Jordan's Point

Jordan's Point. "A Sharp Fight on the Banks of the River". , "A column of black smoke rolled heavenward" in front of you on the morning of Saturday, June 11, 1864, as Confederate Gen. John McCausland and some 1,500 gray-clad soldiers lined the riverbank around you. With 18,000 Union troops under Gen. David Hunter approaching, the southerners had retreated over the covered bridge that crossed the North River (now the Maury River) and set the span ablaze., By mid-morning, Hunter's men occupied the hillside across the river from you. Hunter's infantry attempted to cross the river here and a mile upstream at Leyburn's Ford, while his cavalry moved several miles upstream and to the west. The southern defenders stretched up the bluff behind you, with cannon positioned on the VMI parade ground., The two sides exchanged rifle and artillery fire across the water, the Union cannon shells "screaming, shrieking, bursting and whizzing" before they crashed into town and the VMI campus. "Shells fell everywhere," recalled one resident, smashing through buildings and sowing panic and fear. "I never before had an idea of the terror caused by the shelling of a town," wrote 16-year-old Fannie Wilson., By mid-afternoon, McCausland ordered a withdrawal, and the Confederates retreated to Buchanan and then Lynchburg. The Federals entered town behind them, with Col. (and future President) Rutherford B. Hayes's brigade singing "John Brown's Body" as they marched up Main Street. The following day, Hunter ordered the Institute and the home of former Virginia Governor John Letcher burned. Hunter departed Lexington for Lynchburg on June 14.,

"Our artillery… sent a few shell[s] through some of the church steeples and the dome of the Military Institute… Our skirmish line kept up a sharp fight on the banks of the river." , , Union Capt. Russell Hastings