Soon after dawn on September 22, Union
cannon began
firing at the front of the Rebel
position while
Union
soldiers maneuvered and made feints as
though they
were about to attack. The skirmishing
and
demonstrations
continued for most of the day while
Crook's men
trudged to their attack position.
Finally, at 4:00
p.m., the
Union flankers deployed and came
crashing down on
the Confederate left flank, rolling it
up. "Had the
heavens
opened and we been seen descending from
the
clouds," wrote one of the attackers, "no
greater
consternation
would have been created." With cries of
"Flanked!"
and "Outflanked!" the Rebels at the left
of the line
fled
before the onslaught.
As the entire Confederate line began to
crumble,
Sheridan, crying "Forward! Forward
everything,"
attacked with
the rest of his army. The Yankees
swarmed over the
breastworks, routed the Southerners,
captured 12
cannon,
and gained more than 1,000 prisoners.
Sheridan had
sent a cavalry force to cut Early's line
of retreat,
but the
Union troopers had failed to attack a
blocking
force of Rebel horsemen. Early's ragged
army
stumbled southward
up the Shenandoah Valley and then
eastward to
escape into the Blue Ridge Mountains.
General Philip H. Sheridan had devised a
masterly plan by which his Union Army of
the
Shenandoah could
utterly destroy General Jubal A.
Early's
Confederate Army of the Valley at
Fisher's Hill, Va.
The Rebels,
only 9,000 in number, were well
entrenched on the
steep sided eminence and were hoping
Sheridan would
send
his men forward in a frontal attack on
the nearly
impregnable position. All day on
September 21, 1864,
two
divisions of Sheridan's army marched
into positions
at the front of the Rebel line, while
two other
divisions,
commanded by General George Crook,
stayed hidden
until well after nightfall and then
began a long
march around
the left of the Confederate line.