Qualla: Battle of Cove Mountain

Battle of Cove Mountain: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. On the morning of May 10, 1864, a Union private from Company H of the 14th Pennsylvania Cavalry climbed a tree at the edge of a Wythe County, Virginia, cove and counted Confederates. Below him, Brigadier General William W. Averell's 2,000-man division was preparing to charge the narrow gap that led through to Wytheville and its lead mines. What the private saw — Confederate cavalry massing on both sides of the gap, reinforcements still arriving — was enough to stop the charge before it began. It was also enough, eventually, to win Ulysses S. Grant the larger campaign by accident. The Battle of Cove Mountain is the smaller battle that made the bigger one possible.

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Image: American Battlefield Protection Program | Public domain

Battle of Cove Mountain: Grant's Plan

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mathew Brady (died 1896), Public domain. When Ulysses S. Grant took command of all Union forces in March 1864, his Virginia strategy was simple in concept and brutally complicated in execution: hit Robert E. Lee from every direction at once. One of those directions was the southwestern flank, where the Virginia and Tenn...

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Image: Mathew Brady (died 1896) | Public domain

Battle of Cove Mountain: A Change of Plans

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gen._John_Morgan.jpg: George Edward Perine (1837–85)[1] derivative work: Jappalang (talk), Public domain. Averell learned from deserters and prisoners that 4,500 Confederate troops — under John Hunt Morgan and William E. "Grumble" Jones — were waiting for him at Saltville. They knew his target. They knew his strength. They were ready. Rather than ride into a trap, Averell changed his...

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Image: Gen._John_Morgan.jpg: George Edward Perine (1837–85)[1] derivative work: Jappalang (talk) | Public domain

Battle of Cove Mountain: The Gap at Crockett's Cove

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit IxieVerns, CC BY-SA 4.0. The road through Crockett's Cove was steep, narrow, and rugged — longer than the direct route to Wytheville but harder to defend, and Averell hoped Morgan wouldn't expect it. The Confederates expected it. Schoonmaker's 14th Pennsylvania and the 1st West Virginia opened the fight ...

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Image: IxieVerns | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Cove Mountain: A Cavalry Withdrawal

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit TwoScarsUp, CC BY-SA 4.0. Averell was grazed on the forehead by a bullet early in the fight — a minor wound that bled enough to look serious. Colonel William H. Powell divided the 2nd West Virginia Cavalry into platoons and walked them backward through Confederate fire with what Averell later described as...

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Image: TwoScarsUp | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Cove Mountain: The Battle That Made the Other Battle

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit TwoScarsUp, CC BY-SA 4.0. Because Morgan and Jones spent May 10 chasing Averell up a Wythe County mountain, they could not get to Cloyd's Mountain in time to help Albert Jenkins defend the New River railroad bridge. Crook overwhelmed Jenkins with 6,000 men, won the field at the cost of Jenkins' life, and ...

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Image: TwoScarsUp | CC BY-SA 4.0