Shenandoah at War summarizes the action here in this sentence:The Federal line began to stabilize as elements of the Federal VI Corps fought hard in and around the cemetery on the west side of Middletown.Several months ago I stopped by and made this brief video to record the setting of this cemetery. It has a distant view of Signal Knob on the Massanutten Range.
Meadow Brook near Middletown was one scene of activity during the Battle of Cedar Creek. See the US Army's staff ride description.
"In memory of the men of this regiment who lost their lives at the Battle of Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864. Erected by their comrades and friends, dedicated in 1907."
There's a trail at the 128th New York Monument at Cedar Creek Battlefield that goes to the Union trenches. Here Federal soldiers faced a Confederate attack from an unexpected direction and had to rush to the "wrong" side of their trenches in order to mount a defense.
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| Hear the short video in which Professor Noyalas reads an account of the struggle for the flag in this early phase of the Battle of Cedar Creek. Behind him is Mr. Ratcliff, who kindly hosted our visit to this site. |
The Federal entrenchments still exist but are hard to discern among the trees and natural slope near Cedar Creek.
The most exciting parts of Saturday's field trip were visiting places I've never seen before because they were not open to the public. Professor Noyalas had obtained permission for our group to tour there:
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| We also went to Belle Grove, Meadow Brook, the end point of Sheridan's ride, Ramseur's position at Miller's Mill, Cemetery Hill, and we followed the trail at the 128th New York monument. | Above: Jonathan Noyalas lectures at Thoburn's Final Position |
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These young women were on the LFCC field trip Saturday. As you may notice, we were in a light rain in the afternoon. 
I'm just learning Paint Shop Pro. I altered this image for a lesson requiring saturation and filters.
It's hard to believe October is already gone. It was a glorious month in western Virginia, with lots of fall color.
Above we see a decrepit old building I photographed on a field trip to Cedar Creek Battlefield in 1997. It was said to have been used as the headquarters of one of the generals and was on the field of a battle that took place near Miller's Mill. | And here we see the ruins of that building in Spring of 2009. Only the end walls are standing, and they look ready to collapse. A local resident told us that this building was not the mill, which makes sense to me because the walls are not built as strong as walls of a mill should be. |
 | I was reminded of this on a battlefield tour on October 31. Here's a current view so you can see the ruins with less foliage masking it. Ramseur was mortally wounded near here (October 1864). |
I'm learning Paint Shop Pro at VU.org. This is a combination of a cat photo (with a charcoal effects filter) and some Halloween "Picture Tubes."
We took this from a bridge over Passage Creek at Elizabeth Furnace Recreation Area. I added an "ink outlines" filter and a little texture in Photoshop. And yes, I pumped up the saturation a bit.
