On March 24, 1865, Union Gen. George Stoneman led 6,000 cavalrymen from Tennessee into southwestern Virginia and western North Carolina to disrupt Confederate supply lines 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, ending the raid at Asheville on April 26, the same day Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Union Gen. William T. Sherman near Durham. After Union Gen. Alvan C. Gillem found his planned route to Asheville blocked at Swannanoa Gap on April 20, 1865, he led two brigades into Rutherford County, rode on to Hendersonville, and ordered Col. William J. Palmer to establish headquarters in Rutherfordton and follow his force. On April 26, Palmer's brigade marched about ten miles west of Rutherfordton, bivouacked, then rode another sixteen miles to Hickory Nut Gorge and the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The next day, after learning that Confederate President Jefferson Davis had fled south from Richmond, Stoneman ordered Palmer to abandon his march to Asheville and join the pursuit of Davis. Palmer, made a temporary general, turned his men around, marched down the mountain through the gorge, passed through Rutherfordton, and crossed Island Ford toward the head of the Savannah River by way of Spartanburg, continuing the pursuit until May 15, when he learned that Davis had been captured in Georgia. During this period, wheeled vehicles had difficulty passing through the gorge, and only rough roads and natural gaps gave access to the mountains, which sheltered Union and Confederate deserters hiding by day and foraging by night. Escaped Union soldiers from Confederate prisons at Columbia and Salisbury also used gaps such as Hickory Nut while making their way toward friendly lines in Tennessee.