February 20, 2011

Earthworks, Fort Collier

Northern Shenandoah Valley: The largest charge in the Civil War made by cavalry against infantry was here.

In 2008 I visited the site of Fort Collier in Winchester and shared a picture of the entrance on this blog. Two years later I returned there on a field trip sponsored by Lord Fairfax Community College.

An excerpt from an interpretative sign summarizes the significance of the fort:
The fort saw little action until late in the afternoon on September 19, 1864, when, during the Third Battle of Winchester, it became a focal point of the engagement. Here a great Union cavalry charge led by Gen. Wesley Merritt turned the battle against Gen. Jubal A. Early’s outnumbered Confederates. The charge was earthshaking and memorable. A Confederate infantryman who survived the attack later wrote, “I never saw such a sight in my life as that of the tremendous force, the flying banners, sparkling bayonets and flashing sabers moving from the north and east upon the left flank and rear of our army.”
Chances are that the soldier who wrote that ran for his life! The Federal charge was composed of 6,000 cavalrymen in five brigades. Among the many Confederate soldiers killed was their commander, Colonel George S. Patton, grandfather of the famous World War II general.

Earthworks at Fort Collier

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