Signal Knob

Signal Knob, the northernmost point of Three Top Mountain, overlooks Strasburg and stands 2110 feet above sea level. During the Civil War, both sides used it as a signal station, but the Confederate signal corps occupied it almost continuously from 1862 to 1864. On October 19, 1864, Confederates there observed Union positions and directed the opening attack of the Battle of Cedar Creek. Other signal stations were established at Ashby Gap east of Winchester, Burnt Springs south in Fort Valley, Harmony Hollow near Front Royal, and New Market Gap, and special signal flags, lanterns, and telescopes were used to communicate from one peak to another. On August 14, 1864, Union troops attacked a detachment of the 61st Georgia Infantry and temporarily occupied the station, and each side suffered ten casualties. Years later, Mary Ashley Townsend found a grave on Massanutten Mountain and wrote a poem, “The Georgia Volunteer,” about an unknown Georgia soldier. Many local men served in Company A, Strasburg Guard, 10th Virginia Infantry, during the war, and its captain, Joshua Stover, later a major, died at the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 3, 1863. After the war, Confederate veterans gathered soldiers’ remains into the Presbyterian Cemetery and in 1896 dedicated an obelisk in memory of 136 fallen comrades. The Presbyterian Church, built in 1830, served as a hospital throughout the war after Doctor William J. Upshaw established one there in 1862, and later Federal forces used the church as a hospital before relocating to Winchester.

Strasburg, Virginia · United States