The Battle of Salyersville, also called Battle of Half Mountain (not to be confused with The Battle of Ivy Mountain, which took place in April 1861) was the largest of the many skirmishes in Magoffin County, Kentucky, during the American Civil War.
In April 1864, Confederate Colonel Ezekiel F. Clay led his regiment of mounted infantry on a raid to Kentucky. He was opposed by the forces of the Sub-District of Eastern Kentucky under Union Colonel George W. Gallup, consisting of the 14th Kentucky Infantry and 39th Kentucky Infantry, and reinforcements under Colonel C. J. True consisting of the 40th Kentucky Infantry and the 11th Michigan Cavalry. On April 13, 1864, the Confederates attacked the Union position at Paintsville, but Colonel Gallup's 750 men held their position. On April 14, Clay and his exhausted troops and horses were trying to rest near the mouths of Puncheon and Little Half Mountain Creeks. Col. Clay didn't think Col. Gallup would pursue him, but that turned out to be a costly misjudgment. Some believe that Gallup was led by a young lade from Puncheon named Liza Whitaker through Ivyton and down Gun Creek to Brushy Fork. Col. Gallup split his troops at Brushy Creek, sending 300 with Orlando Brown down the ridge of Little Half Mountain, while leading the rest down the Fred Risner Branch in a move that trapped Col. Clay and his troops. Col. Gallup was assisted by Col. John S. Dils, Col. David A. Mims, Lt. Col. Stephen Meek Ferfuson, Lieut. E. J. Roberts, acting assistant adjutant-general, Col. Orlando Brown, and Capt John C Collins, who claims to have shot Clay. Near the end of the battle, Clay was shot through the eye and had to remove himself from battle. Col. Clay was eventually captured and taken to an Ohio Prison by Elijah Patrick where he was finally pardoned by President Lincoln near the end of the war. Clay refused to accept the pardon and waited for the war to end to gain his freedom. The CSA suffered casualties of 60 men and 200 horses. 400 saddles and 300 small-arms were taken. The USA sustained only slight losses.
The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. / Series 1 - Volume 32 (Part III), especially pg. 393.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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