"Like A Thousand Bricks"

"Like A Thousand Bricks". The Union Cavalry Charge. , Time: Late Afternoon, Standing on this spot on the afternoon of September 19, 1864, you would have witnessed , about a mile to your front , one of the most spectacular scenes of the Civil War... and one of the largest cavalry charges in the history of the Western Hemisphere., The Union Cavalry, some 6,000 strong had been pushing the Confederates south along the Valley Turnpike (modern-day US-11) throughout the day. Now, with the southern defenses in danger of crumbling, Union commander Gen. Philip Sheridan ordered his cavalry to finish the job., The Federal horsemen thundered down on the Confederate flank. Union Lt. John Mead Gould described what you would have seen from this spot, as the Federal horsemen advance from your right to the left. "We could see, almost under the setting sun, a great long, whirling cloud... There seemed to be great masses of thick dust rolling within each other like a boiling pot.", The cavalry overran Fort Collier, forcing the Confederates back to their final redoubt outside of Winchester. As the southerners tried to stabilize their lines, the Federal horsemen kept up the pressure. Gen. Wesley Merritt regrouped a force of 1,000 men, spearheaded by Gen. George A. Custer's brigade. At the command, "Draw sabers, forward," they advanced again, accelerating to a gallop before smashing into the Confederates., "Down they come where the rebels have partly reformed their line, fairly riding them into the ground," described one Union officer. "...The sabres glisten in the sun as they cut right and left.", "The enemy's line broke into a thousand fragments under the shock," remembered Merritt. The sound of Union cavalry behind them panicked other defenders and the entire Confederate line collapsed, with southern troops racing into Winchester in confusion., Confederate Sgt. Sam Collier was among those overwhelmed. "They came pouring down upon us like a thousand bricks which of course we could not stand," he remembered. "We fell back... The whole face of the earth was literally alive with rebels running for their lives.", This sign made possible through funds donated by the Millbrook High School Cross Country Team