Battle of Fisher’s Hill

After the Union victory at the Third Battle of Winchester on September 19, 1864, both armies approached Fisher’s Hill in sharply different spirits. Union Lt. John M. Gould recalled marching toward Fisher’s Hill with a new sense that the Shenandoah was no longer the “Valley of Humiliation” and that retreat before a victorious enemy had ended, while Confederate soldiers despaired and cavalryman John Opie wrote that what remained of their army had lost confidence in Gen. Jubal A. Early’s leadership. Yet the Confederates’ earlier domination of the Valley and Fisher’s Hill’s imposing defensive position revived some of Early’s men and caused the Federals to hesitate, as Capt. James F. Fitts of the 114th New York Infantry acknowledged that despite Union victory and Confederate defeat, the Southern army held one of the best defensive positions in Virginia. Early’s army, however, was too small to defend the nearly four-mile front stretching from Little North Mountain to Massanutten Mountain, a weakness noted by Confederate Capt. Samuel D. Buck and Capt. Henry Kyd Douglas. On September 22, the Union Army of the Shenandoah exploited these weaknesses.

Virginia · United States