The South Carolina Troops at Cedar Creek monument is at Stop Three of the Cedar Creek Battlefield auto tour, along the 19th Corps Entrenchment Trail. (see map below)
About the monument
The monument is a smooth granite column standing rough plinth. The front is topped with the flag of the State of North Carolina, and the rear with the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. Text is on both sides of the monument.
Text from the front of the monument
Maj. Gen. Joseph B. Kershaw’s Division
Brig. Gen. James Conner’s Brigade
(Formerly Kershaw’s)
Maj. James M. Goggin Commanding
2nd South Carolina Infantry
3rd South Carolina Infantry
3rd South Carolina Battalion Sharpshooters
7th South Carolina Infantry
8th South Carolina Infantry
15th South Carolina Infantry
20th South Carolina Infantry
Text from the bottom front of the monument
Erected by by Secession Camp #4, Sons of Confederate Veterans
Stonewall Jackson Chapter #220, United Daughters of the Confederacy
Robert E. Lee Confederate Heritage Assn.
Maj. Egbert A. Ross Camp #1423, Sons of Confederate Veterans
13th N.C. Troops (Reactivated)
August 2019
Text from the rear of the monument
South Carolina remembers with honor her gallant sons who fought
in defense of home and country, in the Army of the Valley District
under Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early, in the Battle of Cedar Creek,
October 19, 1864. Six regiments and one battalion of South Carolina
troops served in the brigade of Gen. James Conner (formerly
Gen. Joseph B. Kershaw’s), which was commanded in the battle by
Maj. James M. Goggin. General Conner having been severely wounded
at Hupp’s Hill on 13 October. This brigade comprised the left flank of
the division of Maj. Gen. Joseph B. Kershaw, and was formed in line of
battle about 1/2 mile south of the earthworks of Col. Joseph Thoburn’s
Division of Maj. Gen. Phillip Sheridan’s Army of the Shenandoah, just
north of Cedar Creek before dawn. Kershaw’s Division attacked those
trenches about 5 a.m., Conner’s brigade moving past the Hite House
to assault the right flank of Thoburn’s position. Kershaw’s brigade
historian Capt. Augustus Dickert, wrote that the Federal earthworks
in this battle were the most formidable the brigade ever encountered.
The division took the position after heavy combat, and attacked north
up the Valley Pike, as other Confederate troops attacked the Union
Army from the east. Conner’s Brigade and Kershaw’s Division next
fought in this vicinity about 6 a.m. for the Union earthworks of Brig.
Gen. Cuvier Grover’s Division of the 19th Corps. The Carolinians fought
the troops Col. Dan Macauley’s Brigade with bayonets and clubbed
muskets capturing the works and continuing the advance. They battled
the enemy south of and to the west of Belle Grove, cooperating in
assaults of a Union strongpoint known as Red Hill. Kershaw’s Division
continued the advance north after the collapse of the Red Hill position
and became next to the leftmost division in the Confederate advance.
As it moved west and north of Middletown, Maj. Gen. John B. Gordon’s
Division became the left flank of the final Confederate line, with Conner’s
Brigade and Kershaw’s Division to his right. Sheridan’s Army was given
about 4 hours to rest and reorganize during the respite General Early
permitted them. About 4 p.m., the Army of the Shenandoah attacked south
against the formerly victorious Confederates. The superior numbers of
the Federals eventually prevailed, and the left flank of the Confederate
line collapsed about 5 p.m., causing the South Carolinians and their
comrades in the Army of the Valley to retreat south. South Carolina
troops fought valiantly from dawn til dark, in this the second greatest
battle in the Shenandoah Valley during the war.
Deo Vindici
Location of the monument
The South Carolina Troops at Cedar Creek monument is on a walking trail that heads north from a parking area on the north side of the Valley Pike (U.S. 11) at the monument to the 128th New York. It is about 230 yards north of the trailhead. (39°00’38.1″N 78°18’36.7″W)