Confederate units often had ranged freely up and down the Shenandoah Valley in mountainous areas of Virginia, but they fought a bruising fight against Union forces at Winchester in that state 150 years ago this week in the Civil War.

Both the Union forces under Philip Sheridan and Confederates led by Jubal A. Early saw high casualties in the Third Battle of Winchester, which was waged on Sept. 19, 1864.

The fighting that led to thousands of casualties on both sides was fierce. It resulted in a Union victory and marked the beginning of the decline of the Confederate threat along the strategic corridor running from south to north.

Elsewhere in Virginia, The Associated Press reported in a dispatch dated Sept. 14, 1864, that Robert E. Lee’s Confederate army was reportedly being reinforced. “It is stated by deserters that Lee’s army has been strengthened by reinforcements from various points and by large numbers of conscripts.”

AP also reported that shelling continued around Petersburg, Va., this week 150 years ago in the civil war: “The Confederates have kept up a brisk artillery firing. … The result of is that five or six Federal soldiers are brought into the hospital every day.”