Thomas's Approach Route

The trail into the ravine follows Thomas's route to the battle.

NPS Photo

Quick Facts

Location:

Frederick County, Va.

Significance:

Part of Cedar Creek Battlefield

On the morning of Wednesday, October 19, 1864, US Brig. Gen. William Emory, commanding the 19th Corps camped west of Valley Turnpike (now US Route 11), had planned to lead a reconnaissance-in-force across Cedar Creek. As a result, he had all of his corps up early. Suddenly heavy firing broke out to their left, across Valley Turnpike where Brig. Gen. George Crook’s 8th Corps camped. Emory later wrote: “I was in the act of saddling when I heard firing to the left in the direction of General Crook’s camp, followed by prolonged cheers, as if the enemy were making an assault…” 

Emory was hearing a surprise attack on the unsuspecting and vulnerable left flank of the US Army of the Shenandoah. Aided by pre-dawn darkness and a dense fog, the first Confederate forces struck Col. Joseph Thoburn’s division about 5:00 a.m. By 5:30, Thoburn’s troops had been routed. Shortly after, other Confederate units assaulted Crook’s other division, commanded by future U.S. president, Col. Rutherford B. Hayes. 

In order to give the rest of the US troops time to respond, Emory ordered Col. Stephen Thomas’s brigade towards the fighting. Thomas quickly formed up his men and marched them at the “double-quick” across Valley Turnpike. Leading was Thomas’s own command, the 8th Vermont, followed by the 160th New York, and the 12th Connecticut. Bringing up the rear was the 47th Pennsylvania. They probably numbered no more than 1,000 strong and reached the ravine east of the road a little before 6:00 a.m. 

The trail follows the route Thomas’s brigade took through the ravine. With the exception of the pond, the terrain appears much as it did in 1864. As his brigade moved across the Pike, Thomas ordered Lt. James Welch’s Company G, 8th Vermont, ahead as skirmishers. They spread out in a skirmish line, then pushed down this ravine and up the ridge beyond. The rest of the brigade followed. Soldiers from the 8th Corps rushed by them, trying to escape their Confederate pursuers. One Vermonter recalled that these men “did not seem excited, only stolidly, doggedly determined to go to the rear... heeding no pleas to stand.”

Years later, Gen. Emory told Col. Thomas, “I never gave an order in my life that cost me so much pain as it did to order you across the pike that morning. I never expected to see you again.’”

As the Vermonters rushed up the hillside, the other three regiments veered off to the right. No doubt many thought the same as Vermont Capt. S.E. Howard: “The only question was, could we check the furious tide, could we hold that line for half an hour, and thus give the Nineteenth and Sixth Corps time to form a new line?”