Ramseur's Hill

Ramseur's Hill, a natural high point on Fisher's Hill, formed a key but vulnerable part of the Confederate defenses during the Battle of Fisher's Hill on September 21-22, 1864. After his defeat at Third Winchester, Confederate Gen. Jubal A. Early withdrew to Fisher's Hill, but he lacked enough men to hold the four-mile defensive line. The left flank of Early's infantry rested on Ramseur's Hill, where troops from Confederate Gen. S. Dodson Ramseur's division manned the position, while only a thin line of cavalry extended the defenses farther northwest past the Back Road. Union Gen. Philip H. Sheridan approved a plan for Gen. George Crook's VIII Corps to swing around and strike Early's exposed left flank. As Crook's men marched concealed by darkness and fall foliage, the Union VI and XIX Corps massed north of Fisher's Hill and seized Flint Hill. At about 4 p.m. on September 22, Crook's two divisions attacked the Confederate left, dismounted Confederate cavalry failed to stop them, and Union troops soon hit the main Confederate infantry line at Ramseur's Hill. Under pressure from the flank and from frontal assaults from Flint Hill, the Confederate defenses collapsed and the army retreated south along the Valley Pike. The battle ended in a Union victory, with 29,444 Union and 9,500 Confederate troops engaged and estimated casualties of 528 Union and 1,235 Confederate. The fighting formed part of Sheridan's 1864 Shenandoah Campaign, which brought permanent Federal control of the Valley after additional victories at Tom's Brook and Cedar Creek, aided Abraham Lincoln's reelection, and helped speed Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox the following spring.

Virginia · United States