederate trenches. Compared to the Third Battle of Winchester three days before, Fisher’s Hill was almost bloodless – 30 Confederates and 51 Federals were killed, and 200 Confederates and 400 Federals wounded. Early, however, lost over a thousand prisoners, over a tenth of his army badly reduced army.

Sheridan’s victory was not complete. He had sent two of his three cavalry divisions around Massanutton Mountain in a wide flanking movement that the hoped would come in behind Early’s line of retreat to New Market. But Confederate cavary blocked the attempt near Luray and it failed.

The Burning

Beginning near Staunton, Sheridan slowly withdrew down the Valley, destorying its manufacturing and agricultural capability as he went. Public buildings as well as mills and barns were burned, livestock were herded away and crops were removed or destroyed.

Battle of Tom’s Brook

Tired of the Confederate harassment, Sheridan told his cavalry commander, A.T.A. Torbert, to “whip the enemy or get whipped.” When they reached Tom’s Brook, Merritt’s and Custer’s divisions of Union cavalry turned on their tormentors and made use of their superior numbers and repeating carbines to route the Confederate horsemen. They were chased twenty miles up the Valley Pike in what would come to be known as the “Woodstock Races.”

Battle of Hupps Hill

Early returned down the Valley and probed the Union camps along Cedar Creek. Thoburn’s Union infantry division advanced and clashed with Kershaw’s Confederates, with about 200 casualties on each side. Sheridan decided that sending his Sixth Corps back to Grant may have been premature and ordered Wright to return to the Union bivouac around Cedar Creek.

Battle of Cedar Creek

Early launched a dawn attack in a heavy fog on the sleeping Union camps. His lead column made a night march along a narrow path at the foot of Massanutton Mountain to fall on the Union left flank. Crook’s Eighth Corps took off for the rear in confusion. Emory’s Ninteenth Corps had a little more warning and is able to form a battle line, but after desperate resistance they, too were overwhelmed and headed for the rear. The Sixth Corps camps had the most warning and were able to meet the Confederate attack, although they were forced to withdraw to a series of fallback positions.

But the Confederate attack began stalling out. The chaotic fighting in the early morning fog disrupted the attackers almost as much as the defenders. Many of the hungry, ragged, and barefoot Confederates took time out among the richly laden Union camps to eat and find warm clothes for the coming winter. And while several of his commanders were anxious to finish the work, Early seemed content with the damage he had done so far and believed the Union Sixth Corps would fall back without further pressure.

Meanwhile Sheridan had heard the gunfire off in the distance and headed south from Winchester along the Valley Pike. As he ran into refugees from the battle heading to the rear he convinced many to turn back and follow him to “take back our camps” and “make coffee out of Cedar Creek tonight.” He reached the battlefield around mid-morning, where the Sixth Corps and the Union cavalry were still ready to fight.

Sheridan took his time readying his army, reforming Emory’s corps and riding the length of the line so his men could see that he had returned. He launched his attack at 4 p.m. For an hour the fighting was severe, then the Confederate left flank began to crumble. Custer’s cavalry punched through towards the Confederate rear, and the rest of Early’s line began to shred as his men raced the Union troopers to the rear. Confederate General Stephen Ramseur was mortally wounded, and his division joined the retreat.

The collapse of a bridge on the Valley Pike south of Strasburg forced anything with wheels – guns, supply wagons, ambulances – to be left behind to be captured. Early’s army headed south, pausing briefly at Fisher’s Hill and then continuing to New Market. It had fought its last battle.

Aftermath – November

Battle of Waynesboro

The last of Early’s forces were wiped out.

April 1865