Battle of Cloyd's Mountain - Union Forces Destroy Railroad Bridges

Description: On May 9, Crook’s three brigades (6,100 men) on a raid into southwestern Virginia encountered a patchwork Confederate force under Brig.

Gen. Albert Jenkins at Cloyd’s Mountain. Fighting was furious and hand-to-hand. Casualties were heavy for the size of the forces engaged: Union 10%, Confederate 23%. Jenkins was mortally wounded. Crook afterwards joined forces with Averell, who had burned the New River Bridge, and the united column withdrew to Meadow Bluff after destroying several important railroad bridges.

The Battle of Cloyd's Mountain was a Union victory in western Virginia in 1864 that allowed the Union forces to destroy the last railroad connecting Tennessee to Virginia.