Sculpted by Gary Casteel
 
1863 Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Monument Replicas
 
The 8th Vermont Infantry regiment was in the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Division of the 19th Army Corps.  Col. Stephen Thomas temporarily commanded the brigade during the battle, and the regiment was commanded by Maj. John B. Mead.  Thomas would be awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Cedar Creek, for “distinguished conduct in a desperate hand-to-hand encounter, in which the advance of the enemy was checked.”
 
In the early morning hours of October 19, 1864, the left flank of the Union Army of the Shenandoah at Cedar Creek was attacked by Confederate troops.  The surprise attack proved chaotic, with the sleeping Union soldiers quickly overwhelmed and many choosing to flee half-clothed rather than putting up a fight.  Nevertheless, knowing he was likely ordering a suicide mission, Brig. Gen. William H. Emory, the 19th Corps’ commander, directed the 8th Vermont commander Col. Stephen Thomas to engage Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon’s attacking Confederates head-on.  Gordon’s Division totaled roughly 2,000 troops, while Thomas, in command of the 2nd Brigade that day, had about 800 men from four regiments, including the 8th Vermont.
 
The undersized regiment did not hesitate in accepting the challenge of a showdown with Gordon, but as Capt. Moses McFarland later wrote: “It was a sacrifice to the God of war of the few that the many might be spared, a propitiation offered against hope that out of defeat might come victory.”  McFarland continued, “It seemed as though we were passing into the very jaws of death and that the gates of hell were open to receive us.”  The engagement with Gordon would last less than half an hour.
  
Overrun and taking heavy losses, Union troops eventually had no choice but to fall back.  Engaged in what he called “the boiling caldron [sic] where the fight for the colors was seething,” Capt. Squire E. Howard would be wounded twice, and later wrote that bayonets were “literally” dripping with blood amid the chaos, and that only one member of the color guard avoided being killed or wounded.
 
Although the regiment briefly re-formed to try to halt the Confederate surge, it was fruitless. “Longer resistance would have resulted in [the regiment’s] entire death and capture,” Maj. Mead wrote.  As Pvt. Herbert E. Hill later recounted: “Bleeding, stunned, and being literally cut to pieces, but refusing to surrender colors or men, falling back only to prevent being completely encircled, the noble regiment had accomplished its mission.”  
 
Incredibly, the 8th Vermont was not done fighting for the day.  Upon learning of the surprise attack, Gen. Phil Sheridan had mounted his charger, Rienzi, and furiously ridden the 12 miles from Winchester to the battlefield.  His arrival helped generate a Union counterattack that broke the Confederate line and re-established Union control of the battlefield.  Cedar Creek marked the regiment’s last major action of the war.  From that point on, the 8th Vermont served mainly in a defensive role in the Valley.
 
Private Herbert Hill of the 8th Vermont Infantry fought at Cedar Creek and survived to become a successful businessman after the war.  He paid for the 8th Vermont monuments located at Cedar Creek and on the Third Winchester battlefield, which was later moved to Winchester National Cemetery.
 
The Cedar Creek monument is of Vermont granite, left rough-hewn on three of its sides to symbolize how the 8th Vermont was attacked on its front and both flanks in savage fighting.
 
Thomas’ Brigade formed around the monument’s location in an attempt to hold off the Confederate attack that had just overrun the 8th Corps and buy time for the rest of its own 19th Corps to organize a defensive line.  In thirty minutes of desperate fighting the brigade lost 70% casualties before being swept away.  The monument marks the spot where three color bearers, Corporals John Petrie, Lyman F. Perham and George F. Blanchard were killed saving the 8th Vermont’s flags and a fourth, Corporal Leonard C. Benis, was badly wounded.
 
The monument was dedicated in September 1885 and is located about 1.5 miles southwest of Middletown, along the Morning Attack Trails on the Valley Pike (U.S. Route 11).