Third Battle of Winchester

Third Battle of Winchester. "One Moving Mass of Glittering Sabers". On September 19, 1864, Union Gen. Philip H. Sheridan’s Army of the Shenandoah routed Confederate Gen. Jubal A. Early’s Valley Army at the Third Battle of Winchester (also called Opequon) in the bloodiest and largest battle in the Shenandoah Valley. The opening action was several miles to the east, where opposing infantry divisions slugged it out at the mouth of Berryville Canyon and over the plain of First Woods, Middle Field and Second Woods. The crushing end of the battle began here, where about 6,000 Federal cavalrymen made one of the grandest charges in United States history along the Valley Turnpike (present-day U.S. Rte. 11). , Crossing the Opequon Creek fords early in the morning, Union Gen. Wesley Merritt’s and Gen. William W. Averell’s cavalry divisions probed Confederate Gen. John C. Breckinridge’s defenses at several points. After several Federal assaults, Early readjusted his forces in the afternoon north of Winchester, folding back his line on an east-west axis. Merritt and Averell patiently waited for the right opportunity, and it finally arrived. Their cavalrymen, formed in a mile-long line three ranks deep, advanced first at a trot then charged in a furious onslaught of horses and sabers that smashed through the Confederate lines. The charge engulfed two redoubts, Star Fort and Fort Collier, as the tidal wave of blue rolled forward, sending Early’s force “whirling through Winchester” in retreat. One veteran later wrote, “Winchester was the first battle in the war in which the cavalry was properly handled in cooperations with the infantry.”