Mount Carmel Cemetery

Mount Carmel Cemetery

NPS

Quick Facts

Location:

Middletown, Virginia

Significance:

Part of Cedar Creek Battlefield

MANAGED BY:

Mount Carmel Cemetery

Amenities

3 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Parking - Auto, Scenic View/Photo Spot

Before the Civil War, the community of Middletown buried their dead in this cemetery above the town. The cemetery has a commanding view of Middletown to the east and Belle Grove to the south, from a ridge above the banks of Meadow Brook. In the Battle of Cedar Creek, Federal troops regrouped on the cemetery hill to try to stall the advancing Confederates. 

• Stop 6: Mount Carmel Cemetery

  
  

  Fighting among the cemetery headstones, Federal Brig. Gen. G.W. Getty's 2,400-man division held this prominent hill for one and a half hours before withdrawing.

  Credit / Author:

  NPS

  Date created:

  12/13/2021

  Audio Transcript

  You are now at stop #6 on the auto tour. This is called Mt. Carmel Cemetery which at the time of the battle was known as Middletown Cemetery. Cemetery behind me obviously was much smaller at the time of the battle, but it is still an active cemetery today, and that is why it is obviously why it is much larger. The town of Middletown itself is actually right behind these trees, to your left, or to your east, less than a half a mile away. More obvious is the Signal Knob and Massanutten Mountain which you clearly see in the distance behind me or to your south, southeast. The battlefield here is changed somewhat since 1864, and that is the growth of the non-historic vegetation or woods that you see both off to your left or to your east. Those don’t belong. And also to our south, directly to our south at the end of the cemetery, those don’t belong either, and they have grown up since the time of the battle. Along with the trees to our right or to the west, they would have been woods but much farther back or farther to the west. That’s why the Park Service, when we put up our wayside exhibits that belong at each stop, like this one here, that’s why we commissioned this original piece of artwork to try to depict what the actual view shed would have looked like in 1864. So if you take a careful look at this wayside, this painting depicts the historic view shed and what the soldiers would have seen in 1864. So as we have previously talked about at stops 3 & 4, the Confederate attack had rolled up the Union line crushing the 8th Corps and then the 19th Corps and driving them out of their camps and north and capturing Belle Grove the Union army’s headquarters. That left only the 6th Corps, as the only remaining corps on the battlefield to offer any resistance to the Confederate attack. And although they fought along Meadow Brook, the stream, we discussed and then drove along to get to this stop. The 6th Corps alone could not stop the Confederate attack and eventually as the 6th Corps retreated it left this as the only defensible position on which to make a stand. And one division of the 6th Corps, about 2,400 men of a division led by George Washington Getty, realized this was the place, the only place they could take a stand. And with this historic view shed, kind of recreated in this painting, and you can see a sliver of it kind of here through the opening in the trees. This really became the place to try to stop the Confederate attack. So George Washington Getty’s division, formed a battle line here, on the morning of the battle around 8:00 to try to stop or at least slow the Confederate attack down. So Getty formed his men along the south face of the hill, directly in front of you, and then also turned it to the left along the east base of the hill, or over here to your left. So they faced two directions. And for about an hour and a half, they literally stopped the Confederate attack. They had some support on their right too along the south face of the hill along the same route we just drove up a minute ago. They stopped three separate Confederate attacks against the hill. The first two were kind of, ill-conceived or the first two Confederate attacks were disorganized because by this point, as you can imagine, the Confederates were disorganized having marched all night, and then fought four hours to get here, and thought they could roll over the Union line, and this is really the first time they met any resistance. Frustrated, General Early, the Confederate commander, lined up his 30 pieces of artillery along the Valley Pike which you can barely see out there in the distance. About a mile away that is the dark trees it’s where modern factories are today. And he bombarded this spot for half hour to try to soften up the Union defenders. During this bombardment, one of Getty’s brigade commanders, General Bidwell, you can see here in the painting, he actually got mortally wounded and hit by an artillery shell, mortally wounded and would die from his wounds. And after a half an hour they launched a third attack against the Union line. This third attack actually reached the slopes of the hill and got amongst the Union batteries of artillery involving hand to hand fighting. Literally hand spikes and rammers. Didn’t take the battery but was very intense fighting. But it was that third attack that finally drove the Union line off the hill because it outflanked Getty’s division on the right or over here to your west. If he had stayed Getty realized he would be surrounded and captured. So he finally around 9:30 having stood here for an hour and a half, ordered his men to retreat. And that was really was the last Union resistance that morning to the Confederate assault. At that point the entire Union army was retreating north of Middletown, behind you, to your north where they tried to rally their lines. The Confederates followed, forming their final battle line to the north which we will talk about at our next stop. The Confederates began to realize too at that point that they were missing hundreds if not thousands of their men from their front lines. What they began to realize was these men were back in the Union camps looting. Why was it, although against orders, that these men were doing this? By this time in the war you must remember, Richmond had a hard time keeping these Confederates well supplied. Thousands of men in the Confederate army were barefoot, ill fed, many of the men had not eaten a good meal in weeks and so despite the orders they were back looting the Union camps just because all of that stuff was there for the taking. One Confederate soldier later talked about this. He said, “The world would never know the extreme poverty of the Confederate soldier at this time. Hundreds of men who were in the charge that morning were barefoot and every one of them were ragged. Many had nothing on but what they wore. And none had eaten a square meal in weeks. In passing through Sheridan’s camps, a great temptation had been thrown their way. Many of the Union tents were open and in plain sight were rationed shoes, overcoats, and blankets. Some of the men stopped and secured well filled haversacks and investigated their contents. The temptations to stop and eat were too great, as they had nothing to eat since the evening before.” And so, that’s why by the time they had gotten to their final Confederate lines north of Middletown, some estimated a third of the Confederate army, and this is a Confederate army already outnumbered, a third of the Confederate army were missing from their front ranks. Another Confederate controversy would develop that we will discuss at our next stop, stop 7, called Miller’s Mill, around that same time. So this is around 10:30, the Confederates have seemingly won an impossible victory, and they have sent the Union army packing north of Middletown. Will that victory stand is the real question? Let’s discuss that at our next stop, Miller’s Mill.