My Most Successful Exploits

The Battle of Cedar Mountain was fought August 9^th 1862.

Union Major General John Pope had a new army under his command, which he christened the Army of Virginia.  Pope moved on Culpeper Court House and Confederate General Robert E Lee sent the order to General Thomas J Jackson that he wanted “Pope to be suppressed.”

Jackson was outnumbered, but Pope helped him with the numbers, when he divided his troops along the Rapidan River.  Jackson moved on the part of Pope’s army that was near Culpeper.  Moving on the main road toward Culpeper in extreme heat on bad roads Jackson’s exhausted troops encountered Union cavalry near Cedar Run on August 9^th 1862.  Confederate Brigadier General Jubal A Early formed a line along the road, he anchored it on Cedar Mountain.  The Confederate artillery posted along the mountain, a small knoll known as the Cedars and near the Crittenden House beginning a duel with Union artillery on the Mitchell Station Road.  During the artillery bombardment Confederate Brigadier General Charles S Winder was mortally wounded.  Around 5pm Union Major General Nathaniel P Banks launched an attack on the Confederate line.  Union troops led by Union Brigadier General Samuel W Crawford attacked the Confederate left in what became hand to hand combat, while other Union troops under Brigadier General Christopher C Auger hit the other end of the line near the guns on the knoll.

The Confederate troops began to show signs of a rout, but Jackson road into the middle of his men and rallied the troops.  With Jackson holding his men in place and restoring order, Confederate General A P Hill arrived in time to strengthen the line and push the Union troops back across the field.  A battalion of the 1^st Pennsylvania Cavalry held the Confederate counterattack long enough so that most of the Union men could retreat.

Two days after this battle Jackson began his move to join up with Robert E Lee for what would lead up to Second Manassas.  Jackson said that the Battle of Cedar Mountain was “the most successful of his exploits.”

A Well Deserved Tribute

Confederate General Charles Sidney Winder was killed during the Battle of Cedar Mountain August 9^th 1862.

Charles Sidney Winder was born October 18^th 1829 Easton, Talbot, Maryland.  He attended St John’s College in Maryland before becoming a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1846.  He graduated in 1850 in the middle of the class, taking an appointment to 4^th United State Artillery.  He would see action in the Indian Wars while stationed in Washington Territory.

When the Civil War started Winder resigned from the United State Army and accepted an appointment to Captain on March 16^th 1861 in the Confederate Artillery.  He became the Colonel of the 6^th South Carolina Infantry July 8^th 1861.  Moving into the Shenandoah Valley with a promotion to Brigadier General on March 1^st 1862, he served under Confederate General Thomas J "Stonewall" Jackson.  Winder commanded the Fourth Brigade a part of Ambrose Powell Hill’s Division.

During the Battle of Cedar Mountain on August 9^th 1862, Winder’s men held the left flank of the Confederate line.  He was on the line directing the fire of the Rockbridge Artillery when he was hit by a shell in his left side, the shell nearly severed his left arm.  Winder was taken to the rear and would die a few hours later.  In death he was not left to rest, being buried first at Orange Court House, and then moved to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, before his family moved him again to the family cemetery at Wye House, Easton, Maryland.

Confederate General Robert E Lee wrote of Winder, “I can add nothing to the well-deserved tribute paid to the courage, capacity, and conspicuous merit of this lamented officer by General Jackson, in whose brilliant campaigns in the valley and on the Chickahominy he bore a distinguished part."