HANGING ROCK- In 1864, the noose was tightening on the Confederacy when Union Gen. David Hunter and his men retreated through Salem and Craig County.
The year would give only glimpses of the earlier victories familiar to the South, but never enough to turn the tide of the war. With his supplies and troop numbers dwindling after the disastrous campaign at Gettysburg and the fall of Vicksburg, Gen. Robert E. Lee was now pinned in the area surrounding the entryways to the Confederate capital in Richmond.
General Hunter
At the start of the year, Lincoln made U.S. Grant the new commander of the Union army. Grant began a total war campaign that was supported by both President Lincoln and Grant’s colleague William Tecumseh Sherman. Grant’s plan was to use the Union army and navy stationed at multiple points to continue to cut off the supply lines to the Confederate armies. Accordingly, Grant appointed General David Hunter to lay waste to the Shenandoah Valley, the “Breadbasket of the South.”
Hunter first started his “Lynchburg Campaign,” by defeating Maj. Gen. William E. Jones at the Battle of Piedmont on June 5. Following the scorched earth policy set out by his commander Grant, General Hunter moved southward through Staunton and Lexington, destroying military targets and other industries.
On June 18, Confederate Gen. Jubal Early turned Hunter away from Lynchburg. Hunter was forced to retreat, marching his men west and reaching Salem with Early in pursuit.
In the early morning hours of June 21, Confederate cavalry attacked the rear of Hunter’s retreating army near the present-day intersection of Electric Road and the Lynchburg Turnpike in Salem. When Hunter learned that Confederate cavalry had engaged his rear guard, he hastened the retreat of his troops through Salem toward Hanging Rock.
Once Hunter’s men reached Hanging Rock, the soldiers at the rear of the Union column were forced to slow their retreat as they attempted to negotiate the narrow gap between steep bluffs, hindered by fallen trees that had been cut down by Confederate militia.
Confederate Brigadier Gen. McCausland arrived in the Hanging Rock area on the morning of June 21. McCausland’s cavalry spotted and attacked the stalled Union artillery and their ammunition wagons as they entered the narrow passage at Hanging Rock on Mason Creek.
Lieutenant Carter Berkeley, a soldier under McCausland, gave this account: “Our Battery went from Bedford with General Ransom, who had with him McCausland and some other cavalry. We went via the Peaks of Otter, marched all night, and got in front of Hunter near Hanging Rock and stood there an hour or two looking at his column moving rapidly into the gap.
“McCausland will tell you how he urged Ransom to attack. I ran out a gun without orders and fired into the moving column. They ran out a gun and replied to us. At the second shot we dismounted it. About that time McCausland charged, but it was only the rear of the retreating column.”
McCausland ordered some of his men to dismount, disperse along the ridge at Hanging Rock and fire down on the Union Army. He also led a charge with approximately 200 cavalrymen against several artillery batteries. Union guns and wagons sustained heavy damage.
McCausland’s troops also burned ammunition wagons, killed and captured horses, confiscated guns, and took prisoners. Finally, reinforcements from the front of the Union column arrived and drove back the Confederates. It is said that in those few hours, Mason Creek “ran red with the blood of horses and men as they were trying to take cover from the Confederate attack.”
Documents, memoirs, journal and diary entries of the day characterized the action by both Union and Confederate armies and their supporters.
General Hunter later reported to Grant: “During the night our march was continued to Salem, destroying all the bridges, contents, and depot buildings on the railroad. We arrived at Salem about sunrise on the 21st. About 9 a.m.. the enemy made a demonstration against our rear guard. While opposing his advance in that direction our baggage train and reserve artillery were sent off by the New Castle road, and through some inadvertence the proper guard did not accompany the artillery. While our attention was directed to the rear of the column a detachment of the enemy’s cavalry fell upon the artillery en route.
“They were presently driven off by our cavalry, losing some 30 men, killed, wounded, and prisoners, and the guns were recaptured. Owing to the loss of horses and the breaking of the carriages we were obliged to abandon 8 pieces with their limbers and caissons, after burning all their carriages. From Salem the enemy’s cavalry followed us to Catawba Valley, where we rested that night.”
In his report to Gen. Robert E. Lee, Early stated about the battle: “The enemy passed through Salem on yesterday and took the route toward Lewisburg by New Castle. McCausland with his cavalry struck the enemy north of Salem, at the Hanging Rock, and captured 4 pieces of artillery and disabled 6 others so that they had to be left, and the carriages were destroyed by the enemy. The enemy did a great deal of damage to citizens in Bedford and Campbell, but not so much in Roanoke, as they were too closely pursued. All bridges and depots on the railroad were burnt at Salem, but little other damage was done to the road.”
It is not known how many soldiers on both sides were killed, wounded, or missing during this battle, but two of the Confederate soldiers that were killed in the Battle of Hanging Rock were Jesse Whitworth, a private of Company D, 21st Virginia Cavalry Regiment, and George Kahle, a private of Company E, 17th Virginia Cavalry Regiment. They are both buried at East Hill Cemetery under a tree. Both men hailed from the new and much disputed state of West Virginia.
By David Harold Moeller
