The Battle of Piedmont and Hunter’s Raid on Staunton: The 1864 Shenandoah Campaign

In 1864, General Grant tasked General David Hunter with raiding the breadbasket of the Shenandoah Valley and destroying the Confederate factories and supply lines. General Lee dispatched General William E. Grumble Jones, and the forces collided up the fertile fields of eastern Augusta County. It was a bloody day–the Battle of Piedmont saw more men killed and wounded than in any of Stonewall Jackson’s 1862 Valley encounters. Sweeping on to victory, Federal forces then occupied Staunton and laid waste to the railroad and Confederate workshops. Join Civil War historian Scott C. Patchan as he chronicles the campaign and sheds light on its place in the war.