The Valley campaigns of 1864 was a series of battles fought between the Confederate Army of the Valley and the Union Army of the Shenandoah from June to October 1864 at the same time as Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign in central Virginia. Confederate general Jubal Early scored several victories and even threatened Washington DC until the Battle of Fort Stevens and his subsequent retreat into the Valley; Union cavalry general Philip Sheridan was dispatched to retaliate, and Sheridan decisively defeated Early at the Third Battle of Winchester (Opequon), the Battle of Fisher's Hill, and the Battle of Cedar Creek, nearly destroying his army. Sheridan's army ravaged the Shenandoah Valley - the "breadbasket of the Confederacy" - and neutralized its military value, denying its use to the Confederacy and preventing the Confederates from threatening Washington DC.
Background[]
Once famous far and wide for its beauty, the Shenandoah Valley had been ravaged by two years of war. For the Union, the Valley had been a potential backdoor route to Richmond; to the South, it was the "breadbasket of the Confederacy" and the natural invasion route to the North.
In June, Union general David Hunter, who replaced Franz Sigel after the Battle of New Market, advanced back up the Shenandoah Valley and put many buildings and homes to the torch, outraging Virginians. Approaching the Confederate supply depot at Lynchburg, he was defeated on 17-18 June by General Jubal Early, commander of the new Army of the Valley. Hunter retreated into West Virginia, leaving the Valley to Early.
Campaign[]
Jubal Early was nothing if not audacious. In June 1864, having won control of the Shenandoah Valley ,he planned to take his Army of the Valley - Stonewall Jackson's old Second Corps - on an invasion of the North.
Having scattered his enemies - some into the mountains of West Virginia - Early seized the opportunity to relieve pressure on Robert E. Lee, struggling with Ulysses S. Grant at Petersburg, Virginia. Early planned to threaten Washington DC and perhaps draw off some of Grant's soldiers. Crossing the Potomac River, Early brushed aside Union forces on 9 July at the Battle of Monocacy. Three days later, his men marched down Rockville Pike toward Washington's defenses. Though the fortifications were manned by a force of militiamen twice the size of Early's army, the city itself was on the verge of hysteria. The Confederates were so close that they could see the Capitol dome from their bivouac. But with thousands of Union reinforcements arriving from Petersburg, Early turned and soon recrossed the Potomac. He had sown panic and depleted Grant's Petersburg lines, and had also destroyed railroads and telegraph stations.
Back in the Shenandoah Valley, Early continued defeating scattered Union incursions. On 24 July, over the same fields where Stonewall Jackson once fought, he vanquished Federal forces at the Second Battle of Kernstown. He then sent his cavalry, commanded by John McCausland, across the Potomac again. On the morning of 30 July, the troopers rode into Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, demanding $100,000 in gold as compensation for General David Hunter's burning of Virginia homes the previous month. When the ransom could not be produced, McCausland torched the town.
The Union response[]
The North was incensed, as was General Grant, who summoned his pugnacious cavalry chief, Philip Sheridan. "I want Sheridan to be put in command of all the troops in the field," Grant declared, "with instructions to follow the enemy to the death." It proved to be a pivotal decision. "Little Phil" - as the diminutive Sheridan was affectionately known - entered the Valley near Harpers Ferry in August at the head of the Army of the Shenandoah, nearly 40,000 soldiers strong. Encamped outside Winchester, Early marched and countermarched his heavily outnumbered troops, hoping the resulting dust clouds would create the impression of a much larger force. Sheridan bided his time, and struck on 19 September.
The Third Battle of Winchester was a bloody, daylong fight that surged back and forth across rolling fields. Though they repulsed a number of Union assaults, the Confederates finally broke when cavalry attacked their flanks. Having suffered nearly 40% casualties, Early's troops streamed back through the streets of Winchester and entrenched on Fisher's Hill, 15 miles to the south. Three days later, at sunset on 22 September, Sheridan attacked at Fisher's Hill. The Union soldiers scrambled over rocks, walls, and felled trees with their commander urging them on: "Forward! Forward everything! Go on don't stop, go on!" Outflanked again, Early's men abandoned their positions, losing more than 1,000, and were chased deep into the night by their relentless foe.
Utter devastation[]
Sheridan next turned his attention to the surrounding landscape, whose crops had been supplying the Confederate army. Grant ordered him to "turn the valley into such a barren waste that even a crow flying over it would have to carry his own rations." As the torches were handed out, his soldiers began igniting the many fires that, taken together, would always be remembered by residents as "the Burning." Far and wide, immense pillars of smoke arose as every barn, stable, mill, haystack, and supply of forage went up in flames. Some 2,000 barns and 120 mills with their stocks of grain and flour were consumed by fire. Countless fences, wagons, and farming implements were destroyed. Livestock was run off. Hundreds of square miles of once-beautiful farmland were wrecked and scorched. There was little that the Confederacy could do about it. Partisan activities by cavalry commander John S. Mosby's group and others only brought reprisals. When Early's cavalry pressed too close, it was driven off at the Battle of Tom's Brook on 9 October. George Armstrong Custer's jeering horsemen nicknamed the galloping stampede the "Woodstock Races" as the Confederates retreated for more than 20 miles.
The Battle of Cedar Creek[]
Secure in his control of the lower valley, and believing Early's divisions to have withdrawn, Sheridan departed for Washington. But Early was closer than Sheridan realized, and had lost none of his audacity. Though outnumbered four to one, he still hoped to prevent Sheridan from reinforcing Grant, and planned a surprise attack on the Union army encamped behind Cedar Creek, 12 miles south of Winchester.
On the night of 18 October, as Sheridan arrived back in Winchester, Early's men were hugging a precipitous mountain trail as they rounded the lightly picketed Union left flank. Dawn on the 19th opened with a Rebel yell and a thunder of guns. The Union soldiers were caught literally in their beds. Thousands fled to the rear in panic. Wagons, supplies, some 24 cannons, and 20 battle flags fell to Early's men; but barefoot, famished, and in rags, most of them turned aside to plunder, and Early called off the pursuit. "This is glory enough for one day!" he exulted.
Increasingly alarmed, Sheridan arrived at the scene to see the shambles of his army pouring rearward. Ordering up fresh troops from Winchester, Sheridan rode along the wagon-thronged Valley Pike, cursing, cajoling, coaxing, and cheering; waving his hat forward. "Come on back, boys! Give 'em hell, God damn 'em! We'll make coffee out of Cedar Creek tonight!" Increasing his pace almost to a gallop, he kept it up for nearly 12 miles, roaring encouragements and waving his hat, until by some miracle of inspiration the army began to steady, then to reform its lines. By 4:30 PM, the tide was turning. An overwhelming wave of bluecoats then rolled back into its former camps. In the chaos, the Confederates turned in flight. As Union cavalry slashed at their flanks, fleeing soldiers clogged the Valley Pike so thickly that at one place a small bridge collapsed. Everything the Confederates had captured, and more, they now lost, to the point where Early's army nearly ceased to exist. "When we left the field that evening," General John B. Gordon acknowledged, "the Confederacy had retired from the Shenandoah."
Aftermath[]
With Sheridan's triumph at Cedar Creek, the guns began to fall silent on one of the most significant battlegrounds of the war.
Having been disputed for nearly three years, the Shenandoah Valley, cleared of Confederate armies and ravaged agriculturally, ceased to be of strategic importance. Union military activity was largely relegated to chasing partisans and the ever-elusive Confederate guerrilla leader, John Singleton Mosby, and his men.
Sheridan's victories at Winchester, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek, coming on the heels of Farragut's triumph at Mobile Bay and Sherman's capture of Atlanta, bolstered President Abraham Lincoln's chances of re-election.
After Cedar Creek, Early's demoralized divisions regrouped and lingered through the winter of 1864-1865 near Staunton, at the headwaters of the Shenandoah River. On 2 March 1865, at the Battle of Waynesboro, Sheridan defeated "Old Jube" for the last time, capturing 1,600 men and 11 guns, almost all that was left of the Confederate Army of the Valley.