The Third Battle of Winchester

<b><i>"To stop was death. To go on was probably the same; but on we started again."</i></b><br>Col. Rutherford B. Hayes, U.S.A.<br><br>Red Bud Run is as wide and boggy today as it was in 1864. During their attack, the men of the Eighth Corps sank into the marshy flood plain on the north bank, then trudged through the waistdeep water.<br><br>The men forged on amid enemy fire and some reportedly fell wounded and drowned in the crossing. Hayes reported that <i>"the rear and front lines and different regiments of the same line mingled together and reached the rebel side of the creek with lines and organizations broken; but all seemed inspired by the right spirit, and charged the rebel works pell-mell in the most determined manner."</i><br><br>They joined Union Col. Thoburn's troops and later with the Sixth and Nineteenth Corps to push Gordon's forces out of their hard-won position in the Second Woods near the Hackwood House.