As Grimes's position was being overwhelmed, Gen. Stephen Ramseur ordered Gen. Philip Cook's small brigade, positioned near here, to move to that flank, but as Cook's men pulled out of their trenches, they were routed by troops advancing from the north. Crook's and Ricketts's Federals swept east along the southern trench line as Union commander Gen. Philip Sheridan shouted, "Run boys, Run! Don't wait for them to form!" Confederate commander Gen. Jubal Early arrived on the high ground on the opposite side of present-day Interstate 81 and attempted to organize a defense, sending orders to Gen. Gabriel Wharton to redeploy his division from the extreme Confederate right to the left, but Early no longer had the time. Gen. John Pegram, commander of the next division in line, tried to stem the Union assault by moving troops to his left, but as Capt. Samuel D. Buck of the 13th Virginia remembered, the North Carolina brigade on the left concluded Pegram was trying to get Buck's brigade out and leave them to be captured and, without firing a shot, broke and ran over them, carrying them off the field without any organization. Early ordered the Virginians to fire into the fleeing men, but no one obeyed. The rest of Pegram's division soon gave way under pressure from Crook and Ricketts and also from Gen. George Getty's division to the north, which attacked Pegram's front. As the Federals advanced, Pegram's men poured in one tremendous volley, then broke and fled in the wildest disorder. The remaining Confederate divisions soon fell like dominoes from west to east and retreated southward in disarray.

Photo: Bradley Owen

Strasburg, Virginia · USA