"Like A Thousand Bricks"

On the late afternoon of September 19, 1864, during one of the Civil War's most spectacular scenes and one of the largest cavalry charges in the history of the Western Hemisphere, about 6,000 Union cavalrymen who had been pushing Confederates south along the Valley Turnpike throughout the day struck the Confederate flank as Gen. Philip Sheridan ordered them to finish the attack. A great cloud of dust marked the Federal advance as the horsemen overran Fort Collier and forced the Confederates back to their final redoubt outside Winchester. As southern troops tried to steady their lines, Gen. Wesley Merritt regrouped 1,000 men, led by Gen. George A. Custer's brigade, and sent them forward again with drawn sabers at a gallop. The renewed charge smashed into the Confederates, broke their line into fragments, and the sound of Union cavalry behind them spread panic through the defenders until the entire Confederate line collapsed and southern troops raced into Winchester in confusion.

Virginia · United States