Battle of Cedar Creek - Aftermath

Aftermath

Casualties for the Union totaled 5,665 (644 killed, 3,430 wounded, 1,591 missing). Confederate casualties are only estimates, about 2,910 (320 killed, 1,540 wounded, 1,050 missing). In addition to the mortal wounding of Confederate general Ramseur (who died at Belle Grove in the company of Union officers who were former colleagues and friends), two Union brigadier generals were killed at Cedar Creek: Daniel D. Bidwell and Charles R. Lowell, Jr.

The battle was a crushing defeat for the Confederates. They were never again able to threaten the northern states through the Shenandoah Valley, nor protect the economic base in the Valley. In fact, Early still had the problem of feeding his own army. The reelection of Abraham Lincoln was materially aided by this victory and Phil Sheridan earned lasting fame. Ulysses S. Grant ordered a 100-gun salute be fired in his honor at Petersburg and he was rewarded with a promotion to major general in the regular army.

Jubal Early told Jed Hotchkiss that night that the "fatal halt" was because, "the Yankees got whipped and we got scared." But he soon became bitter about his defeat, heaping blame on his soldiers. He wrote to Robert E. Lee, "but for their bad conduct I should have defeated Sheridan's whole force." Three days after the battle he addressed his army: "Many of you, including some commissioned officers, yielded to a disgraceful propensity for plunder. ... Subsequently those who had remained at their post, seeing their ranks thinned by the absence of the plunderer ... yielded to a needless panic and fled the field in confusion."

Early's military career was effectively ended. His surviving units returned to the Army of Northern Virginia in Petersburg that December. He was left for the winter with a command of fewer than 3,000 men at Waynesboro. On March 2, 1865, Sheridan marched his command to join Grant in Petersburg and Custer's cavalry division routed Early's small command along the way. Early escaped with a small escort and spent the next two weeks running from Federal patrols before reporting to Lee's headquarters. On March 30, Lee told him to go home.