CHAPTER XXXI.
CLOSING EVENTS IN SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA AND THE VALLEY.
VERY serious damage was inflicted on the Confederates in Virginia in the last of December, 1864, by the raid, or expedition, of Gen. George Stoneman, of the Federal army, from east Tennessee into southwest Virginia, mainly for the purpose of destroying the salt works at Saltville, from which not only the State of Virginia and the Confederate armies, but also adjacent States of the Confederacy, drew their supplies of salt; the lead mines and works on New river, in Wythe county, from which the Confederacy obtained the larger proportion of its supply of lead for its ordnance department, and the numerous niter works in operation in that part of Virginia. The further object of this expedition was to drive away the Confederate cavalry that was wintering in east Tennessee and Virginia, not far from the Virginia line, and at the same time to damage, as much as possible, the Virginia & East Tennessee railroad, extending from Lynchburg to Bristol, from which large supplies of food and forage were sent to the army of Northern Virginia.
Leaving Knoxville, December 10, 1864, General Gillem's command united with Stoneman's, which had advanced from Cumberland gap, near Bean's Station, east Tennessee, on the 12th, and had a skirmish with the outposts of Gen. Basil Duke near Rogersville; then an action with his advance at Kingsport, Tenn., on the 13th, defeating Duke and driving his command toward Bristol, near which place, at Papertown, on the 14th, Stoneman attacked Vaughn's Tennessee brigade, of the Confederate army, which was guarding the railroad and the main turnpike road leading into the southwestern part of the Great valley of Virginia, and forced him back toward Abingdon. Another skirmish took place on the 15th near that place, and another near Glade Spring, as Vaughn, in falling back, resisted the advance of the Federal raid.
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