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On behalf of the Virginia Department of Transportation, the Louis Berger Group, Inc. (Berger) completed an on-site assessment of the Hanging Rock Battlefield in the Shenandoah Valley. Using historical maps, battlefield maps, aerial photographs, and written accounts, Berger determined that the battlefield is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places for its significance within the context of local history.
The Civil War skirmish at Hanging Rock, near Salem, Virginia, occurred in June 1864 in the course of a campaign undertaken by forces under the direction of Union General David Hunter. Hunter's March originated in Union Commander Ulysses S. Grant's outline for the campaign of 1864. Hunter was to advance eastward from southern West Virginia toward Richmond.
The movements of Hunter from the east were intended in part to deprive Confederate General Robert E. Lee's troops of the supplies he had been receiving from those parts of the state. Lee, learning of Hunter's progress, detached an infantry division to Lynchburg, reinforced by three infantry divisions and five brigades of cavalry. In the lead for the Confederate cavalry was the brigade of General John McCausland. Hunter, erroneously thinking he was outnumbered two to one, retreated via Buford Gap. He was unaware of the shadowing presence of the northeast of McCausland and the other Rebel cavalry. Hunter's March led down the present-day course of highways US 460 and Route 311.
The skirmish at Hanging Rock was initiated by an advanced element of McCausland's cavalry. Hanging Rock is the lowest of the gaps in the Allegheny mountains in the area, where Mason Creek passes between Fort Lewis Mountain and Brushy Mountain. McCausland's scouts sighted the Union wagon train moving northward on the New Castle Road (present day Route 311), and Confederate troops attacked as the Union troops scattered. The skirmish lasted about 45 minutes and damaged about one-third of Hunter's artillery firepower. The raid, however, did not succeed in slowing the Union advance sufficiently to enable a larger Confederate attack by General Jubal Early.
The Hanging Rock Battlefield site recently opened to the public, and maintains a park and a walking, biking and birding trail.
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