SOLD OUT! If you would like to be placed on our waiting list please email jnoyalas01@tjktp.net.
“No Army Will Have Prouder Recollections”
Sheridan’s Veterans Remember & Refight the Third Battle of Winchester
Saturday, November 9, 2024
Entrance to Camp Russell–camp of the Sheridan’s Veterans Association during its excursion to Winchester in 1885 . (Jonathan A. Noyalas collection)
In the aftermath of the Union victory at the Third Battle of Winchester, September 19, 1864, The Twenty-Ninth Maine’s John Mead Gould seemed in a state of disbelief. As someone who had been part of Union general Nathaniel P. Banks’s army that suffered defeat two years earlier at the First Battle of Winchester, Gould pondered in Third Winchester’s aftermath: “Was… this in Winchester? Winchester of the ‘Valley of Humiliation?’ Had not our army been whipped out of this same town times without number… If ever… was… a victory precious it was this last battle of Winchester.” Gould’s thoughts powerfully capture what triumph on September 19, 1864, meant to the veterans of General Philip H. Sheridan’s Army of the Shenandoah. Because that victory meant so much, in the battle’s immediate wake and for decades after the conflict, Sheridan’s veterans engaged in efforts to remember, honor, and commemorate their service. This fall Shenandoah University’s McCormick Civil War Institute will explore the Third Winchester Battlefield to explore how Sheridan’s veterans attempted to shape the battle’s most significant moments, how those efforts sometimes created animosity among Sheridan’s veterans, and how efforts to commemorate the battle in the decades after the conflict prompted interactions with Confederate veterans in the Shenandoah Valley and led to efforts aimed at healing the war’s wounds.
“The Eighth Vermont, in erecting this monument, knows to-day no North, no South. This shaft speaks to American valor… to commemorate the lofty heroism of the regiment, and to mark the pathway of desperate fighting where noble men gave up their lives… May it ever stand its purity before the generous citizens of the Shenandoah Valley a pleasant reminder of the fraternal and happy greetings of veterans who fought during the war.” (Herbert Hill, 8th Vermont Monument Dedication, September 19, 1885)
Schedule
- 10-10:30 a.m. Check-in at Shenandoah University, Winchester, Virginia
- 10:30-11:30 a.m. Welcome and lecture by Prof. Jonathan A. Noyalas “It is Natural That Each Comrade Should Think His Corps the Best”: Exploring How Union Veterans Refought the Civil War
- 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: Lunch at Shenandoah University’s Allen Dining Hall (lunch included with registration)
- 12:30-4:30 p.m.: Caravan tour of sites with Prof. Noyalas including the Middle Field, Hackwood, West Woods, Hastings Marker, Fort Collier, and the Winchester National Cemetery. Please note that portions of this tour involve hiking over uneven terrain. The tour will include a special appearance by Nicholas Picerno, chairman emeritus and vice chairman of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, who will discuss how veterans of the 29th Maine Infantry reflected on the death of Major William Knowlton.
Registration fee of $25 covers the cost of morning lecture, handouts, lunch, and afternoon guided caravan tour. Carpooling is required for the afternoon tour as mass transportation will not permit access to certain sites.
For questions or to be placed on the waiting list please email Prof. Noyalas at jnoyalas01@tjktp.net or phone 540-665-4501.
Interested in learning more about activities of Sheridan’s veterans in the Shenandoah Valley prior to the fall seminar and tour, check out Civil War Legacy in the Shenandoah: Remembrance, Reunion, and Reconciliation written by MCWI’s director Jonathan A. Noyalas. Civil War Legacy in the Shenandoah
