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- Aug 14, 2016
The Virginia and Tennessee Railroad line was well protected against enemy attack. Shielded by mountainous terrain and other natural barriers, and guarded by Confederate troops, its 204-mile track ran from Lynchburg, located along the Blue Ridge foothills in southwestern Virginia, to Bristol, Tenn. Its Achilles' heel, a 700-foot wooden trestle covered by a tin roof, spanned the New River about ninety miles west of Lynchburg.
The destruction of the railroad would deprive the Army of Northern Virginia of much needed war materials from the Deep South. General Robert E. Lee recognized the fact. So did Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. In the spring of 1864, in coordination with his campaign against Richmond, Grant ordered Maj. Gen. George Crook to raid the railroad. "To cut New River bridge and the road ten or twenty miles east from there would be the most important work Crook could do," Grant determined.
On April 29, 1864, Crook set out with 6,155 troops, organized in three infantry brigades and an artillery battery. Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes, a future U.S. president, led the first brigade, which included his 23rd Ohio Infantry. The regiment, 450 strong, included another president-to-be, William McKinley.
Also in the ranks of the 23rd marched Pvt. Alfred West. A Pennsylvania-born farmer, he joined Company B in the summer of 1861. He participated in numerous operations, including the Battle of Antietam in 1862. West probably posed for his carte de visite portrait while on furlough in Ohio in October 1863, about the time his original term of service expired and he reenlisted.
Seven months later, West and his comrades embarked on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad Raid. On May 9, as the armies of the Potomac and of Northern Virginia tore into each other 200 miles east at Spotsylvania, Crook's command collided with a Confederate force one-third their number at Cloyd's Mountain. The ferocious fight that ensued lasted about an hour and ended in a rout of the Confederates. The victorious Union forces quickly captured nearby Dublin Station, a major Confederate supply depot and camp of instruction for recruits. Crook left 688 casualties strewn about the vicinity of Cloyd's Mountain, including 125 men from the 23rd.
West was one of the unlucky ones. Authorities reported him as wounded in action, but did not record the nature of his injury. He lay on the battlefield with other stricken soldiers until the evening of May 9, when Union details loaded him and other movable wounded into ambulances and slowly made their way to Dublin Station. Another 200 men, deemed seriously injured, were left behind in care of a surgeon.
The next day, May 10, Crook ordered Dublin Station burned to the ground. Medical personnel moved Pvt. West a short distance to Newbern, where he and other wounded fell into enemy hands. Meanwhile, Crook and his men advanced on the New River Bridge, tearing up tracks along the way. They soon arrived and captured their objective after a long artillery duel and short infantry fight.
Union soldiers set the trestle afire. The dry wooden structure became engulfed in flames and collapsed in a blaze into the New River. Left standing was undamaged metal piers. Efforts to knock them down with artillery failed, the cannon shot bouncing harmlessly off the metal with a piercing ring. Out of options (they failed to bring explosives on the expedition) and low on supplies, Crook and his command left for the 150-mile return march to their home base.
They arrived safely on May 19, the day after West died of his wound as a prisoner of war at age twenty-five. He never saw the New River Bridge.
Crook's raid went unnoticed by the pubic and the press, overshadowed by momentous battles in eastern Virginia. Confederates rebuilt the bridge with fire-resistant green timber, and supplies soon rolled in from the Deep South to Lee's army.
The results of the raid satisfied Lt. Gen. Grant, who noted that it started on time and accomplished its objectives.
Carte de visite by an unidentified photographer. Ronald S. Coddington, Editor and Publisher, Military Images magazine.
The destruction of the railroad would deprive the Army of Northern Virginia of much needed war materials from the Deep South. General Robert E. Lee recognized the fact. So did Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. In the spring of 1864, in coordination with his campaign against Richmond, Grant ordered Maj. Gen. George Crook to raid the railroad. "To cut New River bridge and the road ten or twenty miles east from there would be the most important work Crook could do," Grant determined.
On April 29, 1864, Crook set out with 6,155 troops, organized in three infantry brigades and an artillery battery. Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes, a future U.S. president, led the first brigade, which included his 23rd Ohio Infantry. The regiment, 450 strong, included another president-to-be, William McKinley.
Also in the ranks of the 23rd marched Pvt. Alfred West. A Pennsylvania-born farmer, he joined Company B in the summer of 1861. He participated in numerous operations, including the Battle of Antietam in 1862. West probably posed for his carte de visite portrait while on furlough in Ohio in October 1863, about the time his original term of service expired and he reenlisted.
Seven months later, West and his comrades embarked on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad Raid. On May 9, as the armies of the Potomac and of Northern Virginia tore into each other 200 miles east at Spotsylvania, Crook's command collided with a Confederate force one-third their number at Cloyd's Mountain. The ferocious fight that ensued lasted about an hour and ended in a rout of the Confederates. The victorious Union forces quickly captured nearby Dublin Station, a major Confederate supply depot and camp of instruction for recruits. Crook left 688 casualties strewn about the vicinity of Cloyd's Mountain, including 125 men from the 23rd.
West was one of the unlucky ones. Authorities reported him as wounded in action, but did not record the nature of his injury. He lay on the battlefield with other stricken soldiers until the evening of May 9, when Union details loaded him and other movable wounded into ambulances and slowly made their way to Dublin Station. Another 200 men, deemed seriously injured, were left behind in care of a surgeon.
The next day, May 10, Crook ordered Dublin Station burned to the ground. Medical personnel moved Pvt. West a short distance to Newbern, where he and other wounded fell into enemy hands. Meanwhile, Crook and his men advanced on the New River Bridge, tearing up tracks along the way. They soon arrived and captured their objective after a long artillery duel and short infantry fight.
Union soldiers set the trestle afire. The dry wooden structure became engulfed in flames and collapsed in a blaze into the New River. Left standing was undamaged metal piers. Efforts to knock them down with artillery failed, the cannon shot bouncing harmlessly off the metal with a piercing ring. Out of options (they failed to bring explosives on the expedition) and low on supplies, Crook and his command left for the 150-mile return march to their home base.
They arrived safely on May 19, the day after West died of his wound as a prisoner of war at age twenty-five. He never saw the New River Bridge.
Crook's raid went unnoticed by the pubic and the press, overshadowed by momentous battles in eastern Virginia. Confederates rebuilt the bridge with fire-resistant green timber, and supplies soon rolled in from the Deep South to Lee's army.
The results of the raid satisfied Lt. Gen. Grant, who noted that it started on time and accomplished its objectives.
Carte de visite by an unidentified photographer. Ronald S. Coddington, Editor and Publisher, Military Images magazine.
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