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 railroads at Lynchburg as part of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's strategy to attack the Confederacy simultaneously throughout Virginia. After defeating Gen. William E. "Grumble" Jones at Piedmont on June 5, Hunter marched to Lexington, burned Virginia Military Institute, and headed to Lynchburg, where on June 17-18 Gen. Jubal A. Early repulsed him and pursued him into West Virginia before turning north in July to threaten Washington. Late in May 1864, as Hunter's army and its supply wagons moved south through the Shenandoah Valley, Confederate rangers and their supporters attacked a wagon train here on May 23. Hunter then ordered the houses of civilians suspected of involvement burned and threatened to reduce the town to ashes if another attack occurred. Three houses were burned the next day, including the Methodist parsonage after an abandoned wagon was found in front of it, and Widow Mary Wilson's movable property was burned outside her rented house because she had fed dinner to Confederate sympathizers. On May 29, Confederate Col. Harry Gilmor's cavalry attacked another wagon train here, killing three, wounding nine, capturing six officers and thirty-five men, and burning many wagons. When Gilmor learned of Hunter's threat, he wrote that he would kill his prisoners if Hunter followed through. The next morning, Confederate Col. John Singleton Mosby's cavalrymen struck another wagon train's rear guard south of town, killing two and capturing five. Incensed, Hunter ordered Maj. Joseph K. Stearns, 1st New York (Lincoln) Cavalry, to burn the town. On June 1, residents scrambled to save their possessions, but town leaders persuaded Stearns that they were unconnected to the attackers and had nursed wounded Federals. After they showed him Gilmor's threat to execute the prisoners, Stearns decided to disobey Hunter's order if the townspeople pledged allegiance to the Union, and the residents came and took the oath.

Photo: Devry Becker Jones

Stephens City, Virginia · USA