CHAPTER SEVEN
SEPTEMBER 22-OCTOBER 5, 1864
The Federal pursuit continued through the night of September 22 and reached the village of Woodstock the next day. When Little Phil rode into town that morning, he hoped that his victory would be complete. Unfortunately, he learned that Alfred Torbert’s foray into the Luray Valley had been turned back by Confederate cavalry under Col. Thomas Munford and Brig. Gen. Williams C. Wickham.
On the following day, September 24, Sheridan vented his anger toward his mounted arm by relieving William Averell from command for failing to follow up the pursuit of the shattered Confederates. Sheridan had given Averell strict orders to follow them and engage, and although Averell had complied, he failed to give battle on a scale to Little Phil’s liking. Sheridan replaced him with Col. William Powell.
Regardless of who was to blame, the complete destruction of Jubal Early’s army would have to wait for another day.
With the Federals arriving in Woodstock, Early’s army continued its retreat to Mount Jackson, more than 23 miles south of the Fisher’s Hill battlefield. There, Early called a halt to “enable the sick and wounded, and the hospital stores at that place to be carried off.” Afterwards, the retreat of the Southerners continued to Rude’s Hill between Mount Jackson and New Market.
Roadside markers along the Valley Turnpike, including this one erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, discuss the location’s importance during the war. (CM)
Early might have recounted nonchalantly the Confederate retreat in his reporting and later writings, but the twin defeats at Third Winchester and Fisher’s Hill had shocked the rank and file. Since many had served under Stonewall Jackson, the soldiers lamented the difference between campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley. “Oh what a difference between Jackson’s army and the fire he put into us and the will to fight and how it all dried up under Early,” one of them bemoaned. Another soldier, writing after Third Winchester, put it more plainly: “What was left of our army now lost all confidence in General Early as a leader, and they were therefore much demoralized.”
Crook’s men marched through downtown Harrisonburg. (WRHS)
On September 24, the Army of the Shenandoah marched south in pursuit. Considering the bedraggled condition of the Army of the Valley, Early smartly withdrew, marching through New Market and on to Port Republic. The battered Confederates did not stop until they reached Brown’s Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Sheridan followed, finally halting in Harrisonburg, a little more than 70 miles from Winchester. After setting up headquarters, Little Phil reviewed the previous week’s fighting and pondered his future plans. The Army of the Shenandoah had suffered about 700 casualties at Fisher’s Hill, comparatively less than at Third Winchester. Despite this, Sheridan elected not to march on Brown’s Gap.
Residents in New Market felt the waves of war wash back and forth through the village. (CM)
This decision undoubtedly caused Ulysses S. Grant some consternation. Exchanging messages with his Valley commander, Grant urged—then pleaded with—Sheridan to move east, crush Early, and capture Charlottesville. Such a movement would leave the infrastructure of central Virginia vulnerable to the Federals. In Grant’s mind, this undertaking and any subsequent operations would help bring about the fall of Richmond and Petersburg. Grant insisted that the Confederates were reeling from Sheridan’s recent victories, which were, in Grant’s words, “causing great consternation.”
Sheridan balked at his commander’s ideas, contenting himself with remaining in Harrisonburg. He felt it would be difficult for his army to subsist on what it could forage while marching through Virginia’s interior. Writing later, Sheridan insisted that if he encountered strong resistance during such a movement, “a lack of supplies might compel me to abandon the attempt.” Rather than wreaking a path of destruction through the Commonwealth, he would concentrate on his immediate vicinity.
When Sheridan had received command in August, Grant’s instructions were quite clear: “eat out Virginia clean and clear … so that a crow flying over it will have to carry their own provender.” Additionally, Sheridan was directed to “do all the damage to railroads … carry off stock of all descriptions” and, “if the war is to last another year, we want the Shenandoah Valley to remain a barren waste.” In the spirit of these orders, Sheridan directed his men to visit fire and brimstone on the local landscape for the next 10 days. Anything of subsistence, including crops and hay, was burned. Livestock was slaughtered. From Staunton to Port Republic and on to Waynesboro, nothing was left to supply Early or Gen. Robert E. Lee.
One of the best sources about the extent of the destruction in the Valley comes from Rockingham County, which has its county seat at Harrisonburg and ranks as one of the largest counties in Virginia. After the Union soldiers departed, the officers of the county court organized a committee to assess the damages. The final list was published in the Register and Advertiser of Rockingham County. Not taking into account personal belongings or miscellaneous outbuildings, the effectiveness of the destruction is chilling. The committee found 30 dwelling houses burned; 450 barns burned; 100 miles of fencing destroyed; and 31 mills, 3 factories, and 1 furnace burned. In addition, 1,750 cattle, 1,750 horses, 4,200 sheep, and 3,350 hogs had been carried off; and 100,000 bushels of wheat, 50,000 bushels of corn, and 6,332 tons of hay had been destroyed.
As the Confederacy’s breadbasket, the Shenandoah finally saw the hard hand of war under Sheridan. Here is a modern view of an area outside Harrisonburg that suffered under “the burning.” (DD/PG)
A Mennonite resident of the Valley, surveying the destruction around his family farm, wrote:
The Union army came up the Valley sweeping everything before them like a hurricane; there was nothing left for man or beast from the horse down to the chicken; all was taken. So we felt as though we could not subsist; and besides, they were burning down barns and mills in every direction around us.
As part of a religious sect that adhered to a decree of nonaggression, the man made a decision to get a pass from the Union army and head north out of harm’s way.
The destruction seemed to instill a sense of retribution and resolve in the Confederate ranks. “Our hearts ached at the horrible sight,” one soldier recounted, “our beautiful Valley almost a barren waste and we with an army so inferior in numbers as to render success almost hopeless. Yet the sight carried with it unseen power … to avenge this dastardly warfare, making us doubly equal to such an enemy.”
The loss to the Confederacy’s war effort was irreparable, though. Lee’s army, fighting from the siege lines of Richmond and Petersburg, depended on supplies from the Shenandoah Valley to survive. With such devastation, many a soldier, along with many a civilian on the home front, faced a bleak and hungry winter.
* * *
On October 3, while overseeing a survey, one of Sheridan’s staff officers, Lt. John Meigs, encountered several Confederate cavalrymen. In the skirmish that ensued, Meigs was killed (see Tour #4). Besides being an engineer on Sheridan’s staff, he was also the son of the quartermaster general of the United States Army, Montgomery Meigs. Sheridan was livid when he received word of the young man’s death. In an act of vengeance, he ordered all the houses in the area near the skirmish burned along with the entire town of Dayton. Fortunately for the local citizens, Col. Thomas Wildes of the 116th Ohio requested that Sheridan rescind the order. In an uncharacteristic action, Little Phil acquiesced, thus saving the town.
The Confederates needed a response to the Federal destruction. Despite the low morale and continued disparity in numbers, there was one characteristic about Early no one could deny. A Confederate soldier put it succinctly: “What ever may have been Earlys’ faults, he was a fighter.”
A plaque in Dayton honors Col. Thomas Wildes’ refusal to torch the town. The plaque is located at the intersection of Main Street and Mill Street. (DD/PG)
Two days after Meigs’ death, the Army of the Shenandoah withdrew from Harrisonburg, marching north down the Valley. As the Northerners began their trek back down the Valley, they began to see Southern horsemen on the distant horizon, creeping ever closer. Another fight was brewing.
