An officer of Early’s army wrote to Virginia Governor William “Extra Billy” Smith with a litany of complaints on Old Jube’s generalship. The governor passed the note on to Gen. Robert E. Lee without revealing the officer’s identity, saying only that it was from “an officer who has my entire confidence.” (The most likely suspect appears to be the governor’s son, Col. Thomas Smith, who commanded a brigade in Early’s army.) The letter read:

The army once believed him a safe commander, and felt that they could trust to his caution, but unfortunately this has proven a delusion and they can not, do not, and will not give him their confidence. He was surprised at Winchester. He did not expect a general engagement that day. This destroyed the confidence, which the reputation for safety once gave the army in him, and Fisher’s Hill was the terrible sequence.... I believe the good of the country requires that General Early should not be kept in command of this army; that every officer with whom I have conversed upon the subject is of the same opinion, and I believe it is the sentiment of the army.4

Such talk mattered little, however, for General Lee remained in Early’s corner. He rebuffed Governor Smith by asking him to name the officer so that Lee could launch a formal investigation and give Early his day in court to face his accuser. In dealing with Early, Lee chose to coach rather than dismiss the loyal subordinate. On September 27, Lee wrote Early:

I very much regret the reverses that have occurred to the army in the Valley, but trust they can be remedied. The arrival of Kershaw will add greatly to your strength, and I have such confidence in the men and officers that I am sure all will unite in the defense of the country.... One victory will put things right. You must do all in your power to invigorate your army.

After telling him that Brig. Gen. Thomas L. Rosser’s cavalry was en route to the Valley, General Lee entreated Early, “I have given you all I can; you must use the resources you have so as to gain success. The enemy must be defeated and I rely upon you to do it.”5

Early, for all of his faults, was nothing if not loyal to Lee and devoted to the Southern Confederacy. As such, Lee’s message struck a cord with his “bad old man,” and Early heeded his master’s plea. He clearly understood that the victory Lee needed “could not be gained without fighting for it.” Spurred on by General Lee, Early prepared for action. When Sheridan withdrew from Harrisonburg on October 5, Early cautiously followed the Union Army of the Shenandoah northward through the Valley on the following day, reaching New Market by October 7. As the Federal army fell back, Sheridan’s cavalry fanned out across the Valley and burned barns and mills, seized anything of potential value to an army, and drove off all of the livestock. The destruction of the Valley’s farms enraged Confederate soldiers. Rosser, leader of the self-declared “Saviors of the Valley,” the Laurel Brigade, pressed Sheridan’s cavalry briskly down the Valley. Sheridan chafed at the ineffectiveness of his Cavalry Corps commander, Maj. Gen. Alfred T. A. Torbert, in dealing with Rosser, and ordered Torbert to go out the next day and “whip the rebel cavalry or get whipped myself.” Much to Sheridan’s pleasure, Torbert’s horsemen crushed Rosser at the Battle of Tom’s Brook on October 9, capturing 300 prisoners and eleven pieces of horse artillery. This blow proved devastating, physically and psycho-logically, to Early’s already weakened and demoralized mounted arm.6

Given the poor showing of Early’s cavalry since Sheridan’s arrival in the Valley, Rosser’s debacle probably did not surprise Old Jube. However, it did provide him with an opportunity to deliver one of his trademark acidic barbs. After Tom’s Brook, Early jibed, “I never knew the laurel was a running vine. I think a pumpkin vine might be more appropriate.” All joking aside, the results of Rosser’s defeat had yet to be fully felt by the Confederate army.7

On the heels of Torbert’s victory, Sheridan withdrew from Fisher’s Hill to a camp on the north bank of Cedar Creek. Maj. Gen. Horatio G. Wright’s VI Corps did not halt but tramped on to Front Royal, the first leg of its journey to rejoin Grant at Petersburg. Sheridan established his headquarters at “Belle Grove” (see Pg. 60), a limestone mansion constructed from 1794-1797 by Maj. Isaac Hite, brother-in-law to President James Madison. Sheridan chose this area as a camp more out of convenience than for any tactical reason. The banks of Cedar Creek had attracted Union armies throughout the Civil War, and Belle Grove had hosted its share of Union commanders. Thus far, all of them had been defeated somewhere in the Shenandoah Valley.

At sunrise on October 12, Early’s army marched out of New Market and proceeded down the Valley, halting in the vicinity of Woodstock. By 10:00 a.m. on the 13th, Gordon’s Division had reached Hupp’s Hill, north of Strasburg, in view of Cedar Creek. Gordon concealed his division in some woods west of the Valley Pike and the other divisions halted behind the hill out of site of the Federals. A few Confederate cavalrymen ventured onto the crest of the hill and scanned the Federal position. On the north bank of Cedar Creek rested the camp of Maj. Gen. George Crook’s Army of West Virginia. Early rolled out Capt. Charles W. Fry’s Orange (Virginia) Battery onto the crest, while Maj. Gen. Joseph B. Kershaw’s division remained concealed behind Hupp’s Hill. As Crook’s men gathered around their campfires to stay warm on that cold and windy day, Fry shelled their camps, producing “a stir among the confident Yanks — who had no idea of our having come down so near and close to them.”

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