The Last Fight For Early

Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Anderson Early’s last battle was fought March 2^nd 1865 at the Battle of Waynesboro in Virginia.

Union Major General Philip H Sheridan had orders to join his cavalry from Winchester, Virginia with Major General William T Sherman’s army in the Carolinas.  They began moving south February 27^th 1865.  Not wanting to leave Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Early in his rear, Sheridan moved east through a cold rain and on March 2^nd 1865 and found Early’s Army at Waynesboro.

Early had his artillery placed in lined and took up a defensive position on a ridge along the South River.  The Confederate troops stood off a determined Union attack, before Union General George Armstrong Custer’s division of cavalry rolled up Early’s left flank.

Early and some of his staff got away, but the rest of the army, about 1,500 of his troops surrendered.  Sheridan having removed all organized Confederate resistance in the Shenandoah Valley moved south and joined with the Army of the Potomac near Petersburg, Virginia at the White House on the Pamunkey River on March 19^th 1865 in time for the Appomattox Campaign.  Early wouldn’t see another battle during the war.