Battle of Marion

Virginia

Outnumbered nearly six to one at Marion, a Confederate general held his ground for thirty-six hours, then vanished in the dark.

historicalmilitary

In the middle of December 1864, about five thousand seven hundred Union soldiers came east out of Tennessee under Major General George Stoneman. Waiting for them near Marion, in southwestern Virginia, was John C. Breckinridge with roughly a thousand men. The fighting started on the seventeenth and went nowhere. Breckinridge held the better ground, and for about thirty-six hours neither side could move the other. Then Union brigades began appearing where they should not have been. One sat six miles behind the Confederate line. Another took position at the edge of the battlefield without ever firing a shot. Breckinridge was nearly surrounded and running out of ammunition. So he took his men out quietly during the night, slipped south, then turned east. By the time that was clear, the road to the salt works at Saltville was open. Stoneman took it, beat a small militia there, and set about wrecking the mine.

This is the first of 2 parts. The rest runs about 2 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.

What this was written from
After realizing that his force was nearly surrounded and low on ammunition, Breckinridge stealthily withdrew his troops during the night, escaping to the south before heading east.

Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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