Throughout 1864, Federal raids against Confederate infrastructure in East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia sought to destroy iron and lead mines, salt works, and railroads. The Virginia & Tennessee Railroad, the Confederate lifeline to the Deep South, and the salt and lead mines at Saltville and Austinville were prized Union targets, and small towns like Marion along the raiders' route often paid a price. The engagement at Marion was fought on December 17 and 18, 1864, when for two days east of town fewer than 1,000 Confederates under Gen. John C. Breckenridge, former Vice President of the United States, held off 4,200 cavalrymen under U.S. Gen. George Stoneman. The hardest fighting occurred near the covered bridge near the Allen home. With ammunition supplies depleted and under cover of darkness, the Confederates left the battlefield and crossed the mountains toward Rye Valley by the only route not blocked by Union troops. Fearing Union soldiers would burn the courthouse when they entered town, Clerk of Court William C. Sexton tried to save the county records by moving them to a safe location, but Union cavalrymen set his wagon on fire. Twenty-four-year-old resident Katherine Killinger retrieved the records and hid them in nearby bushes until they could be safely returned to the courthouse. The soldiers also repeatedly set fire to the covered bridge, and each time nine-year-old Susan Allen put out the fire with water from the river below.