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Captured Rebel Wagons and Artillery at an Encampment; verso: Overview of Battle of Cedar Creek South of Winchester, Virginia

19 October 1864

Graphite on paper

Overall: 7 x 13 3/4 in. ( 17.8 x 34.9 cm )

James B. Wilbur Fund

1945.580.100

DescriptionCivil War Drawings Collection. The Battle of Cedar Creek, 19 October 1864.
Confederate General Early had withdrawn southwest into the higher elevations of the Shenandoah Valley under pressure from Sheridan and his Army of the Shenandoah. They were encamped at Cedar Creek. Sheridan believed that Early could not muster attacks after more than a month of battling. However, after an intense skirmish between the armies and rumors of a Confederate buildup, Sheridan brought all of his forces back to the camps along Cedar Creek.

Early deployed his men in three columns in a night march, lit only by the moon. Just before sunrise, operating under a cover of dense fog, they struck. The surprise was complete, and the first Union corps under Maj. Gen. Crook fought momentarily, then broke, follow by Emory's corps. Wright's division, last in the line, fought a strong defensive battle, withdrawing slowly under heavy pressure. Early did not keep up his pressure, however, as he was pleased with his victory, including the capture of over a thousand prisoners and eighteen guns. He mistakenly assumed that Wright would retreat from the battlefield. Early's failure to pursue them is considered his fatal mistake in the battle.

Sheridan was away at Winchester, Virginia, at the time the battle started. He reached the battlefield about 10:30 a.m. and began to rally his men. Fortunately for Sheridan, Early's men were too occupied to take notice; they fell out of their ranks to pillage the Union camps.

At 3 p.m. Early resumed his offensive with a minor attack that might have succeeded earlier, but was easily repulsed. At 4 p.m., Emory's corps counterattacked. Early's three divisions were stretched out on a line about three mileslong, with the flanks unprotected. Emory was reinforced by Brig. Gen. Custer's cavalry division. Other cavalry units destroyed a bridge in the Confederate rear, cutting off their escape route. The Union took hundreds of prisoners, 43 guns (18 of which were their own guns from the morning), and supplies that the Confederacy could not replace.

InscribedVarious annotations in graphite on recto and verso; verso inscribed along upper edge: "General view of the close of the Battle / Gen Sheridan led Crook..."

ClassificationsDRAWINGS