Cedar Creek • Tour the Battlefield • Battle Maps • Battle Facts • The Armies
The monument to Union Colonel Charles Russell Lowell is on the northwest side of Main Street (the Valley Pike, U.S. 11) in Middletown, Virginia, in front of the Wayside Inn. (39°01’49.0″N 78°16’37.2″W; see map below)
The monument is in front of the historic Wayside Inn on the main street of Middletown, Virginia.
The 29 year old Lowell had been painfully wounded earlier in the morning but continued in command of the Reserve Brigade of the Cavalry Corps. He was killed by a sharpshooter leading his brigade west of Middletown as the Confederate infantry was beginning to collapse at the end of the day. Sheridan promoted him posthumously to brigadier general that evening.
One of the Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park’s excellent interpretive programs (History at Sunset: The Tragic Deaths of Stephen Ramseur and Charles Lowell: Examples of a Generation Lost) examines Lowell’s life along with that of Confederate General Stephen Dodson Ramseur, who was mortally wounded in the battle.
From the front of the monument:
Colonel
Charles Russell Lowell
Commanding Reserve Brigade
Cavalry Corps
Army of the Shenandoah
Fell in action near this place
October 19, 1864
Useful Citizen • Gallant Soldier
He died too early for his county
From the rear of the monument:
Cedar Creek
October 19, 1864
The monument is on the northwest side of the Valley Pike, US 11, on the main street of Middlwtown, Virginia.