Virginia 45th Infantry (Confederate)

Carnifex Ferry

On September 10, 1861, Union troops led by Brig. Gen. William S. Rosecrans engaged the Confederates and forced them to evacuate an entrenched position on the Henry Patterson farm, which overlooked Carnifex Ferry. The Confederate commander, Brig. Gen. John B. Floyd, retreated across the ferry to the south side of the Gauley River and on eastward to Meadow Bluff near Lewisburg. This Civil War battle represented failure of a Confederate drive to regain control of the Kanawha Valley. As a result the movement f…READ MORE

Lieutenant ColonelEdwin H. Harman

Brigadier GeneralGabriel C. Wharton

Brigadier GeneralJohn Echols

Monocacy

After marching north down the Shenandoah Valley from Lynchburg, the Confederate army of Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early side-stepped the Federal garrison at Harpers Ferry and crossed the Potomac River at Shepherdstown into Maryland on July 5-6th, 1864. On July 9th, a makeshift Union force under Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace attempted to stop Early's invading Confederate divisions along the Monocacy River, just east of Frederick. The strategic area was near the junction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Georgetown…READ MORE

Fort Stevens

After his victory over Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace at the Battle of Monocacy in central Maryland on July 9th, Confederate Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early pressed his advantage and moved south toward the Union capital in Washington, DC. On July 11th, Early's exhausted Confederates reached the outskirts of Washington near Silver Spring. Skirmishers advanced to feel the fortifications that encircled the city, which at the time were manned only by Home Guards, clerks, and convalescent troops. During the night, Union reinfo…READ MORE

Cool Spring

A Union column under Maj. Gen. Horatio Wright, consisting of the Sixth Corps and elements of the Nineteenth Corps, pursued Maj. Gen. Jubal Early's army as it withdrew from the environs of Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1864. Early had moved down the Shenandoah Valley, beat a Union force at Monocacy, Maryland and threatened the capital with an attack on Fort Stevens. Wright's force was joined by elements of Gen. George R. Crook's command, which had accompanied Gen. David Hunter during his retreat through…READ MORE

Second Kernstown

As the forces under Maj. Gen. Jubal Early withdrew south after the battle at Cool Spring, and believing that Early's army was no longer a threat in the Shenandoah Valley, Maj. Gen. Horatio Wright abandoned his pursuit and ordered the Sixth and Nineteenth Corps to return to Washington, where they were to be sent back to the Union army before Petersburg. Wright left Brig. Gen. George Crook with three divisions and some cavalry to hold Winchester. Under Lee's orders to prevent reinforcements from being sent t…READ MORE

ColonelThomas Smith

Brigadier GeneralGabriel C. Wharton

Third Winchester

To clear the Shenandoah River valley of Confederates, Maj. Gen. Phil Sheridan moved on Winchester in mid-September 1864. Sheridan's force of over 39,000 men was more than twice the size of Maj. Gen. Jubal Early's Confederate army defending the valley. After Brig. Gen. Joseph Kershaw's division left Winchester to rejoin Robert E. Lee's army at Petersburg, Early renewed his raids on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Martinsburg in the lower valley, dispersing his four remaining infantry divisions. On Septem…READ MORE

Fisher's Hill

Confederate Maj. Gen. Jubal Early's Army of the Valley, bloodied by its defeat at the Third Battle of Winchester on September 19th, retreated 20 miles up the valley and took a defensive position in an east-west line across Fisher's Hill, southwest of Strasburg. Maj. Gen. Phillip Sheridan's Army of the Shenandoah, in accordance with Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's orders, aggressively pursued Early. Sheridan, outnumbering Early about three to one, noted that the right of the Confederate line was anchored o…READ MORE

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Cedar Creek

Also known as: Cedar Creek, Belle GroveREAD MORE