Davie County in the Civil War

Davie County in the Civil War. Stoneman in Mocksville. (Preface): , On March 24, 1865, Union Gen. George Stoneman led 6,000 cavalrymen from Tennessee into southwestern Virginia and western North Carolina to disrupt the Confederate supply line by destroying sections of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, the North Carolina Railroad, and the Piedmont Railroad. He struck at Boone on March 28, headed into Virginia on April 2, and returned to North Carolina a week later. Stoneman's Raid ended at Asheville on April 26, the day that Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Union Gen. William T. Sherman near Durham. , ---- , On April 11, 1865, two brigades of Union Gen. George Stoneman's force, about 3,000 men, crossed the Yadkin River at Shallow Ford en route to Salisbury to free Federal captives in the Confederate prison camp there. A Home Guard of 21 men including fifteen-year-old E. L. Gaither assembled at Elisha Creek Hill just north of Mocksville, exchanged a few shots with the Federals, and then scattered. , , Stoneman's men burned the McNeely cotton factory half a mile west, it had not operated since the 1840s. Some threw county records into the street. A deed recorded in 1872 asserted that the original "was destroyed by Stoneman's men." The courthouse stood in the center of the square facing south and some of the troops used the weathervane for target practice. It was taken for repair to a tin shop in the March House southeast of here, but a later fire destroyed both the weathervane and the house. , , Townspeople here were forced to feed the soldiers and endure looting. Raiders broke into Baxton Bailey's store, ruined his goods, and stole four horses. His wife was held at gunpoint in the Lee House on Carter Street when she resisted demands for money; a bed pillow was set on fire, but the soldiers left without harming her. The fire was quickly extinguished. The only remaining artifact, a charred wallboard, is now on display at the library. , , Stoneman bivouacked south of town in Ephesus, taking five hostages, who escaped. He hastened to Salisbury to find the prisoners had been moved to Wilmington in February.