Stoneman's Headquarters

— Confederate Lifeline —

Early in April 1865, Union Gen. George Stoneman cavalry moved from Tennessee into Virginia and then south through Danbury to destroy railroad track, warehouses, and supplies that supported Gen. Robert E. Lee Army of Northern Virginia. Stoneman led 4,000-5,000 men as a long train of supply and ambulance wagons, artillery pieces and caissons, and pack mules. He expected to encounter resistance in Stokes County but found none. While in Danbury on April 9-10, Stoneman established his headquarters here at Moody Tavern. The second floor of the structure offered a commanding view of the area from its east-and west-facing rooms, allowing Stoneman and his staff to observe his camp and any approaching enemy forces.



During Stoneman occupation of the county, his men put the nearby Moratock Iron Works out of commission. The Confederacy relied on this and similar charcoal-fired furnaces to furnish iron for the foundries that produced cannons, swords, and rifles.



Stoneman soon received word of Lee surrender in Virginia at Appomattox Court House on April 9. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrender near Durham, North Carolina, on April 23 effectively ended the war, and Stoneman led his men back to Tennessee.



(sidebar)

Gen. George Stoneman was born in Lakewood, N.Y., on August 8, 1822. He graduated in 1846 from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where his roommate his junior year was Thomas J. Jackson, later nicknamed Stonewall. After graduation, Stoneman served in the Mexican War and was then assigned to California. He returned there after the Civil War and served as governor, 1883-1887. Later, in ill health, he moved to Buffalo, N.Y., where he died on September 5, 1894.



(captions)

(lower left) McCandless Hotel, ca. 1830. Nathaniel Moody constructed this tavern before 1860 to accommodate visitors to the mineral springs, and Dr. W.W. McCandless bought the Inn in 1870. Moody and John Pepper also built the nearby Moratock Iron Furnace, called "Moody Tunnel Iron Works," in 1843.

(upper right) Gen. George Stoneman - Courtesy Library of Congress

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Show me all markers in:  Danbury, NC  |  Stokes County  |  27016  |  North Carolina  |  United States of America

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