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Battle of Salyersville 1864

Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.

Key facts

Year1864Wikidata P585 (point in time)
Era19th century (1800–1913)derived from year
LocationUnited StatesNatural Earth (modern borders)
ContinentNorth AmericaNatural Earth
War / conflictAmerican Civil WarWikidata P361
Coordinates37.7447, -83.0808Wikidata P625

About the battle

The Battle of Salyersville, also called Battle of Half Mountain (not to be confused with The Battle of Ivy Mountain, which took place in April 1861) was the largest of the many skirmishes in Magoffin County, Kentucky, during the American Civil War.

In April 1864, Confederate Colonel Ezekiel F. Clay led his regiment of mounted infantry on a raid to Kentucky. He was opposed by the forces of the Sub-District of Eastern Kentucky under Union Colonel George W. Gallup, consisting of the 14th Kentucky Infantry and 39th Kentucky Infantry, and reinforcements under Colonel C. J. True consisting of the 40th Kentucky Infantry and the 11th Michigan Cavalry. On April 13, 1864, the Confederates attacked the Union position at Paintsville, but Colonel Gallup's 750 men held their position. On April 14, Clay and his exhausted troops and horses were trying to rest near the mouths of Puncheon and Little Half Mountain Creeks. Col. Clay didn't think Col. Gallup would pursue him, but that turned out to be a costly misjudgment. Some believe that Gallup was led by a young lade from Puncheon named Liza Whitaker through Ivyton and down Gun Creek to Brushy Fork. Col.

Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Salyersville (revision 1370588151), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.

Location

37.7447, -83.0808 · United States

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Nearby battles

Other battles of the American Civil War

All 498 battles of the American Civil War →

Browse more: battles in United States · North America · 19th century battles

Further reading