Cedar Creek • Tour the Battlefield • Battle Maps • The Armies
Stop One of the Cedar Creek Battlefield auto tour is along the Valley Pike (U.S.11) about a mile southwest of Middletown.
There is a small pull off here on the north side of the highway overlooking the fields around the plantation of Belle Grove. Over 30,000 Union troops of Major General Philip Sheridan’s army were in camps positioned more for access to drinking water than for defence. The Confederates had been defeated in two major battles in the ast month, and it was thought by many that they had seen the last of Lieutenant General Jubal Early and his badly battered and hungry Army of the Valley. They were wrong.
Eve of Battle wayside marker
Text from the marker
On the night of October 18, 1864, tents sheltering part of General Philip Sheridan’s 32,000 strong Union Army of the Shenandoah blanketed the fields before you. Numerous supply wagons stood around Belle Grove. Above the banks of Cedar Creek, more tents and entrenchments faced south and guarded the Valley Pike’s crossing. On the bluffs above the North Fork of the Shenandoah trenches and camps overlooked the river’s passage. Following his victories in September and October 1864, Sheridan’s army had conducted “The Burning,” a systematic destruction of the Shenandoah Valley. Most believed Early, with at most 14,000 men, was incapable of mounting another offensive and thought that warfare in the valley was almost at an end.
Caption for the map
The Army of the Shenandoah settled down in its fortified camp behind Cedar Creek with perfect confidence that it was secure from any successful attack by the forces under General Early.
– A veteran of the 121st New York State Infantry
Caption to General Early’s photo
Though outnumbered. Lieutenant General Jubal Early eluded defeat throughout the 1864 summer campaign, until he encountered Sheridan’s determination.
Caption to General Sherman’s photo
Major General Philip Sheridan knew that the war could only be won by tenaciously pursuing the Confederates and by depriving them of supplies.
Battle of Cedar Creek Virginia historical marker A56
Text from the marker
In early Oct. 1864, portions of Union Maj.
Gen. Philip H. Sheridan’s army bivouacked
here on the hills and rolling farmland just
north of Cedar Creek along the Valley Turn-
pike (present-day U.S. Rte. 11). Just before
daybreak on 19 Oct., Confederate Lt. Gen
Jubal A. Early’s infantry divisions surprised
and attacked the Federals, routing two of
Sheridan’s three infantry corps. Maj. Gen.
Horatio G. Wright, commanding in Sheridan’s
absence, organized a retreat north. Sheridan
arrived on the battlefield from Winchester
by midmorning and rode along the front to
rally his men. By late afternoon the Federals
had counterattacked Early’s left front and
crushed the Confederate troops, who fled south.
Location of the Tour Stop
Stop One of the Cedar Creek Battlefield auto tour on the north side of the Valley Pike (U.S.11) about 1.1 miles southwest of Middletown and about 220 yards southwest of the Ramseur monument and the entrance to Belle Grove. (39°00’49.8″N 78°18’11.6″W)