Piedmont was a Civil War engagement fought in Virginia, 1864. It was a Union victory.
After replacing Sigel in command of Union forces in the Shenandoah Valley, Maj. Gen. David "Black Dave" Hunter renewed the Union offensive. On June 5, Hunter engaged the Confederate army under "Grumble" Jones north of Piedmont. After severe fighting, a flanking movement made by Thoburn's brigade turned Jones's right flank. While trying to stem the retreat of his soldiers, Jones was killed. The retreat became a rout. More than 1,000 Confederates, including 60 officers, were captured. Jones lost three guns. Hunter occupied Staunton on June 6 and, after a pause to await the arrival of Brig. Gen. George Crook's column, began to advance on Lynchburg, destroying military stores and public property in his wake.
On June 5, 1864, opposing forces clashed near the settlement of Piedmont in Augusta County, Virginia, in an engagement that would bear the town's name. Major General David Hunter, commanding Union troops, moved against a Confederate force led by Brigadier General William E. "Grumble" Jones just north of the village. The fighting proved brutal, and by its end Jones lay dead while his army fled the field in disarray. The following day, June 6, Hunter's men took control of Staunton, and shortly thereafter he pressed his advance toward Lynchburg, leaving destroyed military stores and public property along the route his forces traveled.
The engagement at Piedmont grew out of a broader strategy pursued by Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant in 1864, part of his effort to keep pressure on Confederate forces everywhere and stop them from moving troops freely between fronts. Grant had initially chosen the German-born Franz Sigel to lead operations in the Shenandoah Valley, but after Sigel's loss at New Market on May 15, Grant removed him from command. On May 21, Hunter took charge of the United States Army of the Shenandoah instead.
Hunter wasted little time reorganizing his modest force, directing his men to draw supplies from the rich farmland of the Valley. By May 26 he was pushing toward Staunton, meeting only scattered resistance along the way. Most Confederate troops stationed in the Valley had already departed to join the Army of Northern Virginia in the aftermath of New Market, leaving Brigadier General John D. Imboden's brigade, along with the Valley Reserves, as the only defense against Hunter's advance. Imboden regularly updated Robert E. Lee on enemy movements, though his limited numbers gave him little ability to actually slow Hunter down. Staunton itself, vital to the Confederacy as a rail and supply hub, became Hunter's target.
Confederate leadership had not anticipated how swiftly Union forces would press their advantage after New Market. With his attention consumed by the fight against the Army of the Potomac, Lee called upon Grumble Jones, then serving as acting commander of the Confederate Department of Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee, directing him to coordinate with Imboden. Jones responded by marching into the Shenandoah with about 4,000 men, a mix of infantry and cavalry fighting on foot.
The Union column reached Harrisonburg on June 3. Meanwhile, Imboden had gathered his troops at Mount Crawford along the southern bank of the North River, positioning himself to block Hunter's route to Staunton via the Valley Turnpike. A native of Augusta County, Imboden set up his command post at the Grattan House, where his ranks swelled as reinforcements began arriving from the southwest.
The next morning, June 4, Hunter dispatched a smaller force to create a distraction near Mount Crawford while directing the bulk of his army eastward toward Port Republic, where his troops camped that night. By this time, Jones had reached the Grattan House and taken charge of the newly formed Confederate Army of the Valley District. Once scouts reported Hunter's shift eastward, Imboden proposed shifting Confederate forces to Mowry's Hill in eastern Augusta to intercept him. Imboden later recounted that Jones agreed to this plan, moving the infantry and dismounted cavalry toward Mowry's Hill to meet Hunter there on June 5. At the same time, Jones instructed Imboden to take all mounted units toward Mount Meridian, located a few miles south of Port Republic along the Staunton or East Road. Imboden's orders were to slow the Union advance without provoking a full engagement when Federal troops arrived the following morning.
Thomas Evans, a private serving with Company E of the 54th Pennsylvania Infantry, fired on a Confederate officer who was rallying his men, then grappled with the color bearer of the 45th Virginia before wrenching the flag away from him.
Also from Company E of the 54th Pennsylvania came James Snedden, a musician who abandoned his instrument long enough to grab a rifle and press forward in the assault; in the course of that fighting he took prisoner Colonel Beuhring Jones, who held command of the 1st Confederate infantry brigade.
Meanwhile Stahel took a pair of bullets while personally leading his dismounted cavalrymen into combat. He paused only to have the injuries treated at a field hospital before coming back to lead the cavalry's decisive final charge.
This page covers Piedmont. A full Aubrey report for the area pulls together this battle alongside historic sites, land records, and everything else the record holds within a few miles:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
The account on this page is written by Aubrey Research from cited sources. Wikipedia is cited as a reference; its text is not reproduced.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in the US, drawing on NRHP records, battlefield archives, census history and geological data to tell the full story of a place.