From Winchester to Cedar Creek: The Shenandoah Campaign of 1864

In From Winchester to Cedar Creek: The Shenandoah Campaign of 1864, Jeffry D. Wert charts Union General Philip Sheridan’s victory over Confederate General Jubal Early in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley during the closing months of the American Civil War. Sheridan’s campaign ensured Confederate defeat in Virginia and ultimately contributed to President Abraham Lincoln’s reelection. Drawing on manuscript collections and many published sources, Wert offers vivid descriptions of the battles of Third Winchester, Fisher’s Hill, Tom’s Brook, and Cedar Creek.First published in 1987, From Winchester to Cedar Creek explores how interplay of the strengths and weaknesses of the Union and Confederate commanders, Sheridan and Early, resulted in victories for Sheridan’s Army of the Shenandoah. It not only documents and dynamically recounts these events, but it also details the political, strategic, and tactical forces that made the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign so important to the outcome of the Civil War.As Philip Sheridan’s star rose, Jubal Early’s fell. In June 1864, Confederate General Robert E. Lee sent Early and approximately 15,000 men up the Shenandoah Valley to clear Union troops from the area and menace Washington, D.C., in an effort to repeat Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s successes in 1862. Early, however, was no Jackson. Despite early success, by August he was on the defensive. General Ulysses S. Grant sent his cavalry commander, Philip Sheridan, to command all Union troops in the Valley and destroy Early. This is where From Winchester to Cedar Creek picks up the story.Philip Sheridan was one of the few cavalry commanders who successfully transitioned to overall command of an army. His unique experience allowed him to better integrate infantry and cavalry. During the Civil War, it was considered suicidal for mounted cavalry to directly engage infantry, but at the Battle of Third Winchester, September 19, 1864, Brig. Gen. Wesley Merritt’s cavalry division broke Early’s defensive line with a classic Napoleonic cavalry charge.Down but not out, Early’s beleaguered units surprised Sheridan’s Army of the Shenandoah in fog at the Battle of Cedar Creek. While the Confederates paused to regroup, Sheridan dramatically rode down from Winchester just in time to rally his men and turn the tide. After the war, Early blamed soldiers who stopped and looted Union camps for the critical delay. Wert argues the dense fog, and Early himself, was largely to blame. Neither Early nor his subordinates recognized the importance of the Valley Turnpike north of Middletown, where they could have turned the Union flank and prevented Sheridan’s reinforcements from arriving in time.Because General Early permanently lost the Shenandoah for the Confederacy, history has not been kind. Sheridan’s Valley Campaign, on the other hand, made Sheridan a legend and a national hero. But Wert argues Early did the best he could with what he had. He had taken the war to the outskirts of Washington, D.C., diverted men and material away from Grant’s army around Richmond and Petersburg, and inflicted higher casualties against forces that outnumbered him 3-to-1. “Burdened with his disadvantages, Jubal Early displayed superior generalship when compared to his Union counterpart,” he argued.Beyond a firm grasp of strategy and tactics, Wert offers compelling accounts of how the average soldier fought and died during the Civil War. He pauses to explain how it was a common experience that once under fire, a soldier’s nerves steadied and fear seemed to vanish. One account of a visitor on the Third Winchester battlefield described the expressions on the faces of the men who died–surprise, pain, and even peacefulness. Men died instantly with looks of surprise frozen on their faces. Others had time to make peace with their fate. It’s an intimate, chilling side of battle you rarely read.

This is an excellent account of the 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaign, a campaign that is often overshadowed by Grant's operations against Lee and Stonewall Jackson's 1862 Valley campaign. Wert covers each aspect of the campaign in good detail and gives outstanding accounts of the battles at Winchester, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek. Other chapters cover the objectives of the campaign, the two armies and personalities, the Burning, a chapter on Mosby's impact, and a conclusion assessing Sheridan and Early during the campaign. The book makes clear how intense these lesser known battles were and the losses proportionately were comparable with battles such as Shiloh and Gettysburg. I had not fully realized the losses, both total and in general officers, that Early's army suffered or the full extent of Sheridan's numerical superiority. Wert is fair overall in his criticisms of generals on both sides, but in particular he is appropriately critical of Sheridan for his tactical and strategic errors, not to mention his tendency to claim others ideas and success as his own. That said, he makes it clear there was no Northern general like Sheridan when it came to rallying and inspiring troops on a battlefield. Early also gets his share of criticism, but Wert acknowledges his many achievements during the campaign as well. If the book has a flaw, it is in the maps. While they are adequate to understand the big picture of the battles, they are not detailed enough for a real understanding of the complicated movements. Also, lesser battles such as Tom's Brook are given short shrift. I would have liked to have read a full account from Early's departure form Lee, including Monacacy and the fight in Washington as well as the Valley campaign, but that may well have been too long. Overall, this is a terrific book and its flaws are minor quibbles. Highly recommended to all Civil War enthusiasts.

After reading and enjoying Jeffrey Wert's book, I found it recommended by other sources on the Shenandoah action, including The Battle of Cedar Creek by Joseph Whitehorne, a source intended for self-guides tours. I believe Wert's book rightly earns its praise. His well documented writing provides a detailed picture of the 1864 campaign in the Valley without being without being overbearing. I read the book after having toured the field with an NPS ranger, but the book would be great reading for one who plans to visit the sites. More maps would be a good addition, in my opinion, but with the easy access to computer animated maps, that is not much of a criticism. We're considers many intriguing items in addition to troop movements. For instance, he describes mistakes made by both sides that had definite effects. Sheridan missed an opportunity to bring a quicker victory at Winchester by delaying an attack. Early's delays after morning success at Cedar Creek, along with his overall lack of respect for cavalry (some of which he sent away to Front Royal) set up his afternoon defeat. Wert points out that going into the battle of Winchester, Jubal Early did not consider Phil Sheridan a worthy opponent and not much of a fighter -- a costly assumption. In addition, when Early informed General Lee of the approaching action, Lee seriously underestimated the size of Union forces, believing that Sheridan had only half the troop strength that he actually did. These are the kinds of insights Mr. Wert gives us in a book that I do recommend.