In U.S. politics, a contrived or spontaneous event that influences a presidential election is called an “October Surprise.” Accordingly, the Confederacy planned arguably the first October Surprise–a bold attack at Cedar Creek to defeat a Union army—a desperate bid to aid the Copperhead Peace Democrats at the ballot box.
At their convention in Chicago weeks earlier, the Democrats had proposed an armistice with the South and continuation of slavery as a course correction to an unpopular and seemingly forever war.
On the night of October 18, under the light of the moon, thousands of Confederate troops, stripped of canteens and anything else that…
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