Right: Lt. Colonel Winsor B. French,
commander of the 77th New York at Cedar Creek
The 77th NY took part in the Battle of Cedar Creek, on October 19, 1864, while serving with General Philip Sheridan's Army of the Shenandoah, in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Cedar Creek was the site of Sheridan's famous ride. The Confederate forces under General Jubal Early has launched a surprise attack at dawn on the Union Army encamped at Cedar Creek. General Sheridan was nearly 20 miles away, returning from a visit to Washington. Early's attack succeeded in routing both the 8th and 19th Corps. The 6th Corps, of which the 77th was a part, was the only corps resisting the Confederate advance when Sheridan, riding hard to sound of the guns, returned. Sheridan's return electrified the men, and the regrouped, counterattacked, and drove the Confederates into a chaotic retreat. The Union victory at Cedar Creek has been immortalized in Thomas Buchanan Read's famous poem, "Sheridan's Ride".