On September 30, 1864, Union Gen. Stephen G. Burbridge arrived in Cedar Bluff en route from eastern Kentucky to Saltville, Virginia, leading an army of 5200 men to raid the town and capture the important saltworks there. Warned by scouts who had spotted the advancing Union troops, Confederate Gen. Edwin Trimble met the Union advance in Cedar Bluff with 400 men of the 10th Kentucky-Virginia Cavalry and attempted to blockade the Union forces in the pass near the Cedar Bluff Post Office, resulting in a battle that delayed the Union advance for most of the day and gained time for Confederate reinforcements to reach Saltville. During the afternoon, the post office and the home of postmaster Thomas M. Scott were raided, and Union soldiers also broke into the McGuire home in Cedar Bluff, plundering it and stealing food. The front door of that home, damaged by the rifle bayonets of Union soldiers, is on permanent display in the Civil War Exhibit at the Historic Crab Orchard Museum near Tazewell. The total casualties are not known, but at least one Union soldier was killed and buried before later being disinterred and taken back to Kentucky. Trimble was killed at Saltville on October 2, 1864, and is buried in Maplewood Cemetery in nearby Tazewell, and the historic Jones Chapel Cemetery in Cedar Bluff contains the marked grave sites of several Confederate soldiers.