Article • Drive the Enemy South

Battle of Cedar Creek

Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park

A painting richly colored with red and yellow depicts soldiers rallying to the U.S. flag in the midst of battle.
"The Battle of Cedar Creek" painting by Julian Scott, 1872

Courtesy of the Vermont State Curator’s Office

“There burst upon our view the appalling spectacle of a panic-stricken army— hundreds of slightly wounded men, throngs of others… utterly demoralized, …all pressing to the rear in hopeless confusion, telling only too plainly that a disaster had occered at the front.”

U.S. Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan

“The concentration was stopped; the blow was not delivered… We halted, we hesitated, we dallied.”

Confederate Maj. Gen. John Gordon

The Federal victory at Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864 ended Confederate resistance in the Shenandoah Valley. Coming just three weeks before the presidential election, news of the victory boosted morale in the Northern states and helped carry Abraham Lincoln to a landslide reelection.

A Victory Turned From Disaster

On October 19, 1864 Maj. Gen. Jubal Early’s Confederates launched a predawn attack at Cedar Creek. They drove Federal soldiers out of their camps around Belle Grove Plantation and through Middletown in disarray. US Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan, however, rallied his troops and turned the Confederate victory into a total defeat. Read more »

Order of Battle

The order of battle shows the hierarchy of army units in the field at the Battle of Cedar Creek.

Trip Ideas

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  • Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park

    Explore Cedar Creek Battlefield

    • Type: Educational, Indoors, Outdoors, Road Trip, Group Friendly
    • Duration: Full Day
    • Topics: Enslavement, Plantations, Monuments and Memorials, Roads, Routes and Highways, Civil War, Trails, Colonization and Settlement, Scenic Views, Farming and Agriculture, Foothills, Plains and Valleys, Battlefields, Caves, Caverns and Karst, Forests and Woodlands, Geology, Architecture and Building
    • Activities: Junior Ranger Program, Front-Country Hiking, Guided Tours, Museum Exhibits, Self-Guided Tours - Auto, Self-Guided Tours - Walking
    Tall green corn and round hay bales sprawl across historic plantation fields.

    Park Rangers recommend setting aside most of the day to explore Cedar Creek Battlefield. The battlefield sites are scattered around the vicinity of Middletown, Virginia.

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People, Places, & Stories

Showing results 1-10 of 68

  • Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park

    Thoburn's Redoubt

    • Type: Place
    • Locations: Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park
    Cannon on a grassy knoll overlooking fall foliage and a historic farm.

    The Confederate surprise attack in the pre-dawn fog of October 19, 1864 struck here against the 8th Corps first, then drove the rest of the Federal troops from their camps around Belle Grove Plantation. 

  • Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park

    128th New York Monument

    • Type: Place
    • Locations: Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park
    Large granite monument inscribed with 128th Reg NYSVI next to a row of trees.

    Veterans of New York's 128th Infantry Regiment dedicated a monument in memory of their comrades who died at the Battle of Cedar Creek. The monument marks the left end of the U.S. 19th Corps' position during the battle. 

  • Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park

    Miller's Mill

    • Type: Place
    • Locations: Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park
    Histroic two-story brick house on the Cedar Creek Battefield.

    The brick house at Miller's Mill marks the farthest advance of the Confederate army. Early formed his line along Miller Lane, modern Cougill Road. 

  • George Crook

    • Type: Person
    • Locations: Antietam National Battlefield, Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park, Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park, Fort Bowie National Historic Site,
    An 1870s half-portrait photo shows a fork-bearded man seated in double-breasted army uniform.

    Best known today for his military campaigns against the Indians before and after the Civil War, George Crook rose from the command of the 36th Ohio Infantry to the command of a cavalry division which fought in Tennessee and southwestern Virginia. During the war he became friends with future president Rutherford B. Hayes.

  • John Pegram

    • Type: Person
    • Locations: Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park, Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, Petersburg National Battlefield
    An 1800s full portrait photograph shows a young bearded man in an army uniform.

    John Pegram was a career United States army officer and West Point graduate who resigned his commission in 1861 to accept a position in the Confederate army. In the summer of 1861, at Rich Mountain, Virginia, he became the first former US Army officer to be captured by Federal forces when he surrendered his entire regiment. Pegram returned to the Confederate army and served until his death in February 1865. 

  • Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park

    8th Vermont Monument

    • Type: Place
    • Locations: Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park
    A gated iron fence encloses a marble war memorial in the woods at the edge of a field.

    Herbert Hill, veteran of the 8th Vermont Infantry Regiment, was just 18 years-old during the Battle of Cedar Creek. Twenty years after the war ended, Hill erected a monument where the 8th Vermont made its sacrificial stand to slow the Confederate attack.

  • Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park

    Isaac D. Knight

    • Type: Person
    • Locations: Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park
    Image of a man in Union uniform

    Isaac Donaldson Knight was the Chief Surgeon of the Federal Army of West Virginia during the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign.

  • Jubal Early

    • Type: Person
    • Locations: Antietam National Battlefield, Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park, Civil War Defenses of Washington, Fort Monroe National Monument, Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park,
    An 1860s bust portrait photo shows a bearded man seated in double-breasted army uniform.

    Jubal Anderson Early was Confederate General during the Civil War. Although he did not initially support secession, he fought for his native state of Virginia. Early commanded the Confederate Army of the Valley during the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign. After the Civil War his speeches and writings helped promote the Lost Cause myth and white supremacy. 

  • Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park

    Charles Russell Lowell

    • Type: Person
    • Locations: Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park
    A young Civil War cavalry officer poses seated in uniform.

    Charles Russell Lowell, Jr., was a US Army Colonel killed at the Battle of Cedar Creek in 1864. A monument in Middletown, Virginia, commemorates his sacrifice.

  • Rutherford B. Hayes

    • Type: Person
    • Locations: Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park, The White House and President's Park
    An 1800s half-length portrait photo depicts a seated man with a beard, facing left.

    As the 19th President of the United States (1877-1881), Rutherford B. Hayes oversaw the end of Reconstruction, began the efforts that led to civil service reform, and attempted to reconcile the divisions left over from the Civil War.

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Part of a series of articles titled Drive the Enemy South.

Previous: Skirmish at Hupp's Hill

Next: Thanks of the Nation

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Last updated: February 1, 2023

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