CHAPTER FOUR
SEPTEMBER 19, 1864
Speed: that was the key element in Sheridan’s plan and the key to having the chance to destroy Early. Little Phil planned to move his army across Opequon Creek, through the Berryville Canyon, and assault Maj. Gen. Stephen Ramseur’s division near Winchester. He hoped to dispose of Ramseur and then chew up the rest of Early’s divisions piecemeal as they attempted to come to Ramseur’s aid.
Although the plan was simple, it involved risks. Rebel pickets were posted along the western bank of the Opequon to contest a Union advance. The canyon itself also served as a potential hazard. With a narrow road and steep sides, the gorge had the semblance of a funnel. Only one Federal unit could pass through at a time. Any strong resistance by the Rebels or slow movement through the gorge by the Federals had the potential to shatter Sheridan’s strategy.
Before sunrise, the Army of the Shenandoah stirred. James Wilson’s cavalry division led the advance on the Berryville Turnpike. The troopers were to force their way across the creek, through the canyon, and establish a foothold in the open ground beyond. Two veteran regiments from New York took the lead.
Brig. Gen. James Wilson (LOC)
Ramseur’s division, numbering around 2,000 muskets, were all that stood between the Yankee cavalry and Winchester. The rest of Early’s army was marching rapidly back to Winchester from a march to Bunker Hill the day before. It would be up to Ramseur to hold off Wilson’s thrust until the rest of the army could consolidate. Immediately opposing the Federal cavalry was one of Ramseur’s brigades, commanded by Brig. Gen. Robert Johnston.
The Tar Heels gave ground grudgingly as they fell back. As the Union cavalrymen came on, one observer said the North Carolinians “would halt, face to the rear rank, wait until the horses got to within 100 yards, and turn and fire.”
THE FIRST PHASE OF THE BATTLE OF THIRD WINCHESTER—Early’s Confederates repulsed Horatio Wright’s and William Emory’s assaults along the Berryville Turnpike and held Torbert in check above the town. Not until Sheridan ordered George Crook to attack Early’s left was the Rebel line forced back to a new position.
The attack of Maj. Gen. James Ricketts’ division, north of the Berryville Turnpike. (LOC)
Ramseur’s Confederates did just enough to delay the Federal advance. Shortly before 6 a.m., Sheridan rode through the canyon and ascended a nearby knoll occupied by the J. Eversole farm. Peering behind him through the gorge, he could see his infantry strung out along the road. What the Union commander hoped to avoid was becoming a reality: his wagons, artillery, and infantry had become stacked in the canyon. It would be hours before the jam could be untangled and the infantry brought into line.
If the jam-up in the canyon was not enough to frustrate Little Phil, Jubal Early had brought two of his three remaining infantry divisions, under Maj. Gens. Robert Rodes and John Gordon, onto the field. The first brigade, under Brig. Gen. Bryan Grimes of Rodes’ division, deployed to the east of Winchester between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m.
The first Union infantry to arrive was Maj. Gen. Horatio Wright’s VI Corps. As they extracted themselves from the Berryville Canyon, the divisions filed into the fields south of the Berryville Pike. Brigadier General George Getty’s division deployed first; James Ricketts’ men followed, extending the line to the right of the pike. David Russell’s division was kept in reserve in column along the road. Ricketts’ division extended the line across the pike and linked up with the XIX Corps. Major General William Emory’s divisions deployed north of the road.
With the infantry arriving on the field, Wilson moved to the south along the Senseney Road to guard the army’s flank where his troopers would spend the rest of the day in sporadic skirmishing.
While the view today is clogged with traffic, Phil Sheridan had an excellent view from this spot to see the disposition of his army as it prepared to attack. (DD/PG)
With dispositions made, Sheridan settled on an allout assault against the Confederates. The Union line would guide on the Berryville Turnpike.
* * *
Early, meanwhile, had pulled Ramseur’s division from its forward position to the right of the Confederate infantry line once Rodes and Gordon arrived. Both divisions filed into line next to Ramseur, whose division occupied the right astride the Berryville Pike. Rodes’ division occupied the center of the line on Ramseur’s left. Gordon connected to Rodes, his left flank resting on Red Bud Run near the Hackwood farm. Confederate cavalry patrolled both flanks. The last of Early’s infantry, the division under Maj. Gen. John Breckenridge, had been stopped at Stephenson’s Depot to bolster Confederate cavalry responding to Union cavalry incursions north of Winchester.
Around the same time Yankee gunners were ramming home powder and shot for the signal gun that would start their assault, Early directed Breckenridge to bring his men from Stephenson’s Depot. The order would deprive his flank of infantry, but the Confederate commander compensated by moving the cavalry division of Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee to the area.
At 11:40 a.m., the Yankee signal cannon fired a single shot, and the attack began.
South of the turnpike, George Getty’s division advanced against Stephen Ramseur’s men. “Onward through the cornfields and over the grassy knolls … the rebel artillery swept with terrible effect …” wrote one soldier in the 77th New York. “[T]he long line pressed forward … at every step … men were dropping, dropping … . Now on this side, now on that they fell.” An officer from Rhode Island observing the attack wrote grimly that “artillery was used freely on both sides.”
Surging ahead on Getty’s right was the veteran Vermont brigade. The Confederates opened fire just as the Vermonters reached a bend where the turnpike veered sharply to the south. Taking advantage of the terrain for cover, the Green Mountain Boys moved into a ravine south of the road. Colonels William Emerson and J. Warren Keifer, commanding the brigades of Ricketts’ division, may not have seen the Vermonters disappear into the swale. Advancing through the fields on Getty’s right, they continued to march straight for the Confederates as they passed the bend in the road. These combined maneuvers effectively caused a gap to open and then widen on the Federal line.
The position occupied by Gordon’s men (DD/PG)
Robert Rodes, killed instantly by a Federal shot, was loaded onto an ambulance. His death “shook the whole corps,” a subordinate said. (WRHS)
Across the fields around Winchester stood “some of the finest troops in the South,” one observer said. Combined with “intrepid use of artillery,” the outnumbered yet proud Second Corps gave the Union assault pause. Then, like assaults of old, the Second Corps division of Robert Rodes readied for a counterattack.
To spearhead his attack, Rodes looked to Brig. Gen. Cullen Battle’s Alabama brigade. He trusted these men from the Deep South. He had marched to war in 1861 at the head of one of the regiments. As the brigade commander waved his men forward to the attack, Rodes sat calmly on his black stallion, shouting, “Charge them, boys!”
At that instant, a Federal artillery shell exploded overhead and the division commander leaned slightly forward then crumpled to the ground dead. Even today, it is unclear whether a shell or bullet caused the fatal wound, but what is certain is that Early and the Confederate army suffered an irreplaceable loss. Battle wrote that Rodes’ death “shook the whole corps,” and “the whole army mourned his death. No single death—save that of Jackson, caused such deep regret.”
The time for eulogizing Rodes would come later. His division, left in the dark about the tragedy that befell their beloved commander, drove home the counterattack. As luck would have it, the Confederates, advancing rapidly, aimed exactly for the gap in the Federal line. The fight became a stand-up affair. Veteran soldiers on both sides worked like machines, loading, firing, then reloading. The accuracy and rate of fire from the Confederates is evident by the tales of Union soldiers. One Pennsylvanian remembered the Southerners’ fire doing “great execution to our line.”
After his death at Third Winchester, Robert Rodes’ body was brought back to his native Lynchburg, Virginia, and buried in the Presbyterian cemetery. His brother, Virginius, who served as his adjutant throughout the war, was eventually buried beside him. (PG)
The death of Brig. Gen. David Russell. A soldier in the 121st New York lamented that “we lost another of our famous and gallant commanders.” (WRHS)
Back on Eversole’s Knoll, Sheridan watched in horror as the magnificent hole opened on his front and Battle’s brigade advanced straight for it. The situation spelled doom for his army. The only reserve close at hand was Wright’s only uncommitted division, commanded by David Russell. Russell reacted quickly and immediately began to bring the brigades of Cols. Oliver Edwards and Edward Campbell to the field. A soldier in the 49th Pennsylvania remembered that Russell rode to the skirmish line, remarking “something must be done quick” to halt the enemy advance. While superintending the deployment of his men, Russell was struck by an exploding piece of shrapnel and died instantly.
Russell’s actions before his death helped save the army, though, by blunting the Confederate counterattack. As his brigades engaged the enemy, he dispatched the brigade of Brig. Gen. Emory Upton to move around the right of his line. Upton led his men beyond the flank and faced to the left. From there, he was in a perfect position to advance against the Confederate left. “General Upton gave the order … and crash went that volley of lead and down tumbled those brave fellows,” wrote a soldier from the 121st New York. “‘Forward charge’ rang out Upton’s short, incisive command, and away we went. Reaching the point where their line had stood, we saw many of them lying there … at once out rushed our companion regiments in fine order.” This counterthrust managed to push the Confederates back, and the two lines stabilized.
Brig. Gen. Emory Upton earned his stars in May of 1864 after employing innovative tactics during the battle of Spotsylvania Court House. He would go on to be one of the most influential military thinkers of the century. (LOC)
The Federal line extended into the First Woods (above) and then advanced from the woods across open fields (below) toward the Confederate position. (DD/PG)
North of the road, William Emory’s assault had not fared much better. As his men exited the Berryville Canyon, Emory directed them to extend the Union line into a thicket known as the First Woods. Brigadier General Cuvier Grover’s division held the right of the line. Brigadier General William Dwight held the left and connected with Ricketts’ division.
When the Sixth Corps divisions of George Getty and J. Warren Keifer advanced at the sound of the signal cannon, Emory’s Yankees emerged from the woods and stepped out into an open field. “[T]he lines advanced over a country much broken and quite densely wooded,” Grover wrote. One Yankee remembered that they were “subjected to a destructive fire of musketry, grape and canister.” Ahead of them was another thicket, known as the Second Woods, and Grover’s troops headed straight for it, driving Rebel skirmishers before them.
As Federal casualties mounted during the advance, the Confederate line wavered and then, to Gordon’s dismay, the Georgia brigade broke and streamed toward the rear. As the division commander spurred to rally the broken brigade and stave off a rippling effect, the Confederates were saved by their artillery, double-loaded with canister to discourage the Union advance.
Grover’s attack reached the Second Woods but could go no farther. Gordon provided the inspiration to turn the rout of his men into a poignant offensive juggernaut. As one veteran remembered, “what words Gordon had for his men … went unrecorded, but his veterans hit the mass of Federals like a hammer.”
LATER PHASE OF THE BATTLE OF THIRD WINCHESTER—Crook’s assault and the progessive advance of the Union cavalry set the stage for the second and final phase of the battle. The Union attack was spearheaded by Averell’s and Torbert’s cavalry. The Federal troopers crashed into the Confederate line. Combined with an all-out infantry advance, Early’s army collapsed and retreated through Winchester.
Prior to the assault, Grover had formed his four brigades into two lines with two brigades each. As Gordon’s veterans broke up the first line, the retreating brigades of Cols. Henry Birge and Jacob Sharpe slammed into the second line to escape the onrushing Confederates. The division collapsed, and the men scampered back toward the First Woods. They were greeted by Emory. The corps commander tried in vain to rally his men even as Gordon’s men advanced into the open field between the First and Second Woods.
Fortunately, William Dwight’s division was ready for Gordon. Advancing out of the woods, the brigades of Cols. George Beal and James McMillan greeted the Rebels with a stifling volley. It was now time for the Confederates to withdraw as Gordon’s men were pushed back to the Second Woods. Dwight’s division followed, advancing through the wreckage of the field between the woods. There, the Federal line halted, with both sides content to shoot at each other from long range.
The seesaw fighting over the ground north of the Berryville Turnpike was over, and so was the grand Union offensive. If Little Phil wished to salvage the day, he would have to rely on Maj. Gen. George Crook’s Army of West Virginia.
