The Third Battle of Winchester
Union Victories in the Valley
After the successful attack of the Union Eighth Corps, it was only a matter of time before the Confederates lost the battle. As Confederate Gen. Early consolidated his lines closer and closer to Winchester, his men faced coordinated infantry attacks. Worse still, powerful Union cavalry forces fought their way along the Valley Pike, threatening to surround Early's forces. Although the Southerners offered stubborn resistance at Fort Collier, Star Fort, and from every fenceline and barricade they could find, Early had to choose between retreat and the destruction or capture of his army. By nightfall, the city of Winchester was in Union hands.
The Third Battle of Winchester was the bloodiest battle ever fought in the Shenandoah Valley, producing more casualties than the entire 1862 Valley Campaign. Union Gen. Sheridan lost 12 percent of his army with 5,000 of 39,000 soldiers killed, wounded and missing. Early suffered fewer casualties - 3,500 men - but he lost 25 percent of his army.
After the battle Early's men retreated twenty miles south to Fisher's Hill. On September 22, they were outflanked from their position and forced to retreat again. A Confederate cavalry force was beaten at Tom's Brook, but Early nearly defeated the Army of the Shenandoah at Cedar Creek on October 19. Sheridan organized a powerful counterattack, however, and almost completely destroyed the Army of the Valley. Never again would the Confederates control or even conduct substantial operations in the Shenandoah. Thereafter, Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant shifted his focus to forcing Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee out of Richmond. He accomplished this seven months later, effectively ending the war.
Marker can be reached from Redbud Road (County Route 661), on the right when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
