Action, Wytheville

On July 18, 1863, a Union brigade smaller in overall strength than typical struck a Confederate town in an engagement known as the Wytheville Raid, also called Toland's Raid. Colonel John Toland commanded more than 800 Union troops in this assault, facing roughly 130 Confederate soldiers alongside about 120 armed residents. Wytheville served as the seat of government for Wythe County in southwestern Virginia, and its value to military planners stemmed from a lead mine in the vicinity and the rail line connecting to it. Nearly a third of all munitions produced for the Confederate Army depended on lead from this source, and the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad carried Confederate soldiers and provisions across the region, its telegraph lines serving as an essential communication link. Beyond moving lead to sites where bullets were made, the railroad also linked a significant salt works in a neighboring county to the rest of the Confederacy.

Every soldier in Toland's command traveled on horseback, forming a mounted infantry regiment together with eight cavalry companies. This force reached the outskirts of Wytheville as evening fell on July 18. Word had already reached the town that a substantial body of Union horsemen was approaching, giving residents time to organize a defense before the troops arrived. Although many townspeople escaped southward or took shelter indoors, around 120 civilians, among them home guard members, chose to stand and protect their community. Union cavalry led the advance, riding in column formation straight down the road entering town, where Confederate troops, home guard, and armed locals lay in wait. Firing single-shot muskets from windows of houses and shops, these defenders, including women, caught the cavalry in a deadly crossfire, a style of combat viewed as irregular for its era. A Union soldier later called that stretch of road an "avenue of death."

Casualties on the Union side proved severe. Colonel Toland lost his life in the fighting, and Colonel William H. Powell, who led the cavalry and served as the brigade's second-in-command, was gravely wounded, abandoned, and subsequently captured by Confederate forces. Other officers and soldiers were killed, wounded, or went missing during the engagement. According to the Union's official accounting afterward, the full expedition, counting both the advance and the withdrawal, resulted in 86 men killed, wounded, missing, or captured, though Confederate commanders suspected the true Union losses were considerably higher. The brigade also lost roughly 300 horses to death or injury throughout the raid and subsequent retreat, with about 80 of those killed within Wytheville itself. Even after sustaining these heavy losses, Union forces managed to take control of the town, but the price paid forced them to withdraw within a day of their arrival. A defending group numbering less than a third of the attacking Union force succeeded in stopping the brigade from wrecking the railroad, its telegraph lines, the lead mine, and potentially a salt mine as well, all critical Confederate resources. In the aftermath, Union infantry commanders faulted the cavalry's conduct during the raid, while cavalry officers in turn blamed the infantry leadership's strategic decisions.

Wythe County

Nestled in the southwestern reaches of Virginia close to the Blue Ridge Mountains, Wythe County came into being in 1790, taking its name from George Wythe, who had once guided Thomas Jefferson through legal studies in the 1760s and later put his signature on the Declaration of Independence. Wytheville, a town built around a crossroads, served as the seat of government there throughout the Civil War and continues in that role. The 1860 census recorded 12,305 residents across the county, with 1,111 of them living in Wytheville, though by 1863 the town's population had reportedly grown to 1,800 inhabitants.

Two assets within Wythe County drew the notice of Union forces during the conflict: a lead mine and a rail line. Roughly ten miles southeast of Wytheville, in the small community of Austinville, sat a mine that supplied an estimated one third of all the lead the Confederacy used to manufacture bullets for its soldiers.

Cutting through the county on a roughly east to west path, the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad provided a vital link to this mine. Along its route ran telegraph wires that made communication across the region possible, linking Richmond, the Confederate capital, all the way to points in Tennessee. Beyond communications, the railroad played a key role in moving Confederate troops and supplies. A depot sat about three quarters of a mile south of downtown Wytheville, frequently used to house ammunition and weapons for Confederate forces. This combination of factors gave Wytheville considerable strategic weight during the war, making it a frequent target.

The rail connection also tied Wytheville to two other places of military importance. Roughly forty four miles to the west, at the far edge of neighboring Smyth County, stood a modest Confederate headquarters in the community of Saltville, home to a salt mine crucial to the Confederate cause. Salt was necessary not only for human and animal diets but also for preserving meat, and its scarcity during the war made this particular mine valuable enough that eight states drew from it. Saltville would see further combat in 1864. To the east, about twenty five miles from Wytheville in Pulaski County, stood the Dublin railroad depot, which functioned as a regional command post for Confederate forces. Originally called Newbern Depot, despite the town of Newbern itself lying two miles south of the tracks, the depot was renamed shortly before the war began in honor of the nearby New Dublin Presbyterian Church. Because of this late change, some maps from the early 1860s still referred to it by its older name, New Bern.

Union brigade

On July 13, 1863, in the afternoon hours, 870 Union troops set out from their base camp, positioned a few miles east of Charleston, West Virginia, along the river. General Eliakim P. Scammon had directed them to strike at the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad and cut down the telegraph line running alongside it. Should the opportunity present itself, they were also to move against lead and salt mines in the vicinity. Scammon had communicated these plans in coded messages, so despite the obvious nature of the targets, few among the men actually understood the full scope of what lay ahead.

Making up this force were 365 troopers from the 2nd West Virginia Volunteer Cavalry Regiment alongside 505 soldiers from the 34th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. By Civil War standards, this was a remarkably small brigade, given that such units typically numbered around 2,600 men. Command fell to Colonel John T. Toland, who served as acting brigadier general and hailed from the 34th Ohio. Toland had already proven himself during the September 1862 Kanawha Valley Campaign, where witnesses described his conduct as showing "utmost bravery and valor." Twice during that campaign, his horses were shot dead beneath him, yet he emerged unharmed both times.

Lieutenant Colonel Freeman E. Franklin held command over the infantry component. Nicknamed "Piatt's Zouaves" or the "1st Ohio Zouaves," the 34th Ohio frequently operated as mounted infantry, a role it filled again during this operation. Unlike true cavalrymen, these soldiers rode horses simply to reach the battlefield but dismounted before engaging the enemy, carrying infantry

Raleigh

Leaving their camp behind, the brigade pressed upriver along the Coal River for roughly 50 miles (80.5 km), a stretch that passed without any major trouble, though the terrain forced them to ford the waterway again and again. As dusk settled on July 14, the mounted scouts of Company C found themselves some 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Raleigh Court House, known also as Beckley, West Virginia, when Confederate fighters struck them mid-crossing at Piney Creek. The attack cost the unit a sergeant killed outright and a private who would later die of his wounds, with three other soldiers injured in the exchange. Colonel Toland responded by pushing two infantry companies forward as skirmishers, and they succeeded in pushing the attackers back.

Following this clash, the command withdrew toward the turnpike running between Raleigh Court House and Oceana, the latter serving at that time as the seat of Wyoming County. During this retreat, which unfolded in the predawn hours of July 15, the force split in two, since Lieutenant Colonel Franklin's contingent never got word to pull back. Navigating poor roads under near total darkness, the divided groups did not come back together until roughly noon, meeting up about 10 miles (16.1 km) outside Raleigh Court House.

Six miles (9.7 km) west of that same town, at a farmstead, two companies detached from the 1st West Virginia Cavalry caught up with the brigade, delivering much needed supplies. Their commander, Captain George Washington Gilmore, also carried fresh instructions from General Scammon that spelled out the brigade's objectives more clearly. Rations for four days went out to the men, along with three days worth of feed for their mounts. Soldiers and horses judged too worn down to continue were sent back toward camp along with the now empty wagons, guarded on their return by a single company drawn from the 2nd West Virginia Cavalry. What remained to carry the mission forward numbered 441 mounted infantrymen, 298 troops from the 2nd West Virginia Cavalry, and 79 more from the 1st West Virginia Cavalry.

Aftermath

According to Franklin, the whole expedition cost the Union side 11 dead, 32 wounded, 17 captured, and 26 unaccounted for, a tally that included 2 officers killed, 5 injured, and 1 missing. That number would grow, since additional soldiers later succumbed to their injuries, among them Lieutenant Guseman of the 1st West Virginia Cavalry. Foot soldiers alone accounted for 4 deaths, 11 wounded, 17 prisoners, and 10 missing. The heaviest toll fell on Captain Gilmore's cavalry detachment of two companies, roughly a third of whom were killed or hurt, with Company A suffering worst of all. Companies B and I of the 2nd West Virginia Cavalry lost men at Wytheville itself, while Company C had already lost two soldiers earlier, when Confederates ambushed them near Piney Creek. Roughly 300 horses perished or were abandoned to die. Friction followed the fight: infantry commanders faulted the 2nd West Virginia Cavalry, and cavalrymen in turn blamed the infantry's leadership. Even so, Union General Scammon issued an order praising his men, stating that he congratulated the troops under his command on their brilliant achievements.

Confederate accounts painted a very different picture than what Union officers described. General Jones wrote that, according to his information, the expedition had left Kanawha with 1,200 or 1,300 men but returned to Fayetteville with only 500, of which merely 300 still had horses. He noted that the commanding officer, Colonel Toland, and several others had died, while the second in command, Colonel Powell, along with other officers, had been wounded and taken prisoner. Jones added that the Federals admitted to losing more than 60 killed and wounded, though he suspected the true number was higher, and that their dead lay scattered across roads and mountain trails. He put Confederate losses at one captain and five men killed, with roughly twice that number wounded, based on what had been told to him. Reverend J. M. Wharey, a Wytheville civilian who took part in the defense, later remarked that had Toland survived, the lead mines, salt works, and nearby railroad bridges would have been left defenseless, but instead the small engagement thwarted the enemy's design and turned the raid into an outright failure.

Physicians on both sides considered the wound Colonel Powell took to his back to be mortal. One historian claimed he also lost an eye during the battle, though in fact that injury had happened before the war began. Left behind in Wytheville when Union forces withdrew because he could not be transported, Powell became a Confederate captive along with other wounded men. Local residents held him responsible for the burning of numerous homes in the town, and General Jones sought to hold him accountable as well, specifically for two buildings destroyed during an earlier raid, calling him one of the most dangerous officers the Confederacy had faced. To protect him from harm, Powell was concealed, and it was largely the efforts of several women from the area that spared the captured Union soldiers from vengeance. Against expectations, Powell recovered, and he was later transferred to Libby Prison in Richmond, where for a time he was kept in a dungeon and given only bread and water. In early February 1864 he was exchanged for Colonel Richard H. Lee, and by March of that year he had rejoined the 2nd West Virginia Cavalry. Long afterward, Captain Fortescue of Company I reflected that although he fought in many fiercely contested battles in the years that followed, none surpassed the intensity of what happened at Wytheville.