The Third Battle of Winchester

"A more murderous fire I never witnessed..." Col. Thomas Munford, C.S.A. In an effort to protect the Confederate left flank, Gen. Fitzhugh Lee placed a detachment of cavalry and six pieces of horse artillery, lighter cannons made specifically for horse soldiers, along this rise. These guns, under the command of Major James Breathed, poured a devastating fire into the ranks of the Union Nineteenth Army Corps as it advanced and retreated across the fields on the other side of Red Bud Run. According to one Confederate officer: "Our cannoneers made their battery roar, sending their death-dealing messengers with a precision and consistency that made the earth around them seem to tremble....A more murderous fire I never witnessed than was plunged into this heterogeneous mass." By the time Northern troops made a flanking movement late in the afternoon, the Southerners were no longer here. Union Artillery later used this position to support the Eighth Corps in its advanced towards Winchester.