Tuesday, December 16, 2014

December 17, 1864---'Till Stoneman's cavalry came, and they tore up the tracks again”

DECEMBER 17, 1864:   

The Battle of Marion, Virginia:        

After being repulsed at Saltville on October 2nd, the Union had left the mountainous region of the Virginia arrowhead alone. However, the industrial capacity --- salt and lead --- of the area was ever becoming more crucial to the shrinking Confederacy’s war effort. On this day, Major General George Stoneman U.S.A. led 5,000 mounted men through the mountains of eastern Tennessee into the Virginia arrowhead, where they wreaked havoc on the local infrastructure until they reached the town of Marion. 

General George Stoneman, U.S.A.


Marion itself was bitterly politically divided, with a local Unionist militia fighting a local Confederate militia in the area. About 1,500 Confederate regulars were in Marion itself. 

General John C. Breckinridge, C.S.A.


In what became a two-day battle, the Union cavalry were at first repulsed by the Confederates, who knew the lay of the land and held the high ground (much as like at Saltville).  A frustrated Stoneman detached several hundred men to raid the local smelting plant and lumber mills. This forced the Marion Confederates to divide their forces to protect these valuable assets. As the first day ended, the Union troops were bottlenecked at a local covered bridge. 




On the morning of the second day, the firefight continued --- but so did the raiding. Stoneman’s detached riders managed to destroy the local Confederate supply dump, leaving the Rebels with no powder and shot other than what they had. And although the Confederates pinned down the Federals at the covered bridge and elsewhere, inflicting heavy casualties, they eventually ran out of ammunition. 




At that point, Stoneman ordered a cavalry charge. The Confederate commander, Brigadier General John C. Breckinridge (once Vice-President of the United States, and a Presidential candidate in 1860) ordered his men to scatter, and most of them made their way south into western North Carolina through the winter mountains. Without food, weapons and ammunition, weakened and suffering from exposure, and in the midst of heavily Unionist territory, Breckenridge’s men were rendered hors de combat.




Within the next several days, Stoneman took and destroyed Saltville putting its salt mines out of production, and wrecked the lead mines at Marion. He also destroyed rolling stock and wrecked the railroad.  




Though a “small” and essentially unknown battle, the Battle of Marion had long-term and severe consequences for the South. The Army of Northern Virginia lost the last source of its precious salt supply, and the loss of the lead mines meant that there were no raw materials to produce bullets. 




The Union raids are memorialized in the song The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down




". . . Till Stoneman's cavalry came, and they tore up the tracks again . . .”






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