"Indications were ominous"

— 1864 Valley Campaign —

The Union victory at the Third Battle of Winchester on September 19, 1864, affected the moods of both armies as they prepared to face each other at Fisher's Hill. Union Lt. John M. Gould Wrote, "I marched down that road [toward Fisher's Hill] with a grand consciousness that for once the Shenandoah had not been the 'Valley of Humiliation.'... I began to feel that my days of retreating before a victorious enemy have ended." Confederate Gen. Jubal A. Early's soldiers, in contrast, despaired. Confederate cavalryman John Opie Wrote, "What was left of our army had now lost all confidence in General Early as a leader." The earlier Confederate domination of the Valley and the imposing position of Fisher's Hill, however, reinvigorated some of Early's men and gave the Federals pause. "We had, it is true, the prestige of victory, and the Confederates had the discouragement of defeat," wrote Capt. James F. Fitts (114th New York Infantry), "but their army now occupied one of the best defensive positions in Virginia."

Early, however, lacked the manpower to cover the nearly four-mile-long front from Little North Mountain on the west to Massanutten Mountain on the east. "Our position was naturally strong but our army was too small to man it," wrote Confederate Capt. Samuel D. Buck (13th Virginia Infantry). Confederate Capt. Henry Kyd Douglas recalled that "Indications were ominous. ... They knew our exact force now, and caution would have looked like cowardice." On September 22, the Union Army of the Shenandoah took advantage of the position's inadequacies.

(captions)
(left) Lt. John M. Gould Courtesy Nicholas Picerno Collection
(center) Capt. Henry Kyd Douglas Courtesy Antietam National Battlefield
(right) Sheridan's army following Early up the Valley of the Shenandoah Courtesy Library of Congress

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Fisher's Hill
Fisher's Hill
Fisher's Hill
Fisher's Hill
Fisher's Hill
Fisher's Hill
Fisher's Hill
Fisher's Hill
Fisher's Hill
Stoner-Keller House & Mill Historical

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