#battleofcedarcreek — Public Fediverse posts
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Sheridan Rallying His Troops, Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia, October 19, 1864 (U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).
Barely three weeks after the conclusion of the epic Battle of Cedar Creek in Virginia, a poem celebrating the valor displayed during the Union’s victory over the Confederacy that fateful October 19, 1864 began appearing in newspapers across the United States. Penned by Thomas Buchanan Read, Sheridan’s Ride was subsequently recited in public at community events nationwide and is presented here, in its entirety, in commemoration of the battle in which the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry lost the equivalent of nearly two full companies of men in killed, wounded and missing in action, as well as soldiers who were captured by Rebel troops and dragged off to the Confederates’ notorious Andersonville and Salisbury prisoner camps.
Sheridan’s Ride
Up from the South at break of day,
Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay,
The affrighted air with a shudder bore,
Like a herald in haste to the chieftain’s door.
The terrible grumble and rumble and roar,
Telling the battle was on once more,
And Sheridan twenty miles away.And wider still those billows of war
Thundered along the horizon’s bar,
And louder yet into Winchester rolled
The roar of that red sea uncontrolled,
Making the blood of the listener cold
As he thought of the stake in that fiery fray,
And Sheridan twenty miles away.But there is a road from Winchester town,
A good, broad highway leading down;
And there, through the flush of the morning light,
A steed, as black as the steeds of night,
Was seen to pass as with eagle flight–
He stretched away with his utmost speed;
Hill rose and fell — but his heart was gay,
With Sheridan fifteen miles away.Still sprung from those swift hoofs, thundering south,
The dust, like the smoke from the cannon’s mouth,
Or the trail of a comet sweeping faster and faster,
Foreboding to traitors the doom of disaster;
The heart of the steed and the heart of the master
Were beating like prisoners assaulting their walls,
Impatient to be where the battle-field calls;
Every nerve of the charger was strained to full play,
With Sheridan only ten miles away.Under his spurning feet, the road,
Like an arrowy Alpine river flowed,
And the landscape sped away behind
Like an ocean flying before the wind;
And the steed, like a barque fed with furnace ire,
Swept on, with his wild eyes full of fire.
But lo! He is nearing his heart’s desire —
He is snuffing the smoke of the roaring fray,
With Sheridan only five miles away.The first that the General saw were the groups
Of stragglers, and then the retreating troops;–
What was done — what to do — a glance told him both,
Then striking his spurs with a terrible oath,
He dashed down the line ‘mid a storm of huzzas,
And the wave of retreat checked its course there because
The sight of the master compelled it to pause,
With foam and with dust the black charger was gray;
By the flash of his eye, and his red nostrils’ play,
He seemed to the whole great army to say:
“I have brought you Sheridan all the way
From Winchester down to save the day!”Hurrah, hurrah for Sheridan!
Hurrah, hurrah, for horse and man!
And when their statues are placed on high
Under the dome of the Union sky,
The American soldiers’ Temple of Fame,
There with the glorious General’s name
Be it said in letters both bold and bright:
“Here is the steed that saved the day
By carrying Sheridan into the fight,
From Winchester — twenty miles away!”Sources:
- Sheridan’s Ride.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Daily Evening Telegraph, November 9, 1864.
- “Sheridan’s Ride.” Cleveland, Ohio: The Evening Post, November 17, 1864.
- “Sheridan’s Ride.” Reading, Pennsylvania: The Daily Times, November 17, 1864.
- “Sheridan’s Ride.” Davenport, Iowa: The Democrat, November 25, 1864.
- “Sheridan’s Ride.” Brownsville, Nebraska Territory: Nebraska Advertiser, December 1, 1864.
- “Mr. Murdoch’s Readings.” Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh Gazette, December 6, 1864.
- “Tennyson Club Lectures.” Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: The Post, December 6, 1864.
- “Entertainment.” Sacramento, California: The Sacramento Bee, December 17, 1864.
#1864 #America250 #AmericanCivilWar #AmericanHistory #BattleOfCedarCreek #CedarCreek #CivilWar #CivilWarPoetry #HumanitiesAndTheArts #PhilipSheridan #Poetry #SheridanSRide #TheUnionArmy #USMilitaryAndTheUnionArmy #UnionArmy #Virginia
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Sheridan Rallying His Troops, Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia, October 19, 1864 (U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).
Barely three weeks after the conclusion of the epic Battle of Cedar Creek in Virginia, a poem celebrating the valor displayed during the Union’s victory over the Confederacy that fateful October 19, 1864 began appearing in newspapers across the United States. Penned by Thomas Buchanan Read, Sheridan’s Ride was subsequently recited in public at community events nationwide and is presented here, in its entirety, in commemoration of the battle in which the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry lost the equivalent of nearly two full companies of men in killed, wounded and missing in action, as well as soldiers who were captured by Rebel troops and dragged off to the Confederates’ notorious Andersonville and Salisbury prisoner camps.
Sheridan’s Ride
Up from the South at break of day,
Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay,
The affrighted air with a shudder bore,
Like a herald in haste to the chieftain’s door.
The terrible grumble and rumble and roar,
Telling the battle was on once more,
And Sheridan twenty miles away.And wider still those billows of war
Thundered along the horizon’s bar,
And louder yet into Winchester rolled
The roar of that red sea uncontrolled,
Making the blood of the listener cold
As he thought of the stake in that fiery fray,
And Sheridan twenty miles away.But there is a road from Winchester town,
A good, broad highway leading down;
And there, through the flush of the morning light,
A steed, as black as the steeds of night,
Was seen to pass as with eagle flight–
He stretched away with his utmost speed;
Hill rose and fell — but his heart was gay,
With Sheridan fifteen miles away.Still sprung from those swift hoofs, thundering south,
The dust, like the smoke from the cannon’s mouth,
Or the trail of a comet sweeping faster and faster,
Foreboding to traitors the doom of disaster;
The heart of the steed and the heart of the master
Were beating like prisoners assaulting their walls,
Impatient to be where the battle-field calls;
Every nerve of the charger was strained to full play,
With Sheridan only ten miles away.Under his spurning feet, the road,
Like an arrowy Alpine river flowed,
And the landscape sped away behind
Like an ocean flying before the wind;
And the steed, like a barque fed with furnace ire,
Swept on, with his wild eyes full of fire.
But lo! He is nearing his heart’s desire —
He is snuffing the smoke of the roaring fray,
With Sheridan only five miles away.The first that the General saw were the groups
Of stragglers, and then the retreating troops;–
What was done — what to do — a glance told him both,
Then striking his spurs with a terrible oath,
He dashed down the line ‘mid a storm of huzzas,
And the wave of retreat checked its course there because
The sight of the master compelled it to pause,
With foam and with dust the black charger was gray;
By the flash of his eye, and his red nostrils’ play,
He seemed to the whole great army to say:
“I have brought you Sheridan all the way
From Winchester down to save the day!”Hurrah, hurrah for Sheridan!
Hurrah, hurrah, for horse and man!
And when their statues are placed on high
Under the dome of the Union sky,
The American soldiers’ Temple of Fame,
There with the glorious General’s name
Be it said in letters both bold and bright:
“Here is the steed that saved the day
By carrying Sheridan into the fight,
From Winchester — twenty miles away!”Sources:
- Sheridan’s Ride.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Daily Evening Telegraph, November 9, 1864.
- “Sheridan’s Ride.” Cleveland, Ohio: The Evening Post, November 17, 1864.
- “Sheridan’s Ride.” Reading, Pennsylvania: The Daily Times, November 17, 1864.
- “Sheridan’s Ride.” Davenport, Iowa: The Democrat, November 25, 1864.
- “Sheridan’s Ride.” Brownsville, Nebraska Territory: Nebraska Advertiser, December 1, 1864.
- “Mr. Murdoch’s Readings.” Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh Gazette, December 6, 1864.
- “Tennyson Club Lectures.” Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: The Post, December 6, 1864.
- “Entertainment.” Sacramento, California: The Sacramento Bee, December 17, 1864.
#1864 #America250 #AmericanCivilWar #AmericanHistory #BattleOfCedarCreek #CedarCreek #CivilWar #CivilWarPoetry #HumanitiesAndTheArts #PhilipSheridan #Poetry #SheridanSRide #TheUnionArmy #USMilitaryAndTheUnionArmy #UnionArmy #Virginia
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First State Color, 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry (presented to the regiment by Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin, 20 September 1861; retired 11 May 1865, public domain).
Largely forgotten by mainstream historians, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was a Union Army unit which served for nearly the entire duration of the American Civil War. Formed by the fruit of the Great Keystone State’s small towns and cities, the regiment was born on August 5, 1861, when its founder, Tilghman H. Good, received permission from Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin to form an entirely new regiment in response to President Abraham Lincoln’s call for additional volunteers to help preserve American’s Union. It ended its service during the early months of the nation’s Reconstruction Era, officially mustering out at Charleston, South Carolina on Christmas Day in 1865, its members receiving their final discharge papers at Camp Cadwalader in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in early January of 1866.
Along the way, the 47th Pennsylvania made history, becoming an integrated regiment in 1862 and the only regiment from Pennsylvania to participate in the Union’s 1864 Red River Campaign across Louisiana. Its members also distinguished themselves in battle, repeatedly, including during Union General Philip Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign, which unfolded between August and December of 1864.
Learn more about key moment’s in this regiment’s history by reading the following posts:
- August 5, 1861—A New Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment Is Born
- September 1861: A New Pennsylvania Regiment Heads for Washington, D.C. and War
- October 1861: Drummer Boys, Disease, and Death
- December 1861: A Young Regiment’s First Christmas and New Year’s Day Away from Home
- Late Winter through Early Spring 1862 (Florida): Serving as Soldiers and Surrogates for Family
- Black History Month: An Early Encounter with the Evil of Slavery and a Celebration of Washington’s Birthday (February 1862)
- Spring and Summer of 1862: Disease, Duty and Another Departure
- Late September to Early October 1862: First Victory
- Early to Mid-October 1862: Jacksonville, a Confederate Steamer and a Regiment’s Historic Integration
- In Their Own Words: Soldiers Reflect on Life as Christmas and the New Year Approach During the U.S. Civil War (1862)
- Red River Campaign (Louisiana, March to June 1864)
- A Voyage North and a Memorable Encounter with Abraham Lincoln
- From Louisiana to Virginia (1864): The Battle of Snicker’s Gap and Service with the Army of the Shenandoah
- Sheridan’s Tide-Turning Shenandoah Valley Campaign: The September Battles (Virginia: July—September 1864)
- Sheridan’s Tide-Turning Shenandoah Valley Campaign: The Battle of Cedar Creek and Its Aftermath (Virginia: October—December 1864)
- The Lincoln Assassination: A Union Chaplain’s Angry, Heartsick Response (1865)
https://47thpennsylvaniavolunteers.com/2023/10/11/learn-more-about-the-47th-pennsylvania-volunteers/
#47thPennsylvaniaInfantry #47thPennsylvaniaVolunteers #AbrahamLincoln #AmericanCivilWar #AmericanHistory #BattleOfCedarCreek #Beaufort #CivilWar #DC_ #Florida #FortJefferson #FortTaylor #HiltonHead #Jacksonville #KeyWest #Louisiana #Pennsylvania #PennsylvaniaHistory #ShenandoahValley #SouthCarolina #UnionArmy #Virginia #Washington #Winchester
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First State Color, 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry (presented to the regiment by Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin, 20 September 1861; retired 11 May 1865, public domain).
Largely forgotten by mainstream historians, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was a Union Army unit which served for nearly the entire duration of the American Civil War. Formed by the fruit of the Great Keystone State’s small towns and cities, the regiment was born on August 5, 1861, when its founder, Tilghman H. Good, received permission from Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin to form an entirely new regiment in response to President Abraham Lincoln’s call for additional volunteers to help preserve American’s Union. It ended its service during the early months of the nation’s Reconstruction Era, officially mustering out at Charleston, South Carolina on Christmas Day in 1865, its members receiving their final discharge papers at Camp Cadwalader in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in early January of 1866.
Along the way, the 47th Pennsylvania made history, becoming an integrated regiment in 1862 and the only regiment from Pennsylvania to participate in the Union’s 1864 Red River Campaign across Louisiana. Its members also distinguished themselves in battle, repeatedly, including during Union General Philip Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign, which unfolded between August and December of 1864.
Learn more about key moments in this regiment’s history by reading the following posts:
1861:
- August 5, 1861—A New Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment Is Born
- September 1861: A New Pennsylvania Regiment Heads for Washington, D.C. and War
- October 1861: Drummer Boys, Disease, and Death
- December 1861: A Young Regiment’s First Christmas and New Year’s Day Away from Home
1862:
- Late Winter through Early Spring 1862 (Florida): Serving as Soldiers and Surrogates for Family
- Black History Month: An Early Encounter with the Evil of Slavery and a Celebration of Washington’s Birthday (February 1862)
- Spring and Summer of 1862: Disease, Duty and Another Departure
- Late September to Early October 1862: First Victory
- Early to Mid-October 1862: Jacksonville, a Confederate Steamer and a Regiment’s Historic Integration
- First Blood: The Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina (Planning and Preparation: Mid-October 1862)
- First Blood: The Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina (October 22, 1862)
- First Blood: The Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina (47th Pennsylvania Volunteers’ Perspective, October 22, 1862)
- In Their Own Words: Soldiers Reflect on Life as Christmas and the New Year Approach During the U.S. Civil War
1863:
- New Year, Familiar Duties: Preventing Assaults on Federal Forts by Confederate Troops and Foreign Powers (Florida, late December 1862 – early February 1864)
- Attempts to End Chattel Slavery: President Abraham Lincoln Issues the Emancipation Proclamation (January 1, 1863)
- New Year, New Duty Station: Adjusting to Life at Fort Jefferson in Florida’s Dry Tortugas (Late December 1862 – Late February 1863)
- Occupation and Garrison Duties in Florida (March through June 1863)
1864:
- Red River Campaign (Louisiana, March to June 1864)
- Battle of Sabine Crossroads/Mansfield, Louisiana, April 8, 1864
- Battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, April 9, 1864
- The Aftermath of Combat: An Army Captain Reports His Company’s Losses During the Union’s 1864 Red River Campaign Across Louisiana (12 April 1864)
- Battle of Monett’s Ferry/Cane River, Louisiana, April 23, 1864
- Building Bailey’s Dam on the Red River, Alexandria Louisiana, Late April to Mid-May, 1864
- The March from Marksville to Morganza, Louisiana and the Battle of Mansura, Mid to Late-May, 1864
- A Voyage North and a Memorable Encounter with Abraham Lincoln
- From Louisiana to Virginia (1864): The Battle of Snicker’s Gap and Service with the Army of the Shenandoah
- Sheridan’s Tide-Turning Shenandoah Valley Campaign: The September Battles (Virginia: July—September 1864)
- Sheridan’s Tide-Turning Shenandoah Valley Campaign: The Battle of Cedar Creek and Its Aftermath (Virginia: October—December 1864)
1865:
- The Lincoln Assassination: A Union Chaplain’s Angry, Heartsick Response
- April 17, 1865: A Nation in Mourning Begins to Move Forward
https://47thpennsylvaniavolunteers.com/2023/10/11/learn-more-about-the-47th-pennsylvania-volunteers/
#47thPennsylvaniaInfantry #47thPennsylvaniaVolunteers #AbrahamLincoln #AmericanCivilWar #AmericanHistory #andWestVirginia #BattleOfCedarCreek #Beaufort #CivilWar #CommonwealthOfPennsylvania #DistrictOfColumbia #FloridaAndSouthCarolina #FortJefferson #FortTaylor #HiltonHead #Jacksonville #KeyWest #Louisiana #Maryland #PennsylvaniaHistory #PennsylvaniaInTheCivilWar #ShenandoahValley #SouthCarolina #UnionArmy #Virginia #Washington #Winchester