Stoneman's raid in 1865, also called Stoneman's last raid, was a military campaign in the Upper South during the American Civil War, by Union cavalry troops led by General George Stoneman, in the region of eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina and southwestern Virginia.
The song "The night they drove old Dixie down" by The Band, mentions Stoneman's cavalry tearing up the tracks that Virgil Cain had worked for the railroad on.
In the later stages of the war from 1864 to 1865, Union forces concentrated on breaking Confederate strongholds. In 1864 General George Stoneman led forces in the Atlanta campaign, leading an expedition to liberate prisoners, but was captured by Confederate Home Guard at Clinton, Georgia. Released after a prisoner exchange in October 1864, he was made deputy to General John Schofield, commander of the Army of the Ohio. He proposed a raid in southwest Virginia to destroy the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad and the saltworks in Saltville followed by an attack towards Salisbury, North Carolina. Schofield authorized the southwest Virginia attack in December but postponed the North Carolina foray. Stoneman successfully carried out his raid, boosting his reputation, while Schofield successfully reversed an order from the Secretary of War and General Ulysses Grant to remove Stoneman from any commands due to his failure in Georgia. With his reputation as an effective commander restored, in February 1865 Stoneman was appointed Commander of the District of East Tennessee. Grant wrote to General George Henry Thomas, Stoneman's superior, authorizing him to allow Stoneman to carry out a raid into Columbia, South Carolina to destroy railroads and supplies, and free prisoners in Salisbury. Thomas' subsequent instructions specified that Stoneman was "to destroy but not to fight battles".
Stoneman wrote to Brigadier Alvan Cullem Gillem to bring his Eighth, Ninth, and Thirteenth Tennessee Cavalry Regiments into the operation and went to Louisville, Kentucky to prepare the Eleventh Kentucky, Twelfth Kentucky, and Eleventh Michigan Cavalry Regiments for his expedition. Stoneman's organization took longer than Grant expected, as he attempted to find sufficient horses to carry out the raid. In the meantime, Union forces under General William Tecumseh Sherman had entered Columbia, rendering it no longer necessary for Stoneman to attack South Carolina. Thomas then revised his orders for Stoneman, ordering him to leave Tennessee through the New River valley towards Christiansburg, Virginia to sabotage the eastern portion of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad and thus cutoff escape routes for Confederate troops under General Robert E. Lee, who were engaged with Grant's forces in Virginia at near Petersburg and Richmond. Impatient with the delay, Grant wired Thomas on March 19, writing "If Stoneman has not got off on his expedition, start him off at once with whatever force you can give him. He will not meet with opposition now that cannot be overcome with 1,500 men." On March 18 Brigadier Gillem took three brigades—comprising three regiments each—to carry out Stoneman's orders. One was commanded by Colonel William J. Palmer, another by Brevet Brigadier Simeon B. Brown, and the last by Colonel John K. Miller. The artillery battery was led by Lieutenant James M. Regan.
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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