Appalachian History Series
Introduction
In the first days of October 1864 Union cavalry rode into the steep valleys around Saltville, Virginia. Their objective was simple in design and daunting in practice. Destroy the Confederacy’s most important source of salt. The fight that followed became one of the best documented clashes in Appalachia during the war. What happened afterward made Saltville a byword for racial violence in the conflict.
Why Saltville Mattered
Salt cured meat for soldiers, civilians, and draft animals. The works at Saltville produced on an industrial scale. Confederate commanders defended the valley with earthworks along the heights and called in mounted brigades and home guards from across the region. Union planners knew that a successful raid could cripple Confederate supply in the Upper South.
Burbridge’s Raid into Southwest Virginia
In late September Brig. Gen. Stephen G. Burbridge led a mixed mounted column from Kentucky toward the Clinch Mountains. Among his men were two new regiments raised at Camp Nelson. The 5th and 6th United States Colored Cavalry represented the growing use of Black troops in the western theater and would play a central role in the fighting at Saltville. The National Park Service summarizes the campaign and its aftermath, including the service of these regiments and the later memorial to men killed after the battle.
The Fight on October 2, 1864
The ground favored the defenders. Union troopers had to climb a mountainside under fire to reach log and stone rifle pits. Col. James S. Brisbin, reporting on the 5th U. S. Colored Cavalry’s role, wrote that four hundred Black soldiers went into action and that “such of the colored soldiers as fell into the hands of the enemy during the battle were brutally murdered.” He praised their charge as a “desperate struggle” that broke through works before nightfall forced a pullback.
Confederate officers offered their own account. Col. George G. Dibrell credited the arrival of additional Confederate commands with saving the works and claimed his brigade alone fought “about 2,500 Yankees and negroes,” killing large numbers before retiring to stronger positions.
Casualties at Saltville
Within two days Surgeon James G. Hatchitt compiled a return of killed, wounded, and missing. His table listed 54 killed, 190 wounded, and 104 missing for the division. For the 5th U. S. Colored Cavalry alone he recorded 22 killed, 37 wounded, and 53 missing. These near-contemporary figures remain a baseline for historians.
“The Wounded Were in Peril”
What turned a hard mountain battle into a moral crisis were actions after the firing slackened. Surgeon William H. Gardner reported that on the morning of October 3 armed men entered a Union field hospital and shot five wounded Black soldiers. He further testified that on the night of October 7 at Emory and Henry College Hospital men shot two more wounded Black prisoners in their beds. On October 8 assailants overpowered the hospital guard and murdered Lt. E. C. Smith of the 13th Kentucky as he lay wounded. Gardner praised the Confederate medical staff for risking themselves to halt further killings.
Brisbin’s report, written the same month, likewise asserted that captured Black soldiers had been murdered during the fighting. Taken together these primary sources created the earliest federal record of a massacre tied to the battle.
How Many Were Killed After the Battle
Contemporary witnesses could not agree on a final count. Modern summaries often cite “around fifty” wounded Black prisoners murdered after the action, a figure that circulated in veteran testimony and later syntheses. The Virginia Center for Civil War Studies uses that same cautious phrasing in its Saltville overview. A National Park Service marker connected to Camp Nelson honors 46 soldiers who were massacred afterward, an estimate that reflects ongoing debate over identities and locations.
Who Were the 5th and 6th U. S. Colored Cavalry
Both regiments were organized at Camp Nelson in 1864 from freedom seekers and free Black Kentuckians. At Saltville the 5th suffered heavy losses and bore the brunt of the post-battle killings. Their conduct under fire drew respect even from skeptical white officers in the column, a point emphasized by Brisbin’s report and repeated in later battlefield interpretations by preservation groups.
Aftermath and Accountability
Burbridge’s raid failed to destroy the saltworks. In December 1864 a second expedition under Maj. Gen. George Stoneman returned, defeated the garrison, and finally wrecked the facilities that had supplied the Confederate heartland.
The murders of wounded prisoners became part of a wider wartime and postwar reckoning. Testimony about killings at Emory and Henry surfaced during the 1865 military trial of the guerrilla leader Champ Ferguson in Nashville. The multi-volume transcript preserves sworn statements that linked irregular forces to crimes committed in the region in the days after the battle.
Why Saltville Still Matters
Saltville sits at the intersection of Appalachian terrain, wartime industry, and the history of Black military service. It shows how geography could turn an assault into a grueling climb. It shows how new U. S. Colored Troops units fought with discipline and courage in one of their first major actions. And it forces us to confront violence inflicted on wounded men because of their race. Local markers, preserved earthworks, and driving tours help visitors read that landscape today while scholars continue to refine casualty lists and identities of the murdered.
Sources and Further Reading
Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Ser. I, Vol. 39, Pt. 1. Reprinted extracts:
Report of Col. James S. Brisbin, 5th U. S. Colored Cavalry. Report of Surg. William H. Gardner, 30th Kentucky, on shootings of wounded prisoners. Return of Surg. James G. Hatchitt, killed-wounded-missing. Excerpt of Col. George G. Dibrell’s Confederate report. American Battlefield Trust classroom handouts. American Battlefield Trust
Champ Ferguson military trial transcript, Nashville 1865. Western Kentucky University TopScholar, Books A and I–V, Conclusion. WKU TopScholar
National Park Service, Camp Nelson National Monument. “Battle of Saltville and Massacre.” Context on USCT and post-battle memorialization. National Park Service
Virginia Tech, Virginia Center for Civil War Studies. “Saltville” driving-tour page, concise summary and aftermath. Virginia Center for Civil War Studies
American Battlefield Trust. “Saltville — Facts and Summary” and battle map. Useful overview and preserved-land context. American Battlefield Trust+1
Thomas D. Mays, The Price of Freedom: The Battle of Saltville and the Massacre of the Fifth United States Colored Cavalry and M.A. thesis, Virginia Tech. Scholarly treatment focused entirely on Saltville. VTechWorks