The Roanoke CWRT Presents: "From the Seven Hills of Lynchburg to Salem’s Hanging Rock"

From the Seven Hills of Lynchburg to Salem’s Hanging Rock: Roanoke Civil War Round Table Presents Hunter’s Lynchburg Campaign

In June 1864, the Civil War came to Salem, Virginia. Union troops under Maj. Gen. David Hunter—low on supplies, especially ammunition—were desperately trying to escape into the mountains of West Virginia after a failed attack on Lynchburg. Confederates under the overall command of Lt. General Jubal Early raced to cut off and destroy the invaders. Elements of the two forces clashed at a place near Salem called Hanging Rock. There, a narrow passage flanked by steep bluffs funneled the retreating federals into a logjam of men, wagons, and cannon, ripe for a daring cavalry charge. The resulting June 21 clash produced the Roanoke area’s only Civil War battle, memorialized to this day with monuments and markers.

The Battle of Hanging Rock, however, was only an epilogue to a far greater story involving our neighbor to the North, Lynchburg, known then and now as the City of Seven Hills. Those hills played a role in a drama that had vital consequences for the warring parties and could well have altered the ultimate outcome of the Civil War.

While easily overlooked amidst the scenes of far larger battles, in mid-1864 the critical significance of Lynchburg in the Civil War could not be denied. The city was a vital rail link between Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia facing Ulysses S. Grant’s massive force around Richmond-Petersburg and the resource rich Shenandoah Valley. Three railroads went through Lynchburg. The city also was the depot for commissary and quartermaster stores gathered in the region. Here too were collected many of the scant medical supplies held by the Confederacy. The town also was a major hospital center, whose thousands of solder-patients had turned Lynchburg into one of Virginia’s largest population centers. It had to be held.

Grant sent an army under David Hunter to capture this vital city. Lee could not afford to surrender Lynchburg without a fight and rushed Early and reinforcements to the beleaguered metropolis. The stage was set for the Battle of Lynchburg, which took place on June 17-18, 1864. Over 30,000 men struggled for control of the city. How the outnumbered Early first maneuvered, tricked, and fought Hunter into defeat, and then compelled him to become Salem and Roanoke’s most unwelcome tourist is a dramatic story well worth telling.

To present this story, on Tuesday, September 9, the Roanoke Civil War Round Table—winner of a 2024 Kegley Award for Heritage Education [see https://roanokepreservation.org/preservation-awards/]—will host Keith A. Harvey.

Keith is currently a Museum Experience Leader for the Lynchburg Museum System and an author and historian from Campbell County, Virginia. A 2022 graduate of the Randolph College Museum and Heritage Studies program, which provides internships at the Maier Museum of Art, Stafford Museum and Cultural Center, and the Lynchburg Museum, he has worked previously for the National Park Service and the American Civil War Museum-Appomattox. Keith also is Treasurer, Appomattox-Petersburg Preservation Society.

Date, Time & Location: Tuesday, September 9 (7:00 pm), Chapel of the Residents’ Center at Friendship, 397 Hershberger Road, Roanoke, VA, 24012. Admission $5.00 for Non-Round Table Members (and becoming a Round Table member is welcome).

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