New York: J. Dickson, Printer, [1864]. Item #691

Broadside in 4to.  310 x 235 mm., [12 x 9 ¼ inches].  Caption, and ten stanzas of verse in two columns, within an ornamental border.  Sheet somewhat dust-soiled with a few minor stains, surface wear along folds, one corner slightly chipped, &c. Still, entirely sound, and with good margins.

The Battle of Cedar Creek was fought in the Shenandoah Valley on October 19, 1864. Surprised by the Confederate forces under the command of Jubal Early, the Union troops were nearly routed. Riding to the battlefield from Winchester, twenty miles away, Gen. Philip Sheridan rallied the troops and carried the day. This action occasioned the slightly more famous poem by Thomas Buchanan Read. Private Maynard's poem centers more narrowly on the actions of the 28th Iowa. The regiment was organized in 1862 and mustered out in 1865, having fought campaigns in Mississippi, Louisiana and Virginia, losing 271 men in the process.

 “At dawn, October 19, 1864, the Confederate Army of the Valley under Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early surprised the Federal army at Cedar Creek and routed the VIII and XIX Army Corps. Commander Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan arrived from Winchester to rally his troops, and, in the afternoon, launched a crushing counterattack, which recovered the battlefield. Sheridan's victory at Cedar Creek broke the back of the Confederate army in the Shenandoah Valley. Lincoln rode the momentum of Sheridan's victories in the Valley and Sherman's successes in Georgia to re-election.”

Horace Maynard, born ca. 1821 in Ohio, is listed in the 1860 Federal census as a school teacher in Penn, Iowa, residing there with his wife and three small children.

 American Battlefield Trust, Website. Kansas Historical Society, Enrollment of Civil War Veterans, 1889.   Note cited in OCLC.  National Park Service Website.  

Price: $300.00