Cedar Creek • Tour the Battlefield • Battle Maps • The Armies
The Surprise Attack wayside marker is at Stop Two on the Cedar Creek Battlefield auto tour.
Text from the marker
The opening attack of the Battle of Cedar Creek began here at about 5:00 a.m. A Confederate scouting party on Signal Knob, directly before you, had seen that a frontal attack on the entrenchments and the positions just north of Cedar Creek and the North Fork of the Shenandoah would be suicidal. Attacking from the side, or flank, however, just might work.
After a silent all-night march along the base of the Massanutten, the Confederates forded the creek and river and, aided by a dense fog, stormed this hill, catching many of the Union soldiers unaware, some still sleeping in their tents. Within 30 minutes the Union position here had been overrun, with the survivors fleeing back toward the Valley Pike.
Caption to the drawing in the upper left corner
General John Gordon surveys the Union positions through a telescope on Signal Knob, looking for any point of weakness. Behind him Jedediah Hotchkiss, mapmaker, sketches a map and takes notes.
– Sketch by James E. Taylor, an artist for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, 1864
Quote next to the map:
We gave a Rebel yell and ran right in on them and scattered them like chaff before the wind.
– B.F. Cobb, 10th Georgia Infantry
Location of rhe monument
The Surprise Attack wayside marker is at Stop Two on the battlefield auto tour, about 20 feet from the parking area. (38°59’55.8″N 78°19’10.8″W)