Cloyd's Mountain VA049

supportedunresolved Crook sent a regiment and scouts on the Lewisburg road to deceive the enemy about his route, found at Princeton that McCausland's brigade had left the evening before, 'so little did they expect us on this route', and learned at Shannon's Bridge that the enemy held the mountain. McCausland says orders from Jenkins, then commanding the department, reached him at Dublin on the 7th to postpone his departure, and on the 8th sent him to meet the enemy advancing on Dublin, estimated at 5,000. After the battle, dispatches at Dublin reporting Grant repulsed decided Crook to move to Lewisburg.

Crook's statement of Confederate expectations is his inference. The Dublin dispatches concern his post-battle decision.

disputedunresolved Crook says want of transportation forced him to leave some 200 of his most seriously wounded near the battlefield, that he had no forage for his teams on the return and had to destroy loads, and that his men reached Meadow Bluff barefoot and almost out of provisions. On the Dublin stores the accounts differ: Crook says many public stores fell into his hands there, McCausland that he saved the stores at Dublin, and Pond that Crook destroyed sundry abandoned stores. Pond says a prolonged storm made the roads heavy and rations and forage ran short.

Mostly after-action descriptions of the march, not supply returns for May 9. The Dublin stores accounts are recorded as a difference, not reconciled.

supportedunresolved Crook left the Kanawha to operate against the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad; Pond says Grant directed Crook's column to break the railroad at the New River bridge and, if possible, destroy the Saltville salt works, and calls the bridge the expedition's main object. Crook sent Averell toward Saltville. McCausland says Jenkins ordered him out on the Giles Court-House road to meet the enemy advancing toward Dublin.

The objective is the expedition's; the battle was fought on the way to the bridge.

supportedpost_outcome The frozen and live results are Union victory. Crook says his men carried the works and routed the enemy, taking two guns; Pond says Crook carried the intrenchments at all points; McCausland's May 9 dispatch says 'We were defeated.' McCausland's later report says the expedition accomplished little commensurate with its preparations.

All inspected accounts agree on the tactical result. McCausland's judgment concerns the expedition and is campaign context.

disputedpost_outcome The frozen total is 1,500; the live page gives 1,226 (US 688; CS 538) and describes losses of 10% (Union) and 23% (Confederate). Crook gives his loss as 107 killed, 508 wounded and 28 missing, says he buried over 200 Confederate dead and took 230 prisoners, and estimates their wounded at 800 to 1,000. Pond gives Crook's loss as 600 and 230 unwounded prisoners and two guns; for the whole expedition he gives Crook 109 killed and 513 wounded. McCausland says the enemy lost 600 killed and wounded at Cloyd's; he adds, without placing them at Cloyd's, that the Confederates had taken nearly 200 prisoners from them and that the enemy's loss in all would not fall short of 1,000 men; the list inclosed with his report, covering the battle 'and subsequent operations', prints totals read in OCR as 504 and 538.

Scopes differ: Crook's and McCausland's own-side figures, Pond's expedition totals and the inclosure all overlap the May 10 New River bridge fight or later operations to varying degrees; the compiled Union return (No. 2, read, not selected) is noted by its footnote to include the Jeffersonville and New River bridge losses. The live CS 538 equals the inclosure's '538' aggregate, which covers the battle and subsequent operations, so the live CS figure may carry that wider scope (an observation, not a reconciliation). Original casualty returns were not inspected; preserve totals, categories, cutoffs and differences. No canonical reconciliation or casualty-based opening count; related actions must not be added without resolving population overlap.

disputedunresolved The frozen and live commanders are Brigadier Generals George Crook (US) and Albert Jenkins (CS). Crook sent the Second Brigade to turn the Confederate right, ordered the other two brigades to charge once it was engaged, and was with the First Brigade in the storming. McCausland says Jenkins placed the Forty-fifth Regiment in person and changed the positions of two other units over his objection, ordered the charges, and was wounded; McCausland then assumed command and covered the retreat. Pond names the Confederates as under Generals W. E. Jones and Jenkins, which the inspected reports do not.

Jenkins's command ended with his wound during the battle, so the Confederate retreat was under McCausland. Pond's naming of Jones is not supported by the reports inspected. No listed commander receives automatic credit.

unknownunresolved

No inspected return establishes matched personnel at a common opening boundary. The frozen side-specific numerical strength bounds are blank (missing_numeric_strength). No figure in this pass is adopted as a simultaneous opening force.

disputedunresolved The frozen force text is 'Divisions (total 10,000)' and the battle-level strength field 10000; the side rows are blank and the live page gives zero totals, while its description gives Crook's three brigades as 6,100 men. Crook says his infantry column numbered 6,155 men and was joined by Oley with 400 mounted men; Pond gives about six thousand, and Duval's regiment 450 engaged. Crook estimates the enemy at 4,000 to 7,000, with 500 or 1,000 of Morgan's men met later near Dublin. McCausland says the Confederates fought with three regiments and one battalion of infantry and two batteries against twelve regiments and ten guns, that the enemy advancing on Dublin was estimated at 5,000 when he was ordered out, and that the enemy aggregated 9,000 of all arms while 'we never had 3,000 men in all'; he met Smith with about 500 dismounted men of Morgan's command near Dublin. Pond says daybreak revealed several thousand men under Jones and Jenkins. An inspection report abstracted in Pond's appendix says Smith's brigade entered the campaign with an aggregate effective of 2,100 and fought at Cloyd's Farm.

Figures differ in date, basis and scope: Crook's is his own column on the march; McCausland's 9,000 and under 3,000 cover the whole expedition's operations; the 2,100 is one brigade at the start of the campaign. The frozen 10,000 is not traced to any inspected passage. None is adopted as a matched opening strength; live zeros are not measured absence.

supportedunresolved Crook found the Confederates on a wooded spur about three-quarters of a mile off, commanding the point where the road left the mountain. His brigades charged across a meadow a quarter to half a mile wide, crossed a sunken muddy stream waist deep, and climbed a ridge 'in places ... at an angle of sixty degrees' to breastworks of inverted rails on the crest. Pond describes rail breastworks on a wooded spur, guns sweeping a broad field, and a knee-deep brook at the foot of the slope. McCausland calls the position 'not a good one, but the best we could get', taken on the 8th.

The mountain, meadow and stream predate the action; the Confederate line and rail breastworks were placed on the 8th, so the claim is not tagged inherited. Crook's 'waist deep' and Pond's 'knee-deep' differ. No map verification.