Middletown and the Battle of Cedar Creek
Near Front Royal, Virginia
The small Shenandoah Valley town of Middletown was laid out in seventeen ninety-six by German immigrant Dr. Peter Senseney on land that had been settled by Scots-Irish and German families since the mid-seventeen hundreds. Just south of town stands Belle Grove Plantation, built in seventeen ninety-seven by Isaac Hite Junior with design input from Thomas Jefferson, who was his wife's brother-in-law.
On October nineteenth, eighteen sixty-four, Confederate General Jubal Early launched a surprise dawn attack on Union forces camped at Belle Grove, routing them in their camps. General Philip Sheridan famously rode twenty miles from Winchester to rally his fleeing troops, turning the rout into a decisive Union victory. The Battle of Cedar Creek secured the Shenandoah Valley for the Union and helped seal President Lincoln's re-election about three weeks later.
