Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia: The Jaws of Defeat and Victory

The Battle of Cedar Creek: Victory From The Jaws of Defeat; Jonathan A. Noyalas, History Press, 125 pp., 32 illustrations, 3 maps, bibliographic notes, index, $19.99.

Fought October 19, 1864, Cedar Creek was the culminating battle of Confederate general Early's Shenandoah Valley Campaign. During the summer of 1864, the Army of Northern Virginia was being besieged at Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley had been invaded in May.  Lee sent the army's Second Corps under the command of Jubal Early to force the Federals from the valley and invade Maryland again for the third time.

Early drove the Federals out of the valley and advanced into Maryland during the first days of July.  Grant sent troops to Washington D.C. to turn back the threat and then a month later sent additional troops under the command of Philip Sheridan to again invade the Shenandoah Valley and thoroughly route Confederate forces there. After a defeat at Fisher's Hill during September, Early's army appeared to be routed.

The North Fork of the Shenandoah River, the 2,900 feet peak of Massanutten Mountain and the environs of Strasburg were shields to hide a dawn attack by Early's troops on October 19. During the dawn to noon fighting, seven Union infantry divisions were forced from their camps and retreat several miles.  Numerous prisoners and cannons were captured. The assault began to deteriorate after the capture of the camps and before the assault enter Middletown.

John Noylas' The Battle of Cedar Creek: Victory From The Jaws of Defeat is a fine, though brief, introduction to the battle. Those who are quite familiar with the engagement will note the minimal descriptions of Gordon's night march over the north side of Massanutten Mountain and of the construction of the Federal earthworks. Strengths of the book include the last two chapters. Chapter 5 describes the differences between the actual and culturally enhanced story of Sheridan's Ride. Chapter 6 describes the post-war gatherings on the battlefield of the veterans who had fought there. Two of the three maps are by Blake Magner and are clear and uncluttered. Noteworthy is Noyalas' reliance of soldiers' accounts of the fighting.

News----Third Winchester Farm's Middle Field That Held 3,000 Casualties To Be Returned To Wheat

Winchester Battlefield To Return To 1864 Farm Appearance, Linda Wheeler, Washington Post, April 27, 2013

 

Five years ago, The Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation purchased a 209-acre parcel of the Third Winchester Battlefield that included the infamous Middle Field where some of the most desperate fighting had taken place. In that one phase of the battle on Sept. 19, 1864, more than 3,000 men became casualties.

Battlefields are usually purchased simply to be preserved. This one will be different. The foundation decided early on that the best preservation practices include land conservation, and made plans to return the Middle Field to its 1864 appearance. Soldiers encountered wheat stubble when they fought over the Middle Field and, if all goes well, visitors to the battlefield on its 150^th anniversary next year will see the same thing.

The $80,000 project is a big undertaking because wheat hasn’t been planted on the land for almost 50 years. In its absence, a thick undergrowth of shrubs and a dense stand of non-native trees have filled in the space. All of that has to be cleared before the land can be prepared for planting, a multi-year project if done by hand or even with tractors. Instead, the foundation brought in two large mastication machines capable of tearing up trees with trunks as large as four inches and crunching the heavy undergrowth and, best of all, leaving behind mulched material.

Large oaks, cedars, red buds and dogwoods will be saved from the mechanical jaws. New tree plantings will probably include the American chestnut said Manager for Stewardship Chase Milner, who has filled a briefcase with his research into the farm and 1860s horticulture. Other plans for the Middle Field include planting an assortment of native warm-season grasses, a good habitat for wildlife.

By early May, James Madison University and the Archaeological Society of Virginia will have begun an archaeological investigation of the Middle Field, according to foundation Executive Director Denman Zirkle. He is concerned that work will attract unwanted relic hunters, and to prevent that, he said the land will be posted against trespassers and patrolled round-the-clock by a private security company working in concert with the Frederick County sheriff’s department.

Full Text Link: Washington Post, April 27, 2013

Image Source: Shenandoah At War

New and Noteworthy---The Battle of Piedmont and the Raid on Staunton, Virginia

The Battle of Piedmont and Hunter's Raid on Staunton: The 1864 Shenandoah Campaign, Scott C. Patchan, The History Press, 191 pp., notes, bibliography, index, 28 b/w illustrations, 15 maps, 2011, $21.99.

Studying the Civil War, readers come to realize that small military events change large military events. Speculative history, like The Fourth Battle of Winchester: Toward a New Civil War Paradigm by Richard M. McMurry, offers counterfactual questions that are kept within the parameters of what was possible at the time and place. These types of questions aid in gaining a better understanding of past events.

The apparently minor engagement fought June 5, 1864 near the village of Piedmont, Augusta County, Virginia is such a battle. Patchan's The Battle of Piedmont does this. He doesn't speculate but does show the battle was an important gate hinge upon which the war in the Eastern Theater swung open to a different set of circumstances and directions.

On June 5 Union Major General David Hunter engaged Confederates under Brigadier General William E. "Grumble" Jones north of Piedmont. After severe fighting during which Jones was killed, the Confederates were routed. Hunter occupied Staunton on June 6 and soon began to advance on Lynchburg, destroying military stores and public property in his wake.

The Union victory at Piedmont took off the map the only Rebel force available for offering resistance to destruction in the Shenandoah Valley. Davis and Lee were forced to find troops to send to the region. Within a few days Confederate troops under Jubal Early were sent to the valley and another Shenandoah Campaign ensued, one that would lead to the battles of Monocacy, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek and would become become one of the two famous Shenandoah Valley campaigns. If Hunter hadn't won at Piedmont but had lost like Siegel at New Market, then Early's troops may have stayed with the Army of Northern Virginia.

Strengths of Patchan's work, and The History Press's Civil War Sesquicentennial series, is the focus on biography and personalities. Less familiar with readers maybe generals David Hunter, John Imboden, William Jones, medal of honor winner Julius Stahel, captain and master artillerist Henry DuPont, colonels Joseph Thoburn, William Tibbets, and Thomas Wildes. Each is crucial to the outcome of the Battle of Piedmont and the raid on Staunton. Within the limits of pages available, Patchan offers a great deal of command, control and combat episodes and stories. The front line soldiers speak throughout. In Chapter Seven, "I Never Want To See Such A Sight Again", the voices from the 18th Connecticut, 28th Ohio, 45th Virginia are heard as the wounded and dead are recovered from the field.

Hopefully, History Press will soon offer The Sacking and Battle of Lynchburg as a title in its Civil War Sesquicentennial Series. After Staunton, Hunter moved southward up the Valley to Lexington, where he burned VMI on June 11. His troops freely looted civilian property as well. Hunter's men plundered a number of private homes and burned the home of former Governor John Letcher and destroyed the library of Washington College. Hunter was defeated by Early at the Battle of Lynchburg on June 19.

Once in awhile Patchan will offer a phrase or word in quotes that were not spoken or written by another person. Examples are "Valley of Humiliation", "corked", and "Lost Cause". The quotation marks are unnecessary and are a minor distraction. Quotation marks for "Beast" Butler, "Black Dave" Hunter and "Grumble" Jones are acceptable. The book's maps are clear and easy to understand though topographic lines are not shown. Overall, CWL looks forward to adding Patchen's Shenandoah Summer: The 1864 Valley Campaign [2009] to the reading list. His July 2011 Second Manassas: Longstreet's Attack and the Struggle for Chinn Ridge is already on the personal book shelf and the next book to be read.

In response to this review, Joanne Shelby, a CWL friend sent this note: "The book Heroines of Dixie by Katherine Jones has the letter from Henrietta Bedinger Lee to General David Hunter regarding the burning of her home. Quite a moving letter."

New and Noteworthy: The Battle of New Market in Context

Valley Thunder: The Battle of New Market and the Opening of the Shenandoah Campaign, May 1864, Charles Knight, Savas Beatie Publications, 11 maps, photographs and illustrations, appendices, notes, bibliography, index, 360 pages, $29.95

Civil War Books and Authors weblog on Thursday, May 13 gives Valley Thunder high marks:

Valley Thunder: The Battle of New Market and the Opening of the Shenandoah Valley Campaign, May 1864 by Charles R. Knight (Savas Beatie, 2010).

William C. Davis's The Battle of New Market (Doubleday, 1975) has always been my favorite of his many books, but in the 35 years since its publication enough new source material has emerged to justify a new book length account. Happily for students of the Civil War and the 1864 campaign in the Shenandoah, Charles R. Knight's Valley Thunder is a masterpiece of modern battle history, firmly establishing itself as the new standard work on the subject, a situation that Davis himself readily concedes in his gracious and incredibly effusive introduction to Knight's book. When Davis places Valley Thunder in the top dozen Civil War battle histories that have ever been published, it should raise eyebrows a bit, but, if he's overdone it, he's not off by much. The review continues at Civil War Books and Authors weblog.

Check out the YouTube 4 minute video trailer.