Striking out from Knoxville, Tennessee in late March of 1865, Major General George Stoneman unleashed his cavalry division upon Southern Appalachia intent on "leaving nothing for the Rebellion to stand upon." The raiders wreaked havoc on government stores, civilian property and indispensable infrastructure, dashing all hope for the dying Confederacy's stand on the rugged peaks of the Blue Ridge. They eventually trampled through five southern states, reduced to ashes one of the last major prisons in the south and helped pursue the renegade president. But much more than wanton destruction, their story is one of hardship, redemption and retribution. Taking into account the local folklore of the Raid, this volume traces the column's course as it departed Tennessee, penetrated Southwestern Virginia and stormed the North Carolina Piedmont.

The dramatic story of the cavalrymen tasked with capturing Jefferson Davis, and the terror and plunder that followed. In the spring of 1865, George Stoneman’s cavalry division departed Salisbury, North Carolina, with one objective in mind: returning home. However, after the collapse of the Confederacy, the mounted division was ordered to apprehend the exiled Confederate president Jefferson Davis, even if it meant “follow[ing] him to the ends of the earth.” By May, the raid had transformed into an uphill struggle of frustration, pillage, revenge, terror and wavering loyalty to the flag as the troopers crashed down on the civilian populations that lay in their path with demonical ferocity. Taking into account local folklore and traditions surrounding the raid, historian Beau Blackwell follows the column’s course as it sacks the city of Asheville, canvasses the Palmetto State, plunders Greenville, terrorizes Anderson, and ultimately tramples the soil of Georgia. Includes illustrations

Shallow Ford, the natural rock path across the Yadkin River, served as the gateway for pioneers to the western North Carolina frontier and as a stage for history. The ford was the site of the Battle of Shallow Ford in the Revolutionary War and Stoneman's Raid during the Civil War. The eye of the needle for General Cornwallis in the Race to the Dan, it was also the silent witness to the Great Wagon Road and the trans-Appalachian migration led by local son Daniel Boone. Bypassed for the last hundred years, Shallow Ford faded from view but remains a landmark of another era. Local historian Marcia D. Phillips recounts the history of a time when safe passage across the river provided the way to reach the American future that lay beyond.

Striking out from Knoxville, Tennessee in late March of 1865, Major General George Stoneman unleashed his cavalry division upon Southern Appalachia intent on leaving nothing for the Rebellion to stand upon." The raiders wreaked havoc on government stores, civilian property and indispensable infrastructure, dashing all hope for the dying Confederacy's stand on the rugged peaks of the Blue Ridge. They eventually trampled through five southern states, reduced to ashes one of the last major prisons in the south and helped pursue the renegade president. But much more than wanton destruction, their story is one of hardship, redemption and retribution. Taking into account the local folklore of the Raid, this volume traces the column's course as it departed Tennessee, penetrated Southwestern Virginia and stormed the North Carolina Piedmont."