Lexington

On May 26, 1864, Union Gen. David Hunter marched south from Cedar Creek near Winchester to drive out Confederate forces, lay waste to the Shenandoah Valley, and destroy transportation facilities at Lynchburg as part of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s strategy to attack Confederates simultaneously throughout Virginia. After defeating Gen. William E. “Grumble” Jones at Piedmont on June 5, Hunter marched to Lexington, where his 18,000 soldiers crossed the North (Maury) River and entered from the north and west on June 11, while Confederate Gen. John C. McCausland’s skirmishers contested the crossing and artillerists fired from the Virginia Military Institute parade ground. Union gunners shelled the town from high ground north of Lexington, causing significant property damage, and over the next three days Hunter’s men plundered private homes, Washington College, and the Institute. Hunter also ordered the destruction of a mill and several warehouses at Jordan’s Point, the dock and terminus of the canal system, and Union cavalrymen destroyed six barges loaded with private property and armaments from the state arsenal at the Institute 10 miles downstream after they had departed for Lynchburg just before his arrival. McCausland’s 1,400 Confederates, including Virginia Military Institute cadets, retreated toward Lynchburg. On June 12, Hunter ordered the Institute and the home of former Virginia governor John Letcher burned, but spared Washington College after administrators pleaded that the school was named for George Washington. By the afternoon of June 14, the last of Hunter’s army had departed Lexington for Lynchburg. At Lynchburg, on June 17-18, Gen. Jubal A. Early repulsed Hunter and pursued him to West Virginia, then turned north in July to threaten Washington.

Lexington, Virginia · United States