Surprise Attack

Surprise Attack. 5:00 a.m.. , The opening attack of the Battle of Cedar Creek began here at about 5:00 a.m. A Confederate scouting party on Signal Knob, directly before you, had seen that a frontal attack on the entrenchments and the positions just north of Cedar Creek and the North Fork of the Shenandoah would be suicidal. Attacking from the side, or flank, however, just might work., After a silent all-night march along the base of the Massanutten, the Confederates forded the creek and river and, aided by a dense fog, stormed this hill, catching many of the Union soldiers unaware, some still sleeping in their tents. Within 30 minutes the Union position here had been overrun, with the survivors fleeing back toward the Valley Pike., (Captions):, General John Gordon surveys the Union positions through a telescope on Signal Knob, looking for any point of weakness. Behind him Jedediah Hotchkiss, mapmaker, sketches a map and takes notes. , Sketch by James E. Taylor, an artist for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 1864, We gave a Rebel yell and ran right in on them and scattered them like chaff before the wind. , B.F. Cobb, 10th Georgia Infantry