The Saltville Battlefields Historic District preserves the central landscape of the First and Second Battles of Saltville, fought in 1864 around the town’s strategically crucial salt works in southwestern Virginia. Union and Confederate forces battled on October 2 and December 20 for control of the furnaces and well fields that made Saltville one of the Confederacy’s most important sources of salt. The district encompasses a broad wartime setting that includes industrial sites, defensive positions, battlefield areas, a field hospital area, houses, and a cemetery. Its significance lies in preserving not only the battlefields but also the industrial, military, and medical environments connected with the fighting.