Cedar Creek • Tour the Battlefield • Battle Maps • The Armies
Pre-dawn • Dawn • 6am • 7am • 8am • 9am • 10am • 3pm • 4pm • 5pm
The 6th Corps Counterattacks
Once the 19th Corps flank protection along the Valley Pike was overrun the position of the rest of the corps in their west-facing trenches was untenable. Brigade by brigade the line dissolved and headed north toward the Sixth Corps. Some units retired in good order, turning and fighting brief rearguard actions, while others simply dissolved in the face of superior Confederate numbers in front, flank and rear.
Previous map: 6 a.m. • Next map: 8 a.m.
Once again the riches in the Union camps disrupted the Confederate attack. One observer reported than even the color guard of one regiment took time out to loot a richly stocked sutler’s tent.
The three divisions of the Union Sixth Corps, temporarily under James Ricketts while Wright commanded the army, moved south into the fighting. Wheaton’s and Keifer’s Divisions stalled the oncoming Confederates and in some cases threw them back in local counterattacks. But they were outnumbered, and Wright ordered the line to fall back. Ricketts was badly wounded, complicating the movement, but the Sixth Corps fell back in an orderly and threatening line that sheltered the retreat of the 19th Corps and drained energy from the Confederate attack.
Meanwhile the fragments of the Eighth Corps streamed through Middletown, harassed by Payne’s cavalry. Some paused north of town and slowly reorganized or just boiled water for coffee, while others trudged north along the Valley Pike toward Winchester and possibly the Potomac – a walk they had made before.
On the north flank Merrit and Custer’s powerful cavalry divisions threw back a weak flanking attempt by Confederate cavalry and then moved toward Middletown. After the battles of Third Winchester and Fisher’s Hill the troopers with their repeating carbines were perfectly ready to go head to head with Confederate infantry.