Battle of Cove Mountain
Virginia
Wytheville's defenders had a cannon and powder but no ammunition, so a blacksmith chopped up horseshoes to fire instead.
In May of eighteen sixty-four, the town of Wytheville, Virginia, had one old six-pounder cannon and some powder. What it did not have was anything to shoot. So a blacksmith cut up horseshoes and scraps of iron to serve as canister shot. Union cavalry were coming for the lead mine just south of town, the source of much of the lead the Confederacy turned into bullets. The townspeople still remembered a raid that had burned Wytheville the year before. Confederate general John Hunt Morgan reached the town ahead of his own troops and sent whoever was already there north to hold a narrow gap at Cove Mountain, the only way through for the approaching Union horsemen. When the fighting came, Morgan handled that improvised cannon himself, hidden in brush in the road. The National Park Service calls the result indecisive. The lead mine was never touched.
This is the first of 3 parts. The rest runs about 3 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.
The town had an old 6-pounder cannon and some powder, but no ammunition. A blacksmith cut up horseshoes and other pieces of iron that could be used as canister.
Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Nearby, on the same roads
- Wytheville Raid 4.3 mi About a hundred and twenty townspeople with single-shot muskets turned Wytheville's main street into what one Union soldier called an avenue of death.
- Seven Sisters (conservation area) 4.8 mi The Interstate 77 tunnel under this mountain corner doubles as a bridge for animals walking over the top of the traffic.
- American Airlines Flight 009 13.8 mi Searchers spotted the wreck from the air, saw no one moving, and told the families everyone had died. Five people were still alive on the mountain.
- Dalton Theatre Building 16.4 mi A small Virginia town once had the biggest stage on the whole rail line from Richmond to Tennessee.
- Claytor Lake 27.3 mi Three Virginia towns passed the hat and bought the land for a state park, then gave it away.
- Battle of Marion 27.5 mi Outnumbered nearly six to one at Marion, a Confederate general held his ground for thirty-six hours, then vanished in the dark.