| |
|
|
Stoneman's Raid
East Front Street at Tradd Street, Statesville,
NC,
USA
Latitude & Longitude:
35° 47' 0.6576",
-80° 53' 6.2412"
|
|
 |
| |
| |
| |
|
North Carolina State
Historical Marker |
Marker Text: "On a raid through western North Carolina Gen. Stoneman's U.S. cavalry occupied Statesville, April 13, 1865." In late March 1865, Union cavalry under Major General George Stoneman, commander of the Union army “District of East Tennessee,” marched throughout western North Carolina during one of the longest cavalry raids in history. About 5,000 men under Stoneman’s command entered North Carolina with a mission “to destroy and not to fight battles” in order to expedite the close of the Civil War. Stoneman’s raid coincided with the raids of General William T. Sherman in the eastern sections of the state, stretching local home guard and militia units thinly across the state and forcing Confederate commanders to make hard choices on where their men were needed most.
Stoneman divided his men and sent detachments throughout the region, securing the destruction of the region’s factories, bridges and railroad lines. The army relied heavily on local citizens for food and supplies, often emptying storehouses. Stoneman’s raids in North Carolina lasted from late March until May when they assisted in the search for Confederate President Jefferson Davis as he fled the collapsed Confederacy. The men had marched more than 1,000 miles during the raid and historians credit their march with assuring the death of the Confederacy as they captured artillery pieces and took thousands of prisoners while destroying Confederate army supplies and blocking a line of possible retreat for both Lee and Johnston’s armies.
The destruction at Salisbury complete, Stoneman’s raid targeted next the railroad town of Statesville. Stoneman’s men were in the city only briefly on April 13 as they destroyed the railroad depot, rail lines and burned the office of the Iredell Express. Although the men passed quickly through the town on their way westward, the city was briefly re-occupied until April 17 by a portion of Stoneman’s army after a successful trip towards Charlotte and the South Carolina border. While in town during the second visit, Union troops engaged in several skirmishes with local Confederates.
References:
Mark A. Snell, ed., North Carolina: The Final Battles (1998)
John G. Barrett, The Civil War in North Carolina (1963)
Cornelia Phillips Spencer, The Last Ninety Days of the War in North Carolina (1866)
Ina Van Noppen, Stoneman’s Last Raid (1961)
Vernon H. Crow, Storm in the Mountains (1982)
|
|
|
Related Themes: C.S.A., Confederate States of America, Confederacy
Explore other
North Carolina Civil War Historical Markers.
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
Stoneman's Raid Historical Marker Location Map, Statesville, North Carolina
|
|
|
