Opequon

Fought on September 19, 1864, near Winchester, Virginia, the Third Battle of Winchester is also known by two other names: the Battle of Opequon and the Battle of Opequon Creek. It stands among the largest, bloodiest, and most consequential engagements of the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War, and it ended with Union Major General Philip Sheridan getting the better of Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Early. Union losses reached 5,000, including a general killed and three others wounded. On the Confederate side the toll proved even steeper in proportion, with roughly 4,000 casualties out of 15,500 men engaged, among them two generals killed and four wounded. The men who fought that day would go on to remarkable things: two later became presidents of the United States, two became governors of Virginia, one had already served as vice president, and a colonel present would later have a grandson, George S. Patton, who earned fame as a general in World War II.

Sheridan launched his assault after discovering that a sizable Confederate force previously lent to Early had departed the region. He struck the Confederate lines strung along Opequon Creek near Winchester, sending one cavalry division together with two infantry corps against the eastern side while two more cavalry divisions pressed in from the north. He kept a third infantry corps, commanded by Brigadier General George Crook, in reserve. The fighting turned difficult, as Early made skillful use of the terrain east of town, but eventually Crook's infantry struck the Confederate left flank. That blow, paired with gains made by Union cavalry to the north, pushed Early's men back toward Winchester itself. A concluding assault by Union infantry and cavalry converging from both the north and the east finally broke the Confederate line, sending Early's troops fleeing south through the town's streets.

Battered by heavy losses and badly outnumbered, Early pulled his army south along the Valley Pike toward the stronger ground at Fisher's Hill. Sheridan viewed what followed there as essentially an extension of the fighting begun on September 19 and pursued him up the pike, inflicting a second defeat. These two clashes formed part of Sheridan's broader Shenandoah Valley campaign, which ran from August through October of 1864. Following the twin losses at Winchester and

Background and plan

By August 1864, four years into the Civil War, Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Early's activities had become a source of deep worry for officials in the federal government. Major General Philip Sheridan, who commanded the newly formed Middle Military Division, felt continual pressure to move against Early. However, on August 12, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant cautioned Union leadership that two additional infantry divisions had reinforced Early's army, instructing that Sheridan should remain defensive and careful until Grant's operations around Richmond drew those reinforcements back. With the 1864 presidential election on the horizon, avoiding a costly military setback was essential to protect Abraham Lincoln's chances of reelection. Sheridan therefore positioned his forces between Washington and Early's army, engaging in a handful of minor clashes, among them the fight at Berryville, which concluded on September 4. Following that engagement, Early pulled his men back under cover of darkness to the western bank of Opequon Creek, situated between Berryville and Winchester, Virginia. For several weeks afterward, neither side altered its positions significantly, though Union cavalry continued probing daily, at one point seizing the entire 8th South Carolina Infantry Regiment through a brigade under Brigadier General John B. McIntosh. Because Sheridan hesitated to commit to a major assault, Early grew convinced that his opponent lacked boldness.

As September wore on, Sheridan worked to determine

Morning: infantry gets ready and cavalry repositions

Before the infantry clash began, Wright's VI Corps held the Union left while Emory's XIX Corps occupied the right. By nine in the morning the VI Corps had settled into place roughly two miles from Winchester. On the left stood Getty's 2nd Division, its flank anchored against Abrams Creek, sometimes called Abrahams Creek, while Ricketts's 3rd Division took the right with Ash Hollow beside it. Russell's 1st Division stayed back in reserve. Traffic jams along the Berryville Pike held up Emory's two divisions, so they didn't reach their assigned ground until eleven o'clock, settling north of that road between Ash Hollow and Red Bud Run. Grover's 2nd Division, the biggest in Sheridan's command, stacked four brigades at the front, and Dwight's 1st Division waited in reserve. Sheridan held Crook's pair of divisions from the Army of West Virginia, sometimes marked on maps as the VIII Corps, back near Opequon Creek.

Once fighting broke out between Ramseur and McIntosh, Lee dispatched his cavalry division under Wickham to the north bank of Red Bud Run, facing south. He also sent Breathed's horse artillery battalion to shield the ground ahead of Gordon's and Rodes' divisions. Lee himself oversaw the artillery there, and his troops traded fire across the creek with Chapman's Brigade of Wilson's Division until the XIX Corps finally arrived. Because the Union infantry took so long getting into place, Early managed to rush two Confederate divisions down from north of Winchester to positions beside Ramseur, keeping Sheridan from crushing Ramseur's lone division. Gordon's men left Bunker Hill and formed up on Ramseur's left near Hackwood Farm, south of Redbud Run, while Rodes filled the gap between Ramseur and Gordon. Ramseur himself held ground a mile east of Winchester, near a barn on Enos Dinkle's farm. Meanwhile north of the town, Wharton's infantry along with two cavalry brigades faced north and east. Both sides pushed skirmishers forward ahead of the coming Union assault, with artillery joining in as well.

Around eight that morning, elements of the VI Corps reached the western edge of the ravine and took over from Wilson's cavalry. Most of Wilson's troopers withdrew south across the Berryville Pike to Senseny Road, past Abrams Creek, where they paused to rest and restock ammunition. Positioned at the far left end of the Union line, about half a mile south of Getty's flank, they were the Union force nearest to the Valley Pike route Early might use to retreat southward. A handful of skirmishers lingered on the right until the XIX Corps came up to relieve them.

To the north, Averell's cavalry pushed south along the Martinsburg Pike until reaching a point just above Bunker Hill, some twelve miles from Winchester. There they ran into Imboden's cavalry brigade, roughly 600 strong under Colonel Smith. At ten o'clock, Averell ordered Weir's Battery L into action, sending the Confederates scrambling south toward Stephenson's Depot. Below Bunker Hill, two rifled guns of the Lewisburg Artillery, sent by Breckinridge to bolster Smith, briefly checked Averell's progress. Averell answered by bringing all six of his guns to bear, pushing the Confederates back and continuing his advance toward Stephenson's Depot and the rear of Wharton's division.

Merritt's cavalry, meanwhile, spent hours stalled before Wharton's second line, shielded by stone walls. When the Confederates finally pulled back south, Merritt followed at a cautious pace, striking Wharton's front near Brucetown around eleven. He chose not to press the attack further, judging it wiser to keep the enemy infantry away from Winchester and out of the larger Union assault soon to unfold.

Union infantry attacks from east

Wright's VI Corps stepped off at 11:40 am, with Emory's XIX Corps following just five minutes later at 11:45. Skirmishers from both armies had already engaged one another, and artillery lent support to Wright's advance. As the infantry surged forward, Wilson's cavalry probed enemy positions east of Senseny Road, though the horsemen remained too distant to aid the VI Corps' left flank. Within the opening half hour, Wright pushed Ramseur back along the Berryville Pike, while one of Emory's brigades achieved comparable gains against Gordon.

At the front, Wright commanded two divisions and four artillery batteries, keeping a third division held in reserve. His numbers dwarfed the Confederate defenders, Ramseur's infantry division bolstered by cavalry support, by nearly four to one. Yet the broken landscape, riddled with ravines, obscured the enemy from view and slowed the Union advance. Ricketts' 3rd Division held the right flank, following the Berryville Pike as it angled leftward, a movement that opened a dangerous gap between his troops and the XIX Corps. Confederate artillery pounded this division hard enough to stall its progress entirely. Meanwhile, on the left, Getty's 2nd Division crept forward under fire from two directions at once. Ahead of them sat a battery from Lieutenant Colonel William Nelson's battalion, while Lomax's horse artillery raked their flank from a distant southern position. Once Ricketts got moving again, Colonel J. Warren Keifer's brigade outpaced its neighboring units and slipped past Ramseur's exposed left flank, forcing Confederate troops to abandon the Dinkle Barn and fall back toward Winchester. By 12:10 pm, Ramseur's command teetered on the edge of collapse.

Grover's 2nd Division, part of Emory's XIX Corps, squared off against Gordon's division across ground broken by a First Woods, an open Middle Field roughly 600 yards wide, and a Second Woods beyond it. Grover's men initially drove the Confederates back with considerable success, but that very momentum became a liability as eager soldiers outran their officers' control. On the left flank, Colonel Jacob Sharpe's Third Brigade found itself exposed, with unfilled gaps on both sides, one bordering the VI Corps and another to its right. Gordon exploited this vulnerability before it could be closed, launching an assault backed by artillery. Sharpe's successor, Lieutenant Colonel James P. Richardson, fell wounded in the fighting, and every regimental commander except one suffered the same fate.

On the opposite flank, Brigadier General Henry Birge's First Brigade tore through the Middle Field and the Second Woods, pursuing Gordon's retreating men so far that they left their supporting brigades behind. There Birge's soldiers stumbled upon seven Confederate cannons concealed within haystacks. The gunners had held their fire until their