the victory. Sheridan was absent and did not
participate in the discomfiture of his army, but was present at
the final success. Napoleon, after his repulse, was reinforced by
Desaix with 6000 men; but the Army of the Shenandoah, after the
disaster of the morning, was reinforced only by its proper commander
--Sheridan.

There was not a great disparity of numbers in the opposing armies
at Cedar Creek. Probably 20,000 men of all arms were engaged on
each side. Relative position and situation of troops must be taken
into account, as well as numbers, in determining the strength of
one army over another. Early has tried to excuse his defeat by
claiming he had the smaller army. In response to this, Sheridan
and his Provost-Marshal, Crowninshield, have tried to show that
Early lost in captured more men than he claimed he had present for
duty.(31) After Opequon and Fisher's Hill Early was reinforced by
Kershaw's division of Longstreet's corps, Cutshaw's three batteries,
and Rosser's division of cavalry with light artillery, together
with many smaller detachments, all of which participated in Cedar
Creek. Sheridan received no reinforcements, and Edwards' brigade
of the First Division of the Sixth, Currie's of the Nineteenth,
and Curtis' of the Eighth Corps were each detached, after Opequon,
on other duties, and were not at Cedar Creek. The surprise and
breaking up in the morning of the greater parts of Crook's and
Emory's corps eliminated them, in large part, from the day's battle,
and left the Sixth Corps and the cavalry to wage an unequal contest.

The war closed on the bloody battle-ground of the Shenandoah Valley,
so far as important operations were concerned, with Cedar Creek.

President Lincoln appointed me a Brigadier-General by brevet,
November 30, 1864; the commission recited the appointment was "for
gallant and meritorious services in the battles of Opequon, Fisher's
Hill, and Cedar Creek, Virginia," and I was assigned to duty by
him as Brigadier-General, December 29, 1864.

Sheridan's army returned to Kearnstown and went into winter quarters.
The Sixth Corps was, however, soon transferred by rail and steamboat,
_via_ Harper's Ferry and Washington, to City Point, rejoining the
Army of the Potomac, December 5, 1864.

( 1) _Memoirs of Sheridan_, vol. ii., p. 64.

( 2) _Manassas to Appomattox_ (Longstreet), p. 574.

( 3) _War Records_, vol. xliii., Part I., p. 580, Captain Hotchkiss'
Journal.

( 4)