This trip took about a half day to complete.

Fairview, North Carolina on the way to Chimney Rock

Excerpted from the marker- On March 24, 1865, Union General George Stoneman led 6,000 cavalrymen from Tennessee into southwestern Virginia and western North Carolina to disrupt the Confederate supply line by destroying sections of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, the North Carolina Railroad, and the Piedmont Railroad. He struck at Boone on March 28, headed into Virginia on April 2, and returned to North Carolina a week later. Stoneman’s Raid ended at Asheville on April 26, the day that Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Union General William T. Sherman near Durham. Colonel William J. Palmer, commanding one of General George Stoneman’s brigades (about 1,300 cavalrymen of the 15th Pennsylvania, 12th Ohio, and 10th Michigan Regiments), made his headquarters here at Sherrill’s Inn on April 27, 1865. The Sherrill family fed officers, and one of the daughters is said to have shaken her stocking over the eggs as they cooked and declared, “Those Yankees can eat the dust off my feet and think it’s pepper.” Palmer was brevetted (temporarily promoted) to brigadier general, probably while at Sherrill’s Inn. The promotion gave him the command of two brigades already in Asheville that had participated in pillaging there on April 26. A “Quaker warrior,” Palmer had joined the army as a way to express his abolitionist views. He was later awarded the Medal of Honor for his role in defeating a larger Confederate force at Red Hill, Alabama, on January 14, 1865, “without losing a man.” According to tradition, an “underground railroad” operated here and ran through Hickory Nut Gap. Local residents helped Union sympathizers, slaves, and Federal soldiers escaping from prisons in Columbia, South Carolina, and Salisbury, North Carolina, to travel to Union-controlled Tennessee.

Chimney Rock

Hickory Nut Gorge (excerpted from the marker)- Union General Alvan C. Gillem led two brigades of General George Stoneman’s raiders into Rutherford County after finding his planned route to Asheville blocked at Swannanoa Gap on April 20, 1865. Gillem rode on to Hendersonville and ordered Colonel William J. Palmer to set up headquarters in Rutherfordton, then follow Gillem’s force. On April 26, the day Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered near Durham, Palmer’s brigade marched about ten miles west of Rutherfordton and bivouacked, then rode another sixteen miles to Hickory Nut Gorge and the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The next day, Stoneman, having learned that Confederate President Jefferson Davis had fled south from Richmond, ordered Palmer to discontinue his march to Asheville and join in the pursuit of Davis: “Follow him to the ends of the earth, if necessary, and never give him up.” Palmer, made a temporary general, turned around his disappointed men who had thought they were going home, marched down the mountain through the gorge, passed through Rutherfordton and then across Island Ford to the head of the Savannah River via Spartanburg. He continued the pursuit until May 15 when he learned that Davis had been captured in Georgia. During this period, passage for wheeled vehicles through the gorge was difficult, and only rough roads and natural gaps provided access to the mountains, which sheltered both Union and Confederate deserters who hid by day and foraged by night. Others who used gaps such as Hickory Nut included escaped Union soldiers from Confederate prisons at Columbia and Salisbury en route to friendly lines in Tennessee.

We stopped at the winery below across the street from Chimney Rock.

Pictures from the outdoor patio of the winery- great views.