Qualla: Battle of Cedar Mountain

Battle of Cedar Mountain: Introduction

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alfred Waud, Public domain. Stonewall Jackson tried to draw his sword, and it would not come. Rusted shut in its scabbard from months of disuse, the blade refused to budge. So Jackson unbuckled the whole thing -- sword, scabbard, and all -- and waved it over his head while grabbing a battle flag from a retreating soldier. It was August 9, 1862, the heat was suffocating, and the Confederate general who had terrorized the Shenandoah Valley was about to lose a battle to an opponent he had already beaten twice. That he did not lose it came down to this desperate, almost absurd moment on a wheat field in Culpeper County, Virginia.

Read more: Battle of Cedar Mountain on Qualla

Image: Alfred Waud | Public domain

Battle of Cedar Mountain: A Grudge March North

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The summer of 1862 found Robert E. Lee repositioning his forces across Virginia. In late July, Lee dispatched Jackson with 24,000 men to Gordonsville to counter the newly formed Union Army of Virginia under Maj. Gen. John Pope. Pope had deployed his forces in an arc across northe...

Read more: Battle of Cedar Mountain on Qualla

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Battle of Cedar Mountain: Heat, Confusion, and a Mortal Wound

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Something Original (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. Virginia was locked in an August heat wave. Jackson's columns crossed the Rapidan River on the morning of August 9 and began forming up near Cedar Mountain. The temperature climbed past unbearable, and the initial phase of battle was a nearly two-hour artillery duel in which neit...

Read more: Battle of Cedar Mountain on Qualla

Image: Something Original (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Cedar Mountain: Five Minutes of Fury

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Something Original (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. Banks struck with everything he had. Crawford's brigade charged across an open wheat field and crashed into the exposed flank of the Confederate left, rolling through the 1st Virginia Infantry Battalion and the 42nd Virginia, streaming into the rear of the Southern artillery. The...

Read more: Battle of Cedar Mountain on Qualla

Image: Something Original (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Cedar Mountain: The Field After Dark

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit various, Public domain. By 7:45 PM the Union line was in full retreat. Banks threw two cavalry squadrons at the Confederate infantry in a last-ditch effort to cover the withdrawal. Only 71 of 174 riders escaped. Jackson pursued for a mile and a half before darkness and uncertainty about the rest of Pope...

Read more: Battle of Cedar Mountain on Qualla

Image: various | Public domain

Battle of Cedar Mountain: What the Wheat Field Remembers

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. Today the American Battlefield Trust and its partners have preserved significant acreage of the Cedar Mountain battlefield, centered near the intersection of Virginia State Routes 15 and 657 -- the latter now called General Winder Road. The preserved land includes the area where ...

Read more: Battle of Cedar Mountain on Qualla

Image: American Battlefield Protection Program | Public domain