3rd Winchester • Tour the Battlefield • Battle Maps • Battle Facts • The Armies
—
Red Bud Run • Star Fort • Fort Collier • Rutherford’s Farm
Stephenson Depot • National Cemetery • Confederate Cemetery
“The First Woods – A Perfect Slaughterhouse” wayside marker is about 1.1 miles south of the Redbud Road trailhead on the walking tour of the Civil War Trust’s Third Winchester battlefield site. (see map below)
Looking south from the “First Woods – A Perfect Slaughterhouse” wayside marker along the Civil War Trust’s walking trail of the Third Winchester battlefield outside Winchester, Virginia.
From the marker:
The Third Battle of Winchester
The First Woods – A Perfect Slaughterhouse
As Confederates drove Union Gen. Grover’s 2nd Division back across the fields in front of you, the 1st Division of the Nineteenth Army Corps was moving up to the edge of the First Woods behind you, (the tree line was then some 400 yards further east). Union Gen. William Dwight recalled that his men were barely in position when the 2nd Division “came back … flying over the open ground between the two woods in the grandest disorder.” Union Gen. William H. Emory, commander of the Nineteenth Army Corps exclaimed “My God! … This is a perfect slaughterhouse.” Dwight’s Division joined the action while Emory and Sheridan rallied the fleeing troops. In the fierce melee that ensued, the Southern line was forced back, reforming at the edge of the Second Woods.
On the left of the Nineteenth Corps, the attack of the Sixth Corps had ended in the same fashion, with enemy troops facing each other across the Middle Field. During the next two hours both sides exchanged fire at long range. Meanwhile, several Union regiments, including the 8th Vermont and 12th Connecticut, took positions in the field (to your left front) between the lines to occupy the attention of the Southerners.
“For three mortal hours they [8th Vt. & 12th Conn.] stubbornly held the exposed position, while the ranks were thinned, and the hot carnage raged on every hand. They stood the test without flinching, and many a brave deed was there enacted….”
George Carpenter, 8th Vermont, U.S.A.
The marker is along the walking tour for the Civil War Trust’s Third Winchester battlefield site. It is about 1.1 miles from the Redbud Road trailhead. The trailhead can be reached from the Interstate 81 interchange with U.S. 11 north of Winchester. At the light immediately to the east of the interchange take Redbud Road (County Road 661) south 0.85 mile. Parking for the trailhead is on the south side of Redbud Road. (39°11’51.5″N 78°07’33.9″W)