This week in the Civil War: Sept. 14, 1864

Third Battle of Winchester, Virginia

Confederate units often had ranged freely through the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia but fought a bruising fight against Union forces at Winchester in that state 150 years ago this week in the Civil War. Union forces under Philip Sheridan and Confederates led by Jubal A. Early saw thousands of casualties in the Third Battle of Winchester on Sept. 19, 1864. Fierce fighting ended with a Union victory and marked the beginning of the decline of the Confederate threat along the strategic valley corridor slanting almost south to north alongside mountain ridges. Elsewhere in Virginia, The Associated Press reported in a dispatch dated Sept. 14, 1864 that Robert E. Lee’s Confederate army was reportedly being reinforced in Virginia. “It is stated by deserters that Lee’s army has been strengthened by reinforcements from various points and by large numbers of conscripts.” AP also reported that shelling continued around Petersburg, Va., this week 150 years ago in the civil war: “The Confederates have kept up a brisk artillery firing ... The result of is that five or six Federal soldiers are brought into the hospital every day.”