Stoneman reunited his command in Danbury, NC on April 9th.

While in Danbury on April 9-10, Stoneman established his headquarters here at Moody’s Tavern. The second floor of the structure offered a commanding view of the area from its east-and west-facing rooms, allowing Stoneman and his staff to observe his camp and any approaching enemy forces. During Stoneman’s occupation of the county, his men put the nearby Moratock Iron Works out of commission. The Confederacy relied on this and similar charcoal-fired furnaces to furnish iron for the foundries that produced cannons, swords, and rifles.

Stoneman on April 10th captured Germanton. At that point he had added about 400 former slaves to his column which he sent to East Tennessee under guard. More than a hundred of these men would eventually enlist in the 119th U.S. Colored Troops. Here Stoneman divided his force again, see the map below. He would send Palmer’s First Brigade towards Salem (now Winston-Salem) and the railroads connecting Greensboro to Danville and the Yadkin River. Stoneman and Gillem with the Second and Third Brigades would head for Salisbury and the prison camp there via Bethania, Shallow Ford on the Yadkin River, and Mocksville.

Colonel Palmer and his First Brigade headed to Salem. Late in the afternoon of the 10th, just outside the city, advanced elements of Palmer’s force ran into Rebel scouts that were easily dispersed and the city quickly occupied. Some Confederates may have hidden in a giant tin coffee pot to escape capture. The coffee pot was created in 1858 by tinsmiths Julius and Samuel Mickey as an advertisement for their tin shop on South Main Street 36.0908885, -80.242905, shown below.

In Salem two horses were hidden under the main hall of the Salem Female Academy.

Colonel Palmer’s headquarters while in Salem was at the Kuschke house at 723 South Main Street.

At St. Philip’s Church a member of the Union 10th Ohio Cavalry preached to the Black congregation (36.0840891, -80.2407178).

Palmer ordered Lieutenant Colonel Charles Betts commander of the 15th PA to travel east to Kernersville where he divided his regiment. Major Abraham Garner with 100 men destroyed the Piedmont Railroad bridge north of Greensboro. Captain Kramer was sent toward Jamestown on the North Carolina Railroad with 86 men, where they destroyed the bridge over Deep River. Betts led the remainder of the regiment, 90 men, to Greensboro where they captured a Rebel camp and burned the North Carolina Railroad bridge over Buffalo Creek. Betts would be awarded the Medal of Honor. The 10th MI under Lieutenant Colonel Luther Trowbridge headed south leading two battalions, about 300 men, to destroy the North Carolina Railroad bridge over Abbott’s Creek above Lexington between Greensboro and Salisbury. After destroying the bridge Trowbridge ran into Brigadier General Samuel Ferguson’s brigade. With 1,000 men they outnumbered the Federals. The Rebels attacked but Trowbridge was able to conduct an orderly withdraw for six miles until the Confederates broke off the fight. Another battalion under Captain J.H. Cummins rode to High Point where they captured two trains worth of supplies and burned the depot, warehouses and the water station. Trowbridge and Betts rejoined Palmer around sunset on the 11th and the First Brigade left Salem.

On the evening of April 10th Stoneman and Gilliam rode southwest toward Salisbury with the First and Second Brigades and Reagan’s artillery. They arrived in Bethania during an Easter week service. They foraged for supplies and after three hours were back on the road toward Shallow Ford on the Yadkin River which they reached by 7:00 AM on the 11th.

Shallow Ford on the West Bank of the Yadkin River near Huntsville was lightly guarded and the very small Confederate force which was behind a little breastwork fled. The ford is shown below taken with a zoom lens from a bridge over the Yadkin River on Courtney-Huntsville Road at 36.0931019, -80.5157411 on a very foggy morning. The Shallow Ford is a geographic marvel. It as the site where the Old Wagon Road crossed the Yadkin River leading early settlers into western North Carolina. It is about 600 yards south of the bridge where I took the photo. Here a belt of very hard rock crosses the river, and a sand and gravel bar formed on top of the rock. The average water level above the bar is about 12-24 inches. The rock base allows heavy wagon to cross it. The Moravians opened a road from Salem to cross it in 1772, after building roads from several other towns to cross it. Cornwallis crossed here in February of 1781 in pursuit of Nathaniel Greene’s Army.

Just on the other side of the bridge is the sign below.

They were taken by surprise and left behind over 100 muskets. At one point there was a Civil War Trails marker in Huntsville located at 36.0825000, -80.5293333. However, on a recent trip there the marker was gone. It does appear in the Historical Marker Database and is shown below.

The marker above contains at least two errors. It states that General Palmer was in command of the column here on April 9, 1865. Stoneman’s entire force was near Danbury, NC on this date well north of Huntsville. The force that came through Huntsville was not Palmer’s First Brigade but the Second and Third brigades. The marker states that the Federals surprised the Home Guard, which fled, abandoning a hundred new Enfield muskets. This would have been the force led by Stoneman and Gillem not Palmer. In Huntsville, the cavalry burned the Red Store but spared the Kelly-Clingman Tavern and the White House, where U.S. Congressman Thomas Lanier Clingman (later a Confederate general) once lived. During the raid, Clingman was at Shallow Ford Plantation recuperating from a wound he received in 1864. Union soldiers pillaged the nearby house of plantation owner Joseph Anthony Bitting, while Federals attempted to rob Greenberry “Berry” Harding’s dwelling. Harding, recovering there from wounds, shot and killed an intruder.

Stoneman and Gillem’s column continued on to Mocksville. In the process they passed the Dalton house, shown below, where they were fed. Sarah Dalton was a Union sympathizer who later moved to Texas after the war.

A Home Guard of about two-dozen men including fifteen-year-old E. L. Gaither assembled at Elisha Creek Hill just north (4 miles) of Mocksville under Major A. A. Harbin. They exchanged a few shots with the Federals, and then scattered. The skirmish took place near where Route 158 intersects Bowles Road at 35.9443068, -80.5386566, shown below.

Stoneman’s men burned the McNeely cotton factory half a mile west of town. The courthouse stood in the center of the square facing south and some of the troops used the weathervane for target practice. Raiders broke into Baxton Bailey’s store, ruined his goods, and stole four horses. His wife was held at gunpoint in the Lee House on Carter Street when she resisted demands for money but the soldiers left without harming her. A bed pillow was set on fire in the home but was quickly extinguished. The only remaining artifact, a charred wallboard, is now on display at the library. Stoneman bivouacked south of town in Ephesus, 12 miles outside Salisbury. It is thought that they camped at Davie Crossroads at the intersection of modern-day Routes 601 and 801 (images below). For these pictures I parked in the Gulf Station parking lot at 35.8321134, -80.5349656.

After a short rest the column was back on the road at midnight on the 12th headed toward Salisbury. They crossed the South Yadkin River and came to a fork in the road. They crossed the river at Halle Ford near where modern-day Route 601 crosses the Yadkin River. The picture below was taken near 35.7783720, -80.5066095 from the boat launch.

They had now crossed the last water barrier on the road to Salisbury.

Sources

Stoneman’s 1865 Raid in Central North Carolina by Chris J. Hartley. Blue and Gray Magazine Volume XXVI #6, 2010.

Stoneman’s Raid, 1865 by Chris J. Hartley.

The 1865 Stoneman’s Raid Begins Leave Nothing for the Rebellion to Stand Upon by Joshua Beau Blackwell

The 1865 Stoneman’s Raid Ends Follow Him to the Ends of the Earth by Joshua Beau Blackwell.