Battle of Cloyds Mountain

date	May 9, 1864
place	Pulaski County , Virginia
output	Union troops victory

Parties to the conflict
United States	Confederate States of America
Commander
Brigadier General George Crook	Brigadier General Albert Gallatin Jenkins
Troop strength
6500	2400
losses
688	538

The Battle of Cloyds Mountain took place on May 9, 1864 as part of the raid of Union Generals William W. Averell and George Crook against the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad during the American Civil War . It ended in a victory for the Union troops under Brigadier General George Crook and enabled them to destroy the important railway bridge over the New River near Dublin, Virginia .

prehistory

In the spring of 1864, the Commander-in-Chief of the Union Army Ulysses S. Grant planned several supporting operations in support of his central campaigns by Generals George Gordon Meade against Robert E. Lee and William T. Sherman against Joseph E. Johnston , including Brigadier General George Crook with his Kanawha Division was involved. Crook was assigned to advance from West Virginia in an easterly direction to interrupt the only rail link between the Confederate States of Tennessee and Virginia , over which supplies and troops were moved between the theaters of war to the west and east. The Union troops began their march with 6000 infantrymen in three brigades, 500 cavalrymen and 12 cannons, whereby they were able to hide their strategic intentions from the Confederates for a long time. When the extent of the threat became apparent, the regional military district commander, Brigadier General Albert G. Jenkins , hastily assembled a ranged force of 1,900 infantrymen, 500 cavalrymen and 10 cannons to stand in the way of the Northerners.

The battle

On May 9, 1864, the two met at Cloyds Mountain near Dublin . The Union troops crossed the mountain from the north, the Confederates had drawn a line along the Back Creek to the south. Since the Confederate position, which had been provisionally fortified the night before, seemed too strong to him, Crook decided against a pure frontal attack and dispatched one of his three brigades to bypass the right flank of Jenkins' troops, shielded by wooded terrain. This went as planned, and although the regiments from West Virginia and Ohio had problems coordinating their advance due to a lack of experience, they slowly but surely pushed Jenkins' right flank back. Realizing this, Crook sent the rest of his men head-on across the river towards Jenkins' main line. This attack over the open field caused the Union troops heavy losses, but in conjunction with the flank attack was sufficient to conquer the position. When Brigadier General Jenkins tried to save the center of his force from collapse, he was badly wounded and had to be carried off the battlefield. Command passed to the infantry commander, Col. John McCausland . This temporarily gathered the retreating troops along a second line, which had to be given up after a short time due to the numerical superiority of the northerners. Reinforced by a 500-strong cavalry regiment, which had only arrived at Dublin train station during the day, the Confederates managed to hold up Crook long enough to evacuate most of the war material from the city to the south via the New River . As darkness fell, the remaining Confederate troops withdrew to the south bank.

consequences

Measured by the relative strength of the units involved, the comparatively short battle resulted in heavy losses. Crook lost more than 10% of its starting strength with 688 men, while the southerners and their commander lost almost 540 men and thus well over 20%. Although the Union forces won the battle, the Crooks raid turned out to be a failure. Although he succeeded in setting the wooden bridge over the New River on fire the following day, due to the lack of explosive charges, the bridge piers remained intact and repairs were therefore possible in a timely manner. Nor could the Northerners build on victory on the battlefield because, based on cleverly forged cables left in town by McCausland, Grant had meanwhile been beaten by Lee and was in retreat. This misinformation ensured that Crook reversed his division and marched back to the Ohio River.

literature

Wilhelm Lothar von Mengersen: From Kanawha to the New River: The battle of Cloyds Mountain. KDP, Vienna 2020.
Howard R. McManus: The Battle of Cloyd's Mountain: The Virginia and Tennessee Railroad Raid April 29 - May 19, 1864. Salem 1989.