Third Battle of Winchester

The Third Battle of Winchester, fought here on September 19, 1864, was a proving ground for several men on both sides who later shaped post-war America. Among them were Col. Rutherford B. Hayes, who commanded a Federal VIII Corps brigade and later served as president from 1877 to 1881; Capt. William McKinley, who led a VIII Corps infantry company and later served as president from 1897 to 1901, when he was assassinated; Gen. John B. Gordon, who commanded a Confederate division and later became a senator from Georgia from 1891 to 1897; Capt. Henry A. DuPont, who commanded a U.S. artillery brigade, later served as a senator from Delaware, and was awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry at the Battle of Cedar Creek; and Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, who led the Confederate cavalry, was wounded at Winchester, later was governor of Virginia from 1895 to 1889, and commanded a U.S. Army corps during the Spanish-American War in 1898. Other participants who later played major roles included U.S. Gens. Philip H. Sheridan, George Crook, Ronald S. Mackenzie, Marcus A. Reno, and George A. Custer in the West during the Indian Wars; Gen. Emory Upton, a Federal division commander who became a celebrated military theorist and wrote The Military Policy of the United States (1904); Gen. Jubal A. Early, who became a leading proponent of the Lost Cause philosophy; and Gen. Wesley Merritt, a Federal cavalry division commander who led the First Philippine Expedition in 1898 during the Spanish-American War.

Virginia · United States