Battle of Cedar Creek – 5 p.m.

Cedar Creek • Tour the Battlefield • Battle Maps • The Armies
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Confederate Collapse

As the Confederate line began to waver, Sheridan’s cavalry charged. Hotly engaged to the front and with thousands of horsemen thundering along their flank, Early’s veterans knew when the game was up. Starting from the left of the line the regiments broke for the rear. It was a deadly race they had run before, after Third Winchester and Fisher’s Hill. Soon the fields north and west of Middletown were filled with men making for the turnpike bridge over Cedar Creek.

Situation map for the Battle of Cedar Creek - 5 p.m.

Previous map: 4 p.m.

Many fought on. Groups gathered around artillery that fought to the last to cover the retreat. Union Colonel Charles Russel Lowell was mortally wounded leading his Reserve Cavalry Brigade in the charge that broke Wharton’s Division.Confederate Major General Stephen Dodson Ramseur was also mortally wounded trying to rally his division, never to see his newly born daughter. Many units kept good organization until they reached the choke point of the bridge, jammed from all sides and under artillery fire.

The retreat continued through Strasburg and back to the bivouac at Fisher’s Hill. Then the Valley Pike bridge south of Strasburg went down, stranding everything on wheels to be captured (or recaptured, in the case of 24 Union cannon Early had taken during the day) by Union cavalry.

After a brief rest at Fisher’s Hill Early’s men continued their retreat up the Valley. But Cedar Creek had been the last hurrah. Kershaw’s survivors were ordered back to the Richmond front in November, and the remnants of the Second Corps, the badly depleted divisions of Evans, Pegram and Ramseur, would return in December under the command of John Gordon.

Jubal Early was left in the Shenandoah Valley with the tiny, battered division of Gabriel Wharton and two brigades of cavalry who were scattered across western Virginia to find enough forage to keep their horses alive through the winter. On March 2, 1865 Early’s last command was wiped out at the Battle of Waynesboro.