A Close Encounter
— Stoneman's Raid —
(Preface):On March 24, 1865, Union Gen. George Stoneman led 6,000 cavalrymen from Tennessee into southwestern Virginia and western North Carolina to disrupt the Confederate supply line by destroying sections of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, the North Carolina Railroad, and the Piedmont Railroad. He struck at Boone on March 28, headed into Virginia on April 2, and returned to North Carolina a week later. Stoneman's Raid ended at Asheville on April 26, the day that Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Union Gen. William T. Sherman near Durham.
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Union Gen. George Stoneman's raiders passed through this area along the north bank of the Yadkin River on April 1-2, 1865, on their way north to Virginia. As they rode through Rockford, they stopped here at Mark York's tavern, a Federal-style building constructed about 1830. According to local tradition, York's wife was churning butter in the front yard with her young son, Jasper, at her side. The troopers demanded that she reveal where local residents had hidden animals and valuables when they learned of the raiders' approach. She refused to answer, even after the Federals threatened to take her son away with them, but finally retorted, "And you'll pay the devil." The soldiers gave up and left, and she returned to her churning.
When a Federal officer fell ill near here, he sent a courier to summon Dr. Milton Folger, a Rockford resident, to care for him. Folger's six-year-old daughter Molly later recalled that while her father assembled his kit and prepared to depart, she sat on the Union cavalryman's knee and listened to his description of his own little girl. When the trooper and Folger rode away, the doctor was riding his good horse. When he returned after treating the officer, however, he was astride a broken-down cavalry mount.
Stoneman's raiders continued riding down the north bank of the Yadkin River. They had a brief encounter with Confederate troops at Siloam, about five miles east of here, before turning north toward Virginia.
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(Inset):In 1789, Rockford became the seat of Surry County and flourished as a governmental and trade community on the Yadkin River. After Yadkin County was created from the southern half of Surry in 1850, the court was moved to Dobson three years later, and Rockford entered a period of decline.
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