N.C. Troops at Cedar Creek

At the Battle of Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864, twenty-one regiments of North Carolina troops served in five brigades in the Army of the Valley District under Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early. The brigades of Brig. Gen. Robert D. Johnston and Lt. Col. William S. Davis, formerly Brig. Gen. Archibald Godwin’s, were part of Brig. Gen. John Pegram’s division; the brigades of Brig. Gen. William R. Cox and Brig. Gen. Bryan Grimes were part of Maj. Gen. Stephen D. Ramseur’s division; and Col. Thomas Smith’s brigade was part of Brig. Gen. Gabriel Wharton’s division. Before dawn, the divisions of Pegram and Ramseur formed in line of battle about one half mile east of the Valley Pike near the Cooley Mansion and about 5 a.m. assaulted Federal positions, striking westward from the east, while other Confederate brigades, including Thomas Smith’s, attacked from the south. In one of the most ferocious battles of the War, North Carolina troops fought along the Valley Pike, on the grounds of Belle Grove, northward past Belle Grove, against and through cemetery hill and Middletown, until the final line was reached west and north of town. By late morning, after six hours of brutal fighting, they formed battle lines with their comrades and awaited orders to continue the advance. During the four hour lull that General Early allowed, Federal troops rested and reorganized, and about 3:30 p.m. the Army of the Shenandoah advanced south against the formerly victorious Confederates. Superior numbers began to tell, the Confederate left flank collapsed, and the North Carolina troops fell back fighting. General Ramseur of Lincolnton, N.C., wearing a flower on his lapel to honor his first child’s birth, was mortally wounded shortly after 5 p.m., later captured, and died the next morning in Belle Grove Manor. Early’s army was driven from the field and retreated south up the Valley after North Carolina troops had fought from dawn until dusk in the second largest battle in the Shenandoah during the War.

Middletown, Virginia · United States