On Sunday October 2, 1864 the Black Troopers of the Union force with their Spencer repeaters charged across Cedar Creek and up the 45 degree slope of Chestnut Ridge.  They met face on a volley from the Confederate rifle pits up the hill.  Joyous Confederates shouted, “Come right up here and draw your salt”, and “Am I firing too high, or too low?”

 

            The cannon on Elizabeth Cemetery Hill fired into the Union ranks across Cedar Creek.  The Union tried to turn the Confederate left by fording the river and gaining Little Mountain.  They were shot in the water, which they could not ford, and shot as they gathered on the south bank of the river.  It was slaughter.  Both sides nearly ran out of ammunition.  Later the Colored Troop’s white officers stated that their men had done everything that could have been done, and had behaved very well.  The Union could neither run over the Confederate defensive line, nor turn it.  In late afternoon they began to withdraw.  They left all their dead and wounded.  The final tally of casualties was 350 for the North and less than a 100 for the South.  The Confederacy did not have the resources to pursue Burbridge in his retreat.  He was most fortunate, because if he had been pursued, he would have never made it home.