Battle of Wytheville
Into the Valley of Death
On July 13, 1863, Union Col. John T. Toland led 872 officers and men of
the 34th Regiment Mounted Ohio Volunteer Infantry from Camp Piatt,
West Virginia, into Southwest Virginia to attack the railroads, telegraphs,
and salt and lead mines essential to the Confederate cause. Five exhausting days later, the raiders arrived near where you are now standing for
their first view of the valley before the Battle of Wytheville.
The day after the march began, Toland fought the first engagement
of the raid at Piney Creek, West Virginia, killing and wounding nine Confederate soldiers. Toland lost two killed and three wounded. On the, same
day, Toland received orders directing him to “move immediately upon the
railroad at Wytheville,
Virginia.” Later, six
miles west of Raleigh
(present-day Beckley),
West Virginia, the regiment dismissed the
wagon train that carried the supplies.
The train, including
unserviceable horses
and men unfit for
combat, returned to
Camp Piatt.
After bivouacking overnight at Jeffersonville (modern-day Tazewell),
Virginia, on July 17, Toland broke camp about 3 a.m. to march to Wytheville
to destroy the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad tracks. He placed thirty-five prisoners of war, several African Americans, and 20 horses captured
at Abb’s Valley in the rear of the column. Toland’s force probably arrived
here about 3 p.m. on July 18.
Marker is at the intersection of South Scenic Highway (U.S. 52) and Old Mountain Road (County Route 621), on the right when traveling south on South Scenic Highway.
Courtesy hmdb.org
