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To prove their exemption, Governor
Smith issued a certificate to Wise
County's justices of the peace. The men
exempted by this September 3, 1864
document were: Hiram Riggs, W. Richmond, D.
R. Smith, William Collins, John H.
Snodgrass, H. C. Bruce, William H. Short,
William McFall, Charles H. Banner,
Andrew Mullins, Robert P. Dickenson, Daniel
Hall, George C. Gray and James
Holbrook.
An enigmatic chapter of the Civil War in
Wise County was recorded by C. Connie
Bolling in a Coalfield Progress article.
This article, more family tradition,
than proper history, may have grains of
truth. The events described are not
dated, but probably happened in the summer
of 1864. Bolling wrote:
During
the Civil War, renegade bands from Kentucky, pillaged and robbed the
families
on the headwaters of the Pound River. These band were in sympathy
with
the Union. One such band was led on a rampage by Bill Adams.
A
runner from the Cumberland, Ky. side, came yelling at the top of his lungs,
"The
robbers are coming, the robbers are coming!" [Shades of Paul Revere]
When
Grandma [Mrs. Jessee Bolling] heard this, she was terribly frightened.
She
nervously called all the children together and told them to drive all the
cows
and horses across the ridge and very quietly stay with them until the
robbers
had passed.
She
stayed with the house and hid what she could-- putting the last bit of
meal
in a bag, concealing it under her long dress. She sat quietly in a chair
while
the renegades searched the house and took what they could find.
Uncle
Delaney [Delano Bolling] heard of the maraud- ing thieves and with his
trusty
flintlock he hid on a bluff overlooking the rock which would across
Hale
Gap moun- tain, a small mountain which divides the North and South Fork
of
the Pound River.
Delaney
waited for a couple of hours and, after running out of patience, he
climbed
a little higher up the mountain where he could see and hear a little
better.
Lo
and behold here came the group "helter skelter," running up over the
mountains.
He
fairly fell down the hill to a point about 100 yards above a sharp bend in
the
narrow road.
As
the group made the turn in the bend of the road, Uncle Delaney aimed his
rifle
at the cross of Adam's suspenders and "pop-bang," went his gun,
killing
Bill
Adams dead. His group buried him there above the road and quickly sneaked
their
way back through the woods to Kentucky. To this day this bend in the
road
is spoken of as the Bill Adams Bend.
While this story was told as fact, it in
reality more closely fits the notion of
a folk legend. The purported announcement of
the impending raid alone is enough
to cause this tale to fall in this category.
Despite consider- able effort the
authors have been unable to confirm this
story with other sources. Bloody Bill
Adams is one of the more obscure characters
during the civil war along the
Cumberland mountain.
Burbridge's Raid
The Yankees finally launched their long
expected raid on the salt- works at
Saltville in late September 1864. This raid
culminated in their defeat in the
Battle of Saltville on October 2, 1864.
General Stephen Burbridge personally led
the 5,000 man strong Federal invasion force.
By Monday, September 26, 1864,
Prentice, at Gladeville was sending alarming
messages. Considering Prentice's
reputation, it is amazing he was believed,
but he was, and probably gave enough
warning for the Confederates to get their
commands together in time and in place
to defeat Burbridge. Prentice claimed 15
Yankee regiments, including 600 black
soldiers and 3200 pack mules ,were on the
march for the Sandy River and
eventually Virgin- ia.
Burbridge's command passed through Pound Gap
on its way to its Saltville target.
Prentice's 250 or so men were no match for
the Yankees and steered well clear of
any possible danger. Little could stand in
their way en route to the saltworks.
They pressed on as quickly as possible and
did not meet any resistance until
reaching Tazewell County, where Colonel
Giltner's Brigade nipped at the
advancing Yankees. They hoped the other
Confederates in the department would be
able to accumulate enough men to defend the
saltworks.
Burbridge had not planned to raid Saltville
alone, and had made elaborate
arrangements for cooperation from Federals
in Tennessee under Alvin Gillem.
Gillem's command was defeated and forced
back, and was not coming as Burbridge
had hoped. Gillem had no way to directly
communicate with the Kentucky column,
but informed his superiors of the reverses
his men had met. This led to the
issuance of a recall order. A courier was
immediately dispatched, and he nearly
caught up with the Federals when he was
intercepted by one of Prentice's scouts.
Burbridge never received the order, and kept
up his march.
Burbridge brushed away Giltner's command in
Tazewell County and eventually
reached Saltville and directly attacked on
October 2, 1864. The Confederates had
been able to rush reinforcements to
Saltville in time and Burbridge was soundly
defeated. The Confederates at Saltville
under Major General Breckinridge
expected the fighting to be renewed on
October 3, but Burbridge withdrew during
the night. Burbridge masked his movements by
leaving bonfires burning and began
the painful process of extricating himself
from the mountains. When the
Confederates discovered he was gone, the
Federals had several hours head start.
While Burbridge fought at Saltville, other
Federal scouts were roaming the Wise
County countryside. Sergeant Major James O.
Howard of the 7th Battalion
Confederate Cavalry was captured at Pound
Gap on October 2. Howard, a native of
Jefferson County, Kentucky was sent to Camp
Chase, Ohio were he was held until
released on February 21, 1865.
While the Confederates from Saltville gave
an immediate chase, when they learned
Burbridge was retreating. Colonel Henry
Giltner's brig- ade reached Burbridge's
rear guard at Richland in Tazewell County.
The Federal rearguard, the 11th
Michigan Cavalry had Spencer repeating
rifles easily persuaded Giltner's men to
break off the chase. About this time, John
Stuart Williams' men reached the
fighting, but their horses were too jaded to
continue the pursuit effectively.
The Confederates retired to Liberty Hill
where they camped.
The only Confederates left between Burbridge
and the Kentucky line were some
irregulars. The first of these irregular
bands met was the Counts' battalion in
Buchanan County. One of Counts' four
companies commanded by Captain Jasper
Colley took the lead. Jasper Sutherland
recalled:
About
sixty of us went to Levisa River below Grundy, at Rock Lick and waited
for
them [Burbridge's Federals] to come back. We lay by the road one night and
cut
trees across the road to block the Yankees. We didn't have any provisions
with
us, so next morning we strung out in the neighborhood to get some
breakfast.
Then Major Zeke, William Grizzle, Mack Owens and I went to see the
block-
ade. The Yanks were there in full force. We darted back into the woods
but
they saw us and followed and nearly surrounded us. We went further into
the
wooded hills and got away. Major Zeke, Bart Yates, and I went up the river
and
saw more Yankees. They got after us again and we had to run and scatter.
Lige
Rasnake was in my company. It was awful hot and we had run and scrambled
over
the rough hills so much that we were tired out. William Grizzle suggested
that
we hide for awhile but I said, "no."
Major
Zeke came up just then and said the Yanks had caught Lige Rasnake and
maybe
had killed him. We got down closer to the road and hid behind some big
rocks
and saw about 4,000 Yanks go by. Some of them were Neg- roes; a Company
or
two of them. We fired at them and they fired back at us. The bullets flew
awful
thick and glanced off the rocks and made the dirt fly all around us.
Mack
Owens was behind a tree but the bullets came too thick and made it hot
for
him, making the bark fly off his tree, so he ran back to us and hid behind
the
rocks. We heard the Yankee officer say, "Go up that hollow and surround
them."
We
saw a big Company coming, so we scattered up the hill and went down the
other
side to the bend of the river again. Here we saw them with Lige Rasnake,
a
prisoner. Major Zeke and some of us fired on them again, and they fired
back.
This drew the attention of the Yan- kees, and Lige jumped over the river
bank
and down a slip fifty yards or more to the river. He jumped in and swam
across
and got away. The Yankees didn't shoot at him until he got nearly to
the
river. None of our men were hurt.
Despite the fact that Giltner, Cosby,
Williams and Duke had ended the chase,
Burbridge still had to deal with Prentice's
small force in Wise County. Pound
Gap was the only practical route over which
to take his artillery back to
Kentucky. In Wise County, Burbridge met
Prentice's men in the field of battle
again. Prentice's command, however, was no
match for the Federals. Although
details are lacking, it seems Burbridge
divided his men and sent one toward
Pound Gap to secure that place and the other
to Gladeville.
Burbridge reported that he sent a detachment
to Pound Gap and forced its way
through and drove Prentice, "with a
superior force [which was a blatant lie],
from his works at Gladesville, capturing
several prisoners," some small arms and
an artillery piece. Burbridge exaggerated
other Confederate losses and probably
exaggerated Prentice's as well. A captured
dispatch from Burbridge's command
indicates the Federals then burned the Wise
County court-house. The Yankees
burned Bill Davis', J. W. Vermillion's and
Tom Bohannon's homes.
Judge James Monroe Roberson recalled several
years after the war ended:
While
our family lived at the Pound, General Burbridge, of the Union forces,
who
fought a battle with the Rebels at Kings Salt Works, Virginia, passed by
our
place into Ken- tucky with his army almost stranded from exhaustion by
their
long march through mud, rain, and snow. The horses, wagons and artillery
equipment
worked the mud up so thin that it ran out of the road over the banks
into
the Pound River in many places. Lots of horses and equipment were
abandoned
along the road to the top of Cumberland Moun- tain at Pound Gap.
The destruction of Wise County's court house
added to the expense of Wise's
citizens. Most of the county's records were
safe, but the county was broke and
could not afford to rebuild the court-house.
Much of the tax revenue, down due
to so many men being away in Confederate
service, was being expended to support
indigent families in Wise County.
Since the county could not afford
immediately to rebuild its hall of justice,
the court found an alternative meeting site.
They ordered "that the Court be
held in the barroom of the N. B. Bruce's, on
account of the courthouse having
been burned by Federal soldiers."
Bruce's barroom was in the lobby of his
Virginia Hotel in Gladeville. Apparently,
the bar was not deemed an proper
location for the solomon justices of Wise
County. In February 1865, the justices
decided to move court to A. W. Smith's house
"in the west end of town." The town
was at that time so small that the move was
only about a tenth of a mile.
Military, logistical and political problems
abounded for the Confeder- acy in
the fall of 1864. Southwest Virginia had
long been a popular source of personnel
for other regions of Virginia. Much of the
manpower of the Department had been
ordered to the Shenandoah Valley in the
early summer and by the fall, there were
calls for more. On October 12 General Lee
asked Major General John C.
Breckinridge to send George Cosby's and
Henry Giltner's brigades to Lieutenant
General Jubal Anderson Early in the
Shenandoah Valley. Lee suggested
Breckinridge retain enough force to
"protect the country and manage deserters,
&c." but ordered Prentice's
Battalion to Richmond, Virginia. This portion of the
order was never implemented, but Cosby's and
Giltner's men marched into the
Valley. John Stuart Williams and his command
returned to northern Georgia and
the defense of the region was left with
Breckinridge and a few dismounted or
disabled cavalrymen, Basil Duke's
Brigade--the small remnant of John Hunt
Morgan's Division, the unreliable brigade of
John C. Vaughn, some reservists,
and the highly irregular guerrillas along
the Kentucky bor- der.
By late October some of Prentice's men were
making news in the area again.
Thefts had long been a problem, but none of
Prentice's men's exploits raised the
ire of the citizens of the Cumberland like
the theft of their alcohol supply. E.
D. Miller of Lebanon, Virginia wrote on
October 25:
I
am under the necessity this morning of informing you that the expedition to
Scott
County returned last night with bad report. Fulkerson, with six of
Lieutenant
Sawyer's guard, went down to Scott; left here on Saturday; arrived
at
Os- borne's on Sunday; impressed and took charge of forty-two gallons of
brandy,
all they could find; started back some two or three miles, when they
met
a party of [17] men in the road, variously armed, who demanded the
immediate
surrender of the brandy, arms, &c. They gave up their arms, seeing
they
were outnumbered, and, the party being re-enforced by this time by four
others,
they thought best to make no resistance. After they took possession of
the
brandy they gave the arms back to the boys, who came on back very much
mortified
over their defeat. They say that the most of the party belongs to
Prentice's
command. The brandy question has created more confusion and the
owners
of it make more fuss over it than if we were to take all their grain.
We
will have to abandon the business unless we get some troops in here and
clear
the county of bushwhackers and deserters. There is not a man in the
county
that we have served notices on for brandy but what has violated the
notice....
The battle site, shown on the accompanying
map, in present Dickenson County, was
the scene of much activity during the Civil
War. The property was owned by
members of the unionist Powers Family and
included some cleared land along the
headwaters of Cranesnest River, three cabins
and a bucket-wheel grist mill,
known as Powers' Mill. This mill was
apparently a small operation, as it did not
produce enough to be recorded on the 1860
Industrial Schedule for Wise County.
As a result of the political inclinations of
the family, Confederate scouts
frequently checked on the family to insure
they were not harboring unionist
fugitives. Some of the Confederates were
looking for Harrison Bowman in late
1863 or early 1864 and thought he might be
on Cranesnest. Bowman was considered
one of the worst Unionists in the area by
the Confederate side. He had
bushwhacked several in the area, notably
members of the Keel family. The
Confederate party consisted of Dave Smith,
Jack Frye, John McFall, Tom Wallis
and John Stanley. This group was commonly
referred to as the Home Guard,
however, they were in fact members of the
7th Battalion Confederate Cavalry.
When the Confederate detail reached Powers'
Mill they found Sam Bowman running
the mill. Native North Carolinian Sam
Bowman, then about 57 years old, was a
blacksmith by occupation, and may have been
Harrison Bowman's father, but this
is not certain. The 1860 Wise County Census
shows Sam Bowman living with the
Robert Bise family two doors away from the
Henry Adkins family where William
Harrison Bowman was living and working as a
farm hand with his brother Barney.
The Rebels asked Sammy Bowman where Harrison
was. Bowman replied that Harrison
was in Kentucky but he was not believed. The
Confederates insisted, but Sam
Bowman also insisted he knew nothing else.
The Confederates then "took the
straps off their guns and hanged him until
he was almost dead." After this they
supposedly took him down, allowed him to
recover and told him to leave. Then
they changed their minds for some reason and
recaptured him, and he kneeled to
pray. The rebels supposedly shot Sam Bowman,
near Powers' Mill, while he was
praying. It should be noted that these
tactics were not new to the Confederates.
They learned and practiced the same while
riding with Menifee in Pike County,
Kentucky in 1862.
Harrison Bowman exacted his revenge on David
Smith, and killed him before the
war ended, "from ambush while Smith was
standing in his own door...." Jasper
Sutherland described more of these
activities:
An
old man by the name of Penland [not otherwise identi- fied] pretended to be
a
friend of the citizens. One day, he slipped into the home of George W. Smith
Sr.
and attempt- ed to shoot him--but Smith was too quick with his gun and
shot
him dead.... A short time later, an assassin shot at William L. Counts, a
peacable
and quiet citizen, at his home at the mouth of Hatch Branch of
McClure
[River]. A small twig on an apple tree diverted the bullet and saved
the
intended victim. That same day, while hunting my cows, I met two men near
Mr.
Counts' home and recognized one of them as [Ike] Blair--one of a band of
lawless
men. Captain J. S. Colley, then commanding Co. E, 21st Va. Cavalry,
was
on duty at that time protecting the Kentucky-Virginia border. ....I guided
them
for a week searching for the band but could not locate it.
Another event near Powers' Mill on
Cranesnest River recorded by Nancy Clark
Brown relates that a band of Unionists
raided the home of Harrison and Tempy
Adkins on Trace Fork of Cranesnest. The
Adkins family did not have enough time
to hide their possessions, and barely enough
time to escape. The Unionists
robbed the Adkins home and went to Allen
Powers' home and camped in the bottom
along the river between the house and mill.
Some Confederate sympathizers
attacked the Unionist Camp the next morning,
killing all of the robbers. This
event has not been confirmed by other
stories or official records.
The two local rival groups in the
Pound-Cranesnest River Valley met for a
decisive time on the snowy Monday morning of
November 9, 1864. The showdown is
locally known as the Battle of Cranesnest.
The Killen group's reason for
initiating the encounter was to end the
theft of food by the Confederates from
Unionists in the Cumberland area. No
official records are extant for this fight,
but it was vividly recalled by the
participants and the residents of what became
Dickenson County, Virginia. The Adjutant of
the 7th Battalion Confederate
Cavalry was averse to filing official
reports and their side of the story is
difficult to trace. It is also difficult to
know exactly how large the force
was; in its entire history, the battalion
apparently never submitted a muster
roll to the Confederate War Depart- ment.
However, on September 9, 1864, Major
E. Crutchfield estimated the battalion's
strength to be 250 men. Crutchfield did
not elaborate on how many were mounted,
armed or considered effective.
Oliver Powers placed the Confederate
strength at Cranesnest at 300 men, while he
said Killen's Federals numbered about 70.
Powers may have been in a better
position to know since he was the only one
whose reminiscence survive that was a
participant. Other accounts place the
Confederate strength at near 400 men. It
seems likely that the Confeder- ate's true
strength was not more than 200 men,
but several did not have any weapons, and
their effective strength was about
125. The real strength of Killen's band was
probably about 50 armed men.
It is unclear how the Confederates reached
the battle site. The last previously
reported location for the 7th Battalion
Confederate Cavalry was a place in Wise
County called Many Sinks. On November 6,
Colonel D. Howard Smith wrote from Camp
Pettyjohn in Scott County:
I
moved my camp from the Many Sinks on the evening be- fore last to this
place,
leaving Lieutenant-Colonel Prentice in the former locality with his
detachment.
Up to this time I have killed 1 (Captain Burleson), captured 11,
wounded
2 (escaped) and 21 scouters have come in, under the policy adopted by
me
and surrendered. I have also sent four families outside of our lines for
their
bad conduct and destroyed their houses, and expect to send quite a
number
of others. I have a complete list of all the worst characters in this
country,
and those of them that I do not kill or capture, or who do not come
in
and surrender under my am- nesty proclamation, it is my purpose to drive
out
[the bush- whackers] of our lines and destroy their nests. I would be
pleased
to know how long the major-general commanding this department expects
me
to remain in this region of the State. My troops are behaving admirably
well,
winning the good opinion of all classes. Some of Colonel Prentice's men
behaved
shamefully on their way to report to me, but have heard nothing of
that
character since. The conduct of the colonel has been unexceptionable, so
far
as I know.
There are several oral traditions about this
fight, with almost everyone adding
additional detail to the events of November
9, and several contracting the
others in some particular. The following
seems to be the most reasonable version
of events, and has been taken from several
accounts of the battle.
Apparently by riding hard, Prentice reached
Powers' Mill on Cran- esnest River
by November 8. The men camped on the south
bank of the Cranesnest River in a
orchard between the Mill and Reuben Powers'
home. On the same evening Killen's
"home guards" were meeting on
Long's Fork near the Old Protestant Church.
Prentice's men had some good scouts out and
discovered Killen's gathering on
Long's Fork. The Confederates sent out a man
dressed in a captured Union Army
uniform to see if he could get closer and
discover additional details of their
plan according to one version. George
Buchanan, who owned the place Killen's men
had met, accepted him as a straggler and
gave him the plan. Another version
indicates they had captured Eddie French and
held him until they were ready to
march on the rebels. Killen's men had
proceeded to the ridge above the
Confederate camp where they would spend the
night and wait for morning to
attack. The ground would have been a decided
advantage if the surprise had not
been spoiled.
In any event, all accounts agree the
Confederates knew the Federals were coming
before they were near. The Confederates left
their campfires burning and a few
men in camp to make it appear they were
unaware of the Union advance. The
remainder crossed the Cranesnest River,
which at this point would have been easy
to wade at any point. This point was a few
yards below the dam which collected
water for Powers' Mill. They made their way
into the wood line on either side of
a narrow hollow which was the natural way
the Federals would approach. On the
right of this valley was a cabin occupied by
Oliver Powers. Most of the
Confederates took positions in the trees
near Powers' cabin, but a few were sent
to the left, steeper side of the valley.
These men also took up positions in the
wood line and waited. Before dark, Killen's
men advanced down the hollow as
expected, but the Confederates held their
fire as they passed their positions
behind Oliver Powers' cabin allowing them to
reach the open field between their
positions and the river. The Confederate
camp was just across the river and was
lightly manned. Killen's raiders immediately
opened fire on the camp and Billy
Noble fell dead and Devil John Wright was
wounded. One account credits Mack
Kennady with killing Noble.
At this point the Confederates closed in on
the Yankees from behind and opened
fire and several dropped. Oliver Powers', on
whose land the fight took place and
whose house was surrounded by the
Confederates, supposedly left home with his
gun and a butcher knife to join the Home
Guards. Powers never officially joined
the home guards, but in this skirmish he
supposedly felt something hit his foot.
Upon investigation it was the butcher knife,
broken into three pieces by a
Southern minnie ball. Powers credited the
knife with saving his life. The
skirmish was soon over, when Killen's men
escaped down the Cranesnest, the only
avenue available to them. He left several
men behind, although accounts vary on
who they were. George W. Fleming recalled,
"Eight Yankees were killed: Bob
Killen, Charley Hibbits, a Yates, a Farmer,
and I don't remember the names of
the others.... Some... others with Killen
were Levi Vanover (wounded in arm),
Jake Yates, Peter Reedy, Harmon Mullins and
John Mullins.... 'Black Ike' Mullins
claims to have been in that fight but he
wasn't. He wasn't old enough."
Mary Killen Hollyfield filled in some
details forgotten by George Fleming. In
1929, she said that she visited the battle
site at the age of 14, six or seven
weeks after the battle to take up some of
the bodies buried in the field. Her
list of casualties included: Henry Buchanan,
Parker Wheatley, Wesley Mullins,
Ike Bartley, Bob Killen (her father),
Charles Hibbitts and Henry Yates. At the
time of the battle, the dead were buried
under an apple tree in the bottom near
Reuben Powers' home. Mrs. Hollyfield
remembered that Buchanan, Bob Killen,
Wheatley and Yates were moved to her
father's farm and reburied there. Some time
later Ike Bartley and Wesley Mullins' bodies
were moved to just below Artrips on
Pound River. Thus leaving the Farmer and
Charles Hibbitts buried in the meadow
that was at the edge of the forest where the
battle occurred.
Henry Keel's recollection of the Battle of
Cranesnest gave a slightly different
roster of Union dead. He included: Bob
Killen, John Rose, Henry Yates, Charles
Hibbitts, Parker Wheatley, Wesley Mullins,
Henry Buchanan, Isaac Bartley and
Buck John Rose. Keel also gave one
Confederate casualty for Prentice's command,
a Wright from Kentucky who was slightly
wounded. Solomon Mullins, a member
Prentice's Battalion, was sick at the time
of the skirmish. He claimed, however,
that eight to ten Yankees were killed in the
fight.
After the main skirmish ended, Sam Caldwell
took a detachment of the 7th
Battalion Confederate Cavalry "to a
nearby gap through which it was certain the
Yankees would retreat. On arriving there,
they found that the enemy had passed
through not over five minutes before."
The Unionists escaped into the mountains
and "scouted a while." Some of
their relatives, who had not been involved in the
fight, went into the mountains to nurse the
wounded back to health.
The fight at Cranesnest also forced many of
the Unionist in the area out at
last. Jane Vanover Swindall recalled that
the Confederates came to her home west
of Holly Creek after Cranesnest. She said
the rebels consisted of Jack Frye,
John McFall, John Fleming and Little Phil
Fleming. The rebels then "tore up our
property, took our corn, ate our
applebutter. Phil didn't eat much but he tried
to catch our horse." This was the last
straw for the Vanovers, who packed up and
moved to Kentucky. They soon found their
Unionist friends were not much better
than those they had left, and she noted that
they stopped at Joe Hammond's on
Robinson's Creek, but they were not given
anything to eat. The third night the
Vanovers stayed with a "Park's
man" who charged them a cow for one night's
lodging.
Colonel D. Howard Smith again reported to
his higher headquarters about the
activities of the 7th Battalion Confederate
Cavalry on November 15. Smith
remained at Camp Pettyjohn, and wrote:
I
am informed authoritatively that Lieutenants McClanahan and Richmond, of
Lieutenant
Colonel Prentice's Seventh Confederate Battalion, deserted last
night,
and carried with them some fifty or sixty men. They deserted from my
lower
camp in the Many Sinks, and are supposed to have gone to Kentucky.
Colonel
Prentice was absent at the time, having gone to Castle Woods to look
after
the dismounted portion of his battalion. So far as I am concerned, I am
glad
they are gone if they do not return any more. They have given me much
trouble
recently. They stole, I learn from citizens, a number of horses as
they
left.
Prentice and his guerrillas apparently
crossed Pound Gap in early December and
were operating in adjacent portions of
Kentucky, namely Pike and Letcher
counties by December 9. George W. Gallup
sent out some scouts to try to corner
the renegades. Gallup reported on December
12 that Prentice's force totalled
about 300 men, but had not long lingered in
Letcher County.
Prentice was not the only desperate
character playing both ends against the
middle during the war. Several Union army
deserters made their way from the
Petersburg trenches to southwest Virginia
and made a fool of Prentice. The
Federal provost marshall at City Point,
Virginia noted in a November 12, 1864
dispatch to Major General Terry Commanding
the Army of the James:
...At
Pound Gap, in the Cumberland Mountains, the party joined by twenty other
deserters
form General Sherman's army, and at this point thirty of them joined
the
command of Lieutenant-Colonel Prentice, of the Confederate Army, who had a
body
of partisan rangers in that vicinity. The principal incentive these men
seemed
to have in joining Col- onel Prentice's command was for the purpose of
getting
mounted, stealing their horses, and deserting again from him.
With Killen's Home Guards soundly defeated
on Cranesnest, there was little to
occupy Prentice's men during the remainder
of November. Records are silent about
guerrilla activity then. The men of the 7th
Confederate had plenty of
opportunity to get into mischief, and they
did. Complaints about the command
began to increase during the late fall, and
they did not abate until the war was
nearly over.
In December 1864, Stephen Burbridge, Federal
commander in Ken- tucky, cooperated
with General George Stoneman in finally
making a successful raid on Saltville.
Burbridge, instead of taking the traditional
Virginia-Kentucky invasion route
through Pound Gap, was ordered to join
Stoneman in Tennessee. The joint Federal
command soon defeated Vaughn's Cavalry
command near Kingsport and made short
work of Basil W. Duke who commanded the
remnants of John Hunt Morgan's Cavalry
Division. The Yankee raiders pushed into
southwest Virginia, destroying the rail
line as they proceeded.
Though Breckinridge's Confederates made a
valiant effort to halt the Federals at
Marion on December 17-18, 1864, the
Northerners captured the saltworks on
December 20. The saltworks were vital in the
Confederacy's war effort. They were
key to preservation of food for soldiers and
civilians. In a time in which most
men were in the army, there was little food
to be preserved in any event. The
13th Tennessee Cavalry (Federal) was able to
capture the defensive positions of
Fort Breckinridge without firing a shot. The
fort was staffed with reservists
commanded by Colonel Robert T. Preston of
the 4th Virginia Reserves. Preston did
not think anything was amiss when a blue
clad column approached his position.
Confederates were then wearing captured
Union overcoats. The weather was nasty,
the Yankees nastier.
After dispersing the rebels, the Union
soldiers went to work and destroyed the
salt-making equipment. The Federals felt
they had destroyed the Confederates'
salt-making ability. Though they severely
damaged it, the Southerners were able
to resume salt making before the war ended
just over four months later.
George Stoneman's command, while strong
enough to make a raid, was not strong
enough to occupy a hostile land, and retired
on December 22. Stoneman's troops
moved back into their posts in East
Tennessee. General Burbridge took the
traditional route on his exit from the Old
Dominion, via Pound Gap. The Union
army reached Pound Gap on Decem- ber 27,
1864. Since Burbridge did not mention
any opposition on his withdrawal, it is not
likely he met any. Most of the
Confederates at any rate were too stunned to
pursue if they had been strong
enough. Personnel shortages in every quarter
still siphoned off almost every
able-bodied soldier Breckinridge would give
up.
The weather had not improved, and if
Burbridge's men committed any depredations
while marching through Wise, it is not
recorded. Despite the lack of
information, most Federals at the time took
Sherman's order to "forage
liberally" to heart. It probably did
little good, as there was little in
southwest Virginia left to take.
There was little life left in the
Confederacy when 1864 closed. Rampant
shortages made Christmas little more than a
day on the calendar. Major military
setbacks for the Southerners encouraged the
Northern voters to return Abraham
Lincoln to the Executive Mansion, and with
the voting on November 8, all
Southern hope vanished. However, it took
some men some time to realize it. The
Confederacy had some victories in the early
part of the year, but the South
could not replace its battle losses, and
Grant's Army of the Potomac kept coming
when more prudent men would have retreated.
The 50th Virginia remained with the
Army of Northern Virginia for much of the
year, and the year had taken a
terrible toll on the Wise Yankee Catchers,
but they were detached to go to the
Shenandoah Valley. The 37th, 48th and 51st
Virginia Infantry, the 21st, 22nd,
and 25th Virginia Cavalry regiments also
operated with General Jubal Early in
the Shenandoah Valley and participated in
his famous raid on Washington, and was
relatively strong for the late war period.
General Joseph Johnston held Sherman's
bummers at bay in north Georgia, but
President Davis replaced him in July.
Johnston's replacement, John Bell Hood, an
imprudent commander, bled the Army of
Tennessee dry, and met total disaster on
the fields near Franklin, Tennessee in early
December. The mountaineers of the
54th and 63rd Virginia were detached for
operations with Nathan Bedford Forrest
and missed the twin disaster at Franklin and
Nashville. Hood's ploy to draw
Sherman back from central Georgia did not
work, and his men marched through
Georgia and took Savannah on Christmas day.
Vincent Witcher's 34th Battalion
Virginia Cavalry spent the year regulating
upper east Tennessee and West
Virginia during most of the year. The long
defended salt-works at Saltville were
finally in shambles thanks to the exertions
of George Stoneman. Fort Fisher
remained the only Confederate port open to
blockade runners, and pressure there
was increasing daily. The notion of an
independent Southern nation would not
last another year. President Davis, however,
did all he could to keep hope
alive.
Another obscure skirmish in far southwestern
Virginia was reported by Captain
George D. French of the 7th Battalion
Confederate Cavalry in a letter to Major
General John Cabell Breckinridge. (French
was a brother of James Milton French,
prominent in Wise County's Civil War
History.) French's report was dated January
6, 1865, when he was commanding the 7th
Confederate Cavalry Battalion and was
camped on Stony Creek in southern Wise
County near Big Stone Gap. French said he
had reliable information concerning Federals
in the lower portion of Wise County
"committing depredations of all
characters." French continued by informing his
superiors that a scout had "just
returned" and "found a party of home guards
encamped on Looney's Creek in Wise
County." French wrote:
They
[Federal soldiers, Unionists, or bushwhackers] have robbed citizens of
everything
they could conveniently carry away, and are still making their
appearance.
I would most respectfully ask that you would send by the courier
some
ammunition. In the condition of the battalion now, we do nothing, and if
furnished
with the necessary amount of ammunition they can be driven away.
Captain
Jones, commanding the scout, engaged the enemy near the Stone Gap of
Stone
Mountain, killing 8 and driving the enemy away; his loss, none. Stone
Gap
is about twelve miles from my camp.
French did not elaborate on specifically who the home guards were at
Stone
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