The Skirmish at Hupp's Hill, October 13, 1864

By early October 1864, US Gen. Philip Sheridan believed the fight for the Shenandoah Valley was largely over. After a string of victories and two weeks of burning farms and seizing supplies, he pulled his army of 32,000 back north to Cedar Creek and made Belle Grove Plantation his headquarters. Most of his soldiers were confident the Confederates were no longer a threat in the Valley, and Sheridan sent his 6th Corps away to join the fighting at Petersburg.

The Confederate commander, Early, had other plans. Reinforcements had brought his army to about 14,000 men, and he followed the Federals north with care. On October 13, 1864, at Hupp's Hill near Strasburg, he saw his chance.

A surprise from the hilltop

Around 10 a.m. Early brought his army to Hupp's Hill, about a mile north of Strasburg, Virginia, to scout Sheridan's position. Keeping his troops out of sight, he and his staff looked across Cedar Creek from the crest and noticed that the 6th Corps was gone. Early later wrote that, showing only a small body of cavalry, he ran out a battery of artillery that "opened on" Col. Joseph Thoburn's division and scattered it "in great confusion."

In Thoburn's camps, an officer of the 34th Massachusetts Infantry recalled, men had been absorbed in a card game, and the bugles had just called dinner when the guns began: "Boom! Boom! Suddenly broke upon our ears." The Federals assumed they faced a single battery, perhaps with some cavalry. They had no idea Early's whole army was on the hill.

Two brigades climb the hill

Thoburn's brigades crossed Cedar Creek. A belt of woods split the advance: Col. Thomas Harris led his brigade around the right of the wooded ridge and up the northeastern slope, while Col. George Wells took his to the left, up the southeastern slope. The 34th Massachusetts pushed through thick underbrush and hurried toward a low stone wall about a hundred yards short of the Confederates, at short rifle range.

As Thoburn advanced, Early's generals moved their troops forward. Gen. John B. Gordon faced Harris, and Col. James Conner moved against Wells. Outnumbered, Harris fell back down the hill. A lieutenant sent to order Wells's brigade back had his horse shot, so the order never arrived.

Conner told his South Carolinians, "Boys, when they come, aim low and give them one good steady fire." Wells was surprised to see a Confederate battle line bearing down on him. His men fired from behind the stone wall, but the South Carolinians outflanked them. Part of the 34th Massachusetts swung back and held the Confederates off at the right end of the line, but the left gave way and collapsed, and Wells's brigade retreated down the hill.

The 6th Corps comes back

Sheridan read the lost skirmish as a warning. The day's events, he wrote, pointed to "a probability that the enemy intended to resume the offensive," and to be ready for it he ordered the 6th Corps to return from its march. Those nearly 9,000 veterans were back in time for the Battle of Cedar Creek days later, where they made a large difference.

The National Park Service tells this story in its series Drive the Enemy South, between the Battle of Tom's Brook and the Battle of Cedar Creek. The ground is part of Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park.

Sources

• National Park Service, "Skirmish at Hupp's Hill" (Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park): https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/battle-of-hupp-s-hill.htm
• The source gives two different intervals between the skirmish and the Battle of Cedar Creek; this page does not state one.