Three Battlefields

Three Battlefields. "We Could Hear Heavy Cannonading". , The ground you stand on was part of three different Civil War battlefields, a testament to the frequency of combat around Winchester., On June 15, 1863, during the Second Battle of Winchester, Louisiana troops cut off Union Col. Andrew T. McReynolds's troops trying to break out just north of here. A Louisiana Tiger wrote that "[we] jumped over a fence, fired into the enemy and charged." "Away we started in all directions," wrote one Federal. The 6th Maryland Infantry escaped "by making a circuitous route" through this area., During the Battle of Rutherford's Farm on July 20, 1864, Confederate Col. William L. "Mudwall" Jackson's cavalrymen attacked across the ground in front of you to bolster their army's crumbling right flank. The North Carolinians there were falling back, some throwing down their guns. As Jackson's men charged, they shouted to them, "Boys, gather up your gouns [sic]!" The attack temporarily drove back the Federals, saving many Tarheels from capture., On the morning the Third Battle of Winchester began, September 19, 1864, Confederate troops hurrying south to the battlefield passed here. "We had to march through open fields, woods, etc." recalled Pvt. George W. Nichols, 61st Georgia Infantry, and "we could hear heavy cannonading on our left front." Later, Confederate Col. William H.F. Payne's cavalry crossed this ground to join in an attack on Federal horsemen threatening the Confederate flank. A Federal counterattack routed them, putting "an entire division...in wild flight, all efforts to rally them proving unavailing," Confederate Pvt. Joseph C. Donohue wrote., (captions) , Col. A.T. McReynolds Courtesy Library of Congress, Col. William L. "Mudwall" Jackson, cousin of Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson West Virginia University Library, Union cavalry at the Third Battle of Winchester Harper's Weekly, October 8, 1864, Col. William H.F. Payne Courtesy Library of Congress