STOP 3A
Stickley House

Turn left at the junction of CR 840 and US 11 and go south .5 mile, crossing the modern bridge across Cedar Creek. Turn left and park in the parking area opposite the entrance to Stickley House (a private residence not open to the public). Walk back along US 11 approximately 200 yards. Be careful of oncoming traffic.

From here you can see the original Valley Pike which passed between the red Stickley House and the ruins of the mill next to Cedar Creek. The Civil War era bridge site is a quarter mile farther west.

The Stickley House was used as a hospital after the battle, its kitchen a surgery. Behind the house there is a grave of a Georgia soldier, John Helm, who died as a result of wounds received at Cedar Creek. The Stickley Mill was destroyed in October 1864 as part of the Federal "burning."

You are parked in part of the area protected by pickets from the 128th New York Infantry. When Wharton's Confederates came up to the creek, about 20 New Yorkers who had remained at their posts awaiting orders were captured.

To Stop 4: Reverse your route, exiting from the parking area and turning left onto Northbound US 11. Go 50 yards beyond the junction with CR 840, and turn left onto a gravel road adjacent to the New York monument.

Just after you cross Cedar Creek, note the modern brick house on the high ground to your right (east). This is where Captain Henry DuPont positioned Gibbs' Battery, First Ohio Artillery to protect the bridge. Joseph W. Keifer recalled,

When the fifteen hours of carnage had ceased, and the sun had gone down, spreading the gloom of a chilly October night over the wide extended field, there remained a scene more horrid than usual. The dead and dying of the two armies were commingled. Many of the wounded had dragged themselves to the streams in search of the first want of a wounded man—water. Many mangled and loose horses were straggling over the field to add to the confusion. Wagons, gun-carriages, and caissons were strewn in disorder in the rear of the last stand of the Confederate Army. Abandoned ambulances, sometimes filled with dead and dying Confederates, were to be seen in large numbers, and loose teams dragged overturned vehicles over the hills and through the ravines. Dead and dying men were found in the darkness almost everywhere. Cries of agony from the suffering victims were heard in all directions, and the moans of wounded animals added much to the horrors of the night.

"Mercy abandons the arena of battle," but when the conflict is ended mercy again asserts itself. The disabled of both armies were cared for alike. Far into the night, with some all the long night, the heroes in the day's strife ministered to friend and foe alike, where but the night before our army had peacefully slumbered, little dreaming of the death struggle of the coming day.
 

Go to Stop 4
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