American Civil War
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Cedar Creek
Battle · Eastern Theatre
The Battle of Cedar Creek
October 19, 1864 · Shenandoah Valley, Virginia
Narrative
Commanders
At a glance
Outcome
1
The Shenandoah
The valley they came to burn
The Valley was Lee’s breadbasket and his road north, a slave economy with Belle Grove at its center. Sheridan (North) burned it, then camped in the ruins.
2
October 19, dawn
The morning the Confederacy almost won
Early’s (South) army comes out of the fog and routs two Union corps in their tents, then, fatally, stops to plunder the camps.
3
The rally
Sheridan rides down the Pike
Away at Winchester, Sheridan (North) gallops south against the flood of his own fleeing men, re-forming a broken army by the force of his arrival.
4
Late afternoon
Sheridan takes it all back
A general counterattack stalls until Custer’s (North) cavalry curls around the Confederate left toward the Cedar Creek bridge, and Early’s army disintegrates.
5
The meaning
What the victory secured
Cedar Creek ended the Valley as Lee’s breadbasket and invasion route, and the slave plantation at the center of the field is the proof of what the war was for.
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