The Third Battle of Winchester, September 19, 1864

"Sheridan's Final Charge at Winchester," by Thure de Thulstrup, about 1886. Library of Congress.

On September 19, 1864, Confederates suffered a costly defeat at the Third Battle of Winchester, Virginia. It was the largest battle in the Shenandoah Valley: 54,400 troops engaged and 8,630 casualties, including more than a quarter of the Confederate Army of the Valley. The Confederate retreat to Fisher's Hill began the end of their resistance in the Valley. Ulysses S. Grant later wrote that Sheridan "won a most decisive victory—one which electrified the country," and that Early had invited the attack by his bad generalship.

Before the battle

Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan's Army of the Shenandoah, more than 35,000 soldiers with their wagons, horses and cannon, meant to destroy Lt. Gen. Jubal Early's 15,000-man Army of the Valley and end all secessionist resistance in the Valley, civilians included. For two weeks the armies faced each other across Opequon Creek, Confederates to the west and Federals to the east, with little more than cavalry clashes.

On September 16 Sheridan learned that a Confederate division of more than 3,000 men under Generals R. H. Anderson and Joseph Kershaw had left the Valley. The news came from Rebecca Wright, a Winchester Unionist, and was carried by Tom Laws, an enslaved man, who brought her handwritten note to Sheridan wrapped in foil and held in his mouth. Scouts confirmed it, and the next day Sheridan met Grant at the Rutherford House in Charles Town, West Virginia. Grant liked the plan so well he said little more than "go in."

Early, despite signs of an attack, had sent the divisions of Maj. Gens. John B. Gordon and Robert Rodes north to Martinsburg to wreck the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. On September 18 Sheridan learned they were still camped several miles north of Winchester and moved to strike at once. His army set out around 2:00 a.m. on the 19th.

The jam in Berryville Canyon

The Federal column followed the Berryville Pike, led by Brig. Gen. James H. Wilson's cavalry. About three miles east of Winchester the road ran through Berryville Canyon, a narrow ravine between high bluffs. Wilson's troopers cleared out Confederate pickets, while to the north Brig. Gen. Wesley Merritt's cavalry seized three fords on the Opequon and fought Confederate infantry under Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge and Brig. Gen. Gabriel Wharton.

In the canyon, the 19th Corps under Maj. Gen. William Emory arrived before the 6th Corps under Maj. Gen. Horatio Wright, which was meant to lead. The 6th Corps wagon train ended up between the two, splitting the assault and delaying the attack by more than two hours.

Early used the time to build a hasty defense. Maj. Gen. Stephen D. Ramseur held the right near the Berryville Pike and Abram's Creek; Gordon's division, recalled, deployed on his left at the edge of the Second Woods facing the open Middle Field. Across Red Bud Run to the north, Maj. James Breathed's horse artillery, with cavalry under Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, was placed to fire into the Federal right. Rodes was still marching south.

Stalemate

Sheridan attacked at 11:40 a.m.

• 6th Corps. Advancing along the pike, it hit Ramseur's determined troops, who were outnumbered nearly four to one there, and gained ground slowly.
• 19th Corps. Crossing the Middle Field toward Gordon, it was caught in a crossfire of musketry and Breathed's shells. One Federal remembered the ground "cut and torn up by a perfect sheet of lead" and blood everywhere.
• Rodes's counterattack. By about 12:30 p.m. a gap of almost half a mile had opened between the two Federal corps. Rodes's newly arrived division struck it. Rodes was killed directing the attack, but his brigades pushed back the 6th Corps right, while Ramseur and Gordon, helped by Brig. Gen. Cullen Battle's brigade, retook ground.
• Federal recovery. Brig. Gen. David Russell's division stopped the Confederate momentum, though Russell was killed. In the Middle Field some 19th Corps units broke, and Emory ordered the line held at all hazards; Brig. Gen. George Beal's brigade blunted Gordon's attack.

By about 1:00 p.m. Sheridan judged the resistance "obstinate" and the fight a bloody stalemate. Grant expected a win.

The flank attack

Sheridan sent in his reserve, Maj. Gen. George Crook's 8th Corps (Army of West Virginia), on the right, to turn Early's left back toward Winchester and let the cavalry deliver the blow from the north. He boasted that Crook had 10,000 men; Crook probably had no more than 7,500.

Around 2:00 p.m. Col. Isaac Duval's division crossed Red Bud Run to swing around Gordon's left. Col. Rutherford B. Hayes's brigade struggled through a stream one veteran described as twenty or thirty yards wide and nearly waist deep, with soft mud at the bottom. When the flanking march stalled, Col. Joseph Thoburn's division struck Gordon near Hackwood Farm, opening the way for Duval.

Early had pulled Breckinridge and Wharton south to defend Winchester against the Federal cavalry, armed with seven-shot Spencer carbines. Col. George Patton, grandfather of the World War II general George S. Patton, was caught between Duval's infantry and cavalry and mortally wounded. The cavalry of Merritt and Brig. Gen. William Averell drove south; Breckinridge and Wharton's patched-together line stalled them for a time.

Collapse

To the south, a counterattack by Brig. Gen. Emory Upton's brigade spurred the whole 6th Corps forward, and by 4:30 p.m. it had driven the Confederates back into Winchester despite Brig. Gen. Bryan Grimes's threats to shoot any man who left the ranks.

Then came the cavalry. Brigades under Brig. Gens. Thomas Devin and George A. Custer captured hundreds of fleeing Confederates. Col. Charles R. Lowell's brigade overran Fort Collier and took two cannon; Cols. James Schoonmaker and William Powell drove defenders out of Star Fort and Fort Jackson. At Smithfield Redoubt, Gordon, Breckinridge and Battle tried a last stand, but under Merritt the brigades of Custer, Devin, Lowell and Powell charged over the earthworks, taking prisoners faster than they could be handled.

Aftermath

Early's army fled through Winchester in what one soldier called the most disorderly retreat he had ever seen. Early blamed the defeat on the enemy's immense superiority in cavalry. Federal pursuit was cautious and disorganized, and his army slipped away to fight again three days later.

Sheridan could replace his losses; Early could not. The confident Army of the Shenandoah followed Early south to Fisher's Hill, the "Confederate Gibraltar."

The battlefield is preserved by the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation at Third Winchester Battlefield Park and the Fort Collier Civil War Center.

Sources

• National Park Service, Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park, "Third Battle of Winchester," part of the series "Drive the Enemy South": https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/third-battle-of-winchester.htm
• Third Winchester Battlefield Park: https://www.shenandoahatwar.org/third-winchester-battlefield-park