The Third Battle of Winchester

At noon on September 19, Union General Sheridan's Sixth and Nineteenth Corps met Early's Confederate force in attacks on the south side of Red Bud Run, while Union Gen. George Crook's Army of West Virginia, the Eighth Corps, waited in reserve two miles east. When it became clear the Confederate force would not break, Sheridan called for his reserves, and after a hurried march Crook's men reached the battlefield around 1:30 p.m. Crook's First Division under Col. Joseph Thoburn moved into the woods on the south side of Red Bud Run, while Crook ordered Col. Isaac Duval's Second Division and Capt. Henry A. DuPont's artillery brigade around the Confederate left flank. Duval's and DuPont's men crossed north over Red Bud Run near an old mill called The Factory, about a mile east, then moved west along the creek through the fields before pivoting left and preparing to charge. Crook told Sheridan he would attack at once and asked that the entire Union line advance in support. Crook's men straddled Red Bud Run, with Thoburn on the south bank, Duval on the north, and DuPont's artillery supporting them. Just after 3:00 in the afternoon, Duval's men reached the steep northern bank of Red Bud Run and immediately came under Confederate fire from soldiers near the Hackwood House. Duval was shot in the thigh during the charge, and future President Rutherford B. Hayes took command of the division. Reaching the banks of Red Bud Run, Hayes halted briefly to reform his men before charging across the stream under enemy fire.

Virginia · United States