Bruce Guthrie Photos: VA -- Winchester -- Ft Collier

VA -- Winchester -- Ft Collier -- Notes:

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Wikipedia Description: Fort Collier
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Built by Confederate Lieutenant Collier and Virginia militia with the aid of Federal prisoners, this redoubt guarded the north entrance of Winchester, Virginia on the east side of the Martinsburg Pike. During later Federal occupations, it was known as Battery No. 10. The fort was set on low ground, and generally offered little military advantage, except as a guard post for the pike. LtGen Jubal Early used it as part of his defensive works in the Third Battle of Wincheseter.

Background

The fort is located on a tract of land acquired by Benjamin Stine from Jacob Baker in 1859. Shortly afterwards the American Civil War began, and extensive defensive preparations were made in the northern Shenandoah Valley. After General Joseph E. Johnston assumed command of Confederate forces centered in Harpers Ferry he quickly decided that Harpers Ferry was indefensible, and to re-center his defensive posture based in Winchester. The Stine farmstead and homesite was located on high ground alongside the valley pike, and made a natural defensive position for the north end of town, and was chosen as the site for the fort by Confederate Engineer Lieutenant Collier and William Henry Chase.

During the war

1861

Confederate troops began construction on July 7, 1861, under the orders of a Confederate engineering officer, Lieutenant Collier, assisted by a detachment of Federal prisoners. The supervision of construction may have been under Major William H.C. Whiting, the Chief Engineer for Gen. Johnston, and the fort was occupied by the Army of the Shenandoah during the winter of 1861 into 1862, under the command of General Johnston. It then fell under the Valley District, commanded by MajGen Stonewall Jackson one of three districts under the Department of Northern Virginia. Stonewall Jackson's headquarters was located just south of the fort.

On August 21, 1861, the fort was described in the diary of Harriet H. Griffith:
...More...
Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. FTCOLL_130127_009.JPG: Fort Collier Civil War Center: Fort Collier is a Confederate earthwork fortification constructed in 1861, the site of the great Federal cavalry charge on September 19, 1864 that ended the Third Battle of Winchester. The Fort Collier Civil War Center Inc. purchased this ten-acre site on April 1, 2002 with the help of a Federal grant from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, administered by the National Park Service, the Civil War Preservation Trust, the County of Frederick, and private donations.
2. FTCOLL_130127_022.JPG: Fort Collier “I never saw such a sight” Confederate troops constructed Fort Collier in 1861 after the evacuation of Harpers Ferry. The earthworks, which surrounded the Benjamin Stine house here, commanded the approach to Winchester on the Martinsburg and Winchester Turnpike. The fort saw little action until late in the afternoon on September 19, 1864, when, during the Third Battle of Winchester, it became a focal point of the engagement. Here a great Union cavalry charge led by Gen. Wesley Merritt turned the battle against Gen. Jubal A. Early’s outnumbered Confederates. The charge was earthshaking and memorable. A Confederate infantryman who survived the attack later wrote, “I never saw such a sight in my life as that of the tremendous force, the flying banners, sparkling bayonets and flashing sabers moving from the north and east upon the left flank and rear of our army.” The Stine house was destroyed in the battle. The present day dwelling, still largely surrounded by the Confederate earthworks, was built in 1867.
3. FTCOLL_130127_065.JPG: Fort Collier 1861-1864 General Joseph E. Johnston commanded all Confederate forces in Virginia from 1861 until late in May of 1862. His initial post had been at Harpers Ferry, thought to be the key to the defense of the Shenandoah Valley. Johnston, however, believed that Harpers Ferry was indefensible, and that, in fact, Winchester was the key to the Valley. In June 1861, he evacuated Harpers Ferry and fell back to Winchester, which he began to fortify. Winchester’s proximity to Manassas proved the wisdom of Johnston’s move; the transfer of his command to Manassas was instrumental in the great Confederate victory of July 21, 1861. Meanwhile, Johnston’s engineers continued the fortification of Winchester. Among their first projects was the construction of Fort Collier, commanding the approach to Winchester from the north on Martinsburg Pike. Lieutenant Collier directed the work. Some federal prisoners may have worked here alongside Confederate soldiers. Collier and William Henry Chase Whiting chose the high ground occupied by the Stine Farm for the field fortification that was to bear Collier’s name. The Stine House, built in the 18th Century, did not survive the Third Battle of Winchester. The present house dates from 1865-1867. Only one eyewitness account of the fort’s construction has come down to us. Harriet H. Griffin, a young Winchester girl, visited the fort on August 21, 1861. In her diary entry for that day, she describes what she saw: “I have this day visited the breastworks or fortifications on the Martinsburg Pike with Father and Johnie. Was exceedingly interested. First work of the kind I’d ever seen. The first time I was ever so near a cannon. I looked into them. The cannon balls weigh 42 pounds each. There were four cannons planted and much ammunition there. A great many men were working [and I] saw the magazines. They have several rifle ports which seem so secure. I have read of them, but have never seen them. They had several masked batteries. It seams real strong and well built. There is a high embankment of sand bags, barrels, and brush covered with dirt, part sodded over. They intend to sod it with a big ditch on the lower side. They have completely surrounded Stine’s House which is now occupied by soldiers, some of whom were working there, some cooking, some washing, some on guard, and some lounging and some sleeping... Surely it is something to be remembered but I hope it will never be used.” Three months after Harriet Griffith’s visit, the Confederate government in Richmond transferred General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson to Winchester, Jackson, hero of the First Battle of Manassas, was as convinced as Johnston of the importance of Winchester, and of the Valley. “If the Valley is lost,” he said, “Virginia is lost.” Jackson’s force was too small to prevent General Nathaniel P. Banks’ force from occupying Winchester on March 12, 1862. There was no fighting at Fort Collier in Jackson’s Valley Campaign victory of the First Battle of Winchester on May 25, 1862, or in the Confederate victory in the Second Battle of Winchester on June 14-15, 1863. Until the fall of 1864, the fort saw the passing of troops up and down the Valley Pike, but no combat. The Stine Farm, within the earthworks, remained untouched by war, until the Third Battle of Winchester, on September 19, 1864.
4. FTCOLL_130127_094.JPG: The Cavalry Charge at Fort Collier September 19, 1864 The shocking impact of the great charge and capture of Fort Collier unhinged Early’s entire line of battle. Confederate troops streamed south through the streets of Winchester, Confederate artillery continued firing from Star Fort, slowing the Federal pursuit; a few regiments made a brief stand at Mt. Hebron Cemetery, enabling Early to withdraw his tired and battered forces to Fishers Hill, above Strasburg. Except for a few brief hours at the Battle of Ceder Creek, one month later, the Confederates had lost both the initiative and the ability to defend the Shenandoah Valley. The Confederates in the fort were in a hopeless position. There were too many horsemen, coming in too many waves for any defender to have a chance. But the gunners and infantrymen stayed at their positions, fighting until the end. When Union infantry reached the fort, they found no living defenders, but only “their abandoned artillery [2 guns] which had done so much damage...hissing hot with action, with their miserable rac-a-bone horses attached.” Dudley L. Vaill The County Regiment 2nd Connecticut Vol. Heavy Artillery Just before reaching Fort Collier, Federal cavalry shattered three small infantry regiments under command of Colonel George S. Patton, grandfather of the famous General Patton of the Second World War. “Custer led it, boot to boot...the enemy’s line broke into a thousand fragments under the shock.” General Wesley Merrit Commander, 1st Cavalry Div. Army of the Shenandoah Colonel Patton’s regiments were beyond the fort, with the cavalry bearing down on them. “For the first time I saw a division of infantry, or what was left of one, form a hollow square to resist cavalry.” Henry Kyd Douglas Confederate Staff Officer “I never saw such a sight in my life as that of the tremendous force, the flying banners, sparkling bayonets, and flashing sabres moving from the north and east upon the left flank and rear of our army.” An Unknown Confederate Soldier “Boys, look at that! We did look and saw a sight to be remembered a lifetime. In solid columns, with drawn sabres flashing in the sun, and without firing a shot came a brigade of troopers like a thunder clap out of a clear sky.” G.A. Carpenter 8th Regiment Vermont Volunteers.
5. FTCOLL_130127_112.JPG: Lt. Collier’s Earthworks From the time of Virginia’s secession from the Union on May 23, 1861, until just before the Battle of Manassas on July 21, 1861, the Confederate government in Richmond recognized the importance of defending the Lower Shenandoah Valley. When Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston occupied Winchester in June, 1861, he began to fortify the town with earthworks. Fort Collier was probably built under the supervision of General W.H.C. Whiting, Johnston’s chief engineer. In the first months of the Civil War, soldiers were reluctant to engage in the backbreaking work essential to build prepared artillery and infantry entrenchments. That soon changed. By the spring of 1862, Virginia was the most heavily fortified state in the Confederacy. Earthworks protected the Confederate positions at Manssas and also along the Virginia Peninsula. After General Robert E. Lee Replaced Johnston in command of Confederate forces in Virginia, on June 1, he began the construction of earthworks around Richmond. By that time, Fort Collier had been completed as an earthwork fortification, commanding the approach to Winchester along the Martinsburg Pike. Collier had sited the fort to bring converging fields of artillery and rife fire on any Federal advance, maximizing Confederate firepower while protecting the garrison behind the parapet. Fort Collier did not figure in either the First (1862) or the Second (1863 Battles of Winchester. In 1864, however, Fort Collier’s importance became clear. After the Second Battle of Kernstown (1864), Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early used Winchester as a base against larger Federal forces throughout his daring war of maneuver in August and early September. On September 19, his opponent, Major General Philip Sheridan, suddenly advanced on Winchester from the east, along the lightly fortified Berryville Pike, beginning the Third Battle of Winchester. By late that afternoon, with the outnumbered Confederates pressed back almost into Winchester, Fort Collier had become the anchor of Early’s left and the key to the battle. Exactly how many infantrymen and artillery pieces were in the fort at the time is unclear. Certainly the small force would be no match for the great cavalry charge—the largest in American history—that swept up the Martinsburg Pike, overcame Fort Collier, and ended the Third Battle of Winchester.
6. FTCOLL_130127_153.JPG: George Washington in Winchester In Mar. 1748, George Washington first visited Winchester, then known as Fredericktown, as a surveyor for Lord Fairfax. Washington purchased property in Winchester in 1753 and was an unsuccessful candidate for a House of Burgesses seat here in 1755. Winchester served as Washington’s headquarters from 1755 to 1758 while he commanded Virginia troops on the western frontier during the French and Indian War. He was also involved with the construction of Fort Loudoun here and a series of other frontier forts authorized by the Virginia General Assembly during this period. He represented Frederick County in the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1758 to 1765. Fort Collier Just to the east, a redoubt known as Fort Collier was built by Joseph E. Johnston in 1861. Early’s left rested here during the Third Battle of Winchester, September 19, 1864.
7. FTCOLL_130127_173.JPG: 3rd Battle of Winchester September 19, 1864 In the late summer of 1864 General Philip H. Sheridan with 41,000 Federals was ordered to take the vital Shenandoah Valley.Opposing this force was a Confederate army of 18,000 under General Jubal A. Early stationed north and east of Winchester. On September 19, Sheridan moved on Winchester from the east employing Generals H.G.Wright's and W.H. Emery's Corps. The Confederates under Generals R.E. Rodes and J.B. Gordon counterattacked but were driven back by overwhelming numbers. Sheridan the sent General G.Crook's Corps to to turn the Confederate left. At the same time Crook was attacking the flank, two Federal cavalry divisions of Generals W.W.Averell W.Merritt drove General Fitz Lee's cavalrymen down Martinsburg Turnpike (U.S.11). Early ordered Winchester evacuated and retreated south towards Strasburg.
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