Crook's Occupation of Union

In May 1864, after his victory at Cloyd’s Mountain, Virginia, Union General George Crook led his force through Union on a Sunday morning amid a “Sabbath stillness” as many residents fled to the Knobs with livestock and other property to hide valuables from the advancing Federals. Isabella Caperton wrote that everyone was gathering small valuables and trying to find concealment where “the cunning Yankees” would not think of searching. Crook’s army, including 10,000 men, 200 wagons, 35 ambulances, 213 prisoners, and over 100 negroes, took six and a half hours to pass through town and then spread out for miles to camp and forage. Monroe County’s population was less than half the size of the army occupying Union. Future presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and William McKinley marched through, and Hayes called it “the fine village of Union.” General William W. Averell, having decided not to attack the salt works at Saltville, Virginia, because they were strongly defended, joined Crook there. Their meeting capped a wide-ranging raid that destroyed a Confederate supply depot in Dublin, Virginia, the railroad bridge over the New River, and several sections of railroad track. The cavalrymen remained in town for five days, liberating slaves and Unionists.

Union, West Virginia · United States