History isn't always written by the winners. Sometimes, it’s buried by the people who were there to see it happen. If you flip through a standard high school history textbook, you’ll find plenty of pages on Gettysburg or Antietam, but you’ll almost never see a mention of the Saltville Massacre. It’s one of the darkest, most uncomfortable moments of the American Civil War. Honestly, it's a story that makes people want to look away because it strips the "gallantry" right off the battlefield.
In October 1864, in the rugged mountains of Southwest Virginia, something broke. The rules of war—which were already pretty thin back then—completely dissolved. We aren't just talking about a messy battle. We are talking about the systematic execution of wounded soldiers, specifically the black troopers of the 5th United States Colored Cavalry (USCC).
The Saltville Massacre wasn't just a "lost" event; it was a deliberate erasure. For decades, official reports from Confederate commanders tried to pretend it didn't happen, or that it was just "unfortunate" collateral damage. But the survivor accounts tell a much grimmer story.
Why the Battle of Saltville Went So Wrong
Salt was everything. You’ve got to remember that back in 1864, there was no refrigeration. If an army couldn't salt its meat, that army starved. The salt works in Saltville, Virginia, were the "salt works of the Confederacy," providing roughly two-thirds of the salt for the entire South. Naturally, the Union wanted to burn it to the ground.
Union Brigadier General Stephen G. Burbridge led a raid to destroy these facilities. His force was a mix of units, but the most notable was the 5th USCC. These were men who had been enslaved just months or years prior. Now, they were wearing Union blue and carrying carbines. They fought like demons. Even Confederate soldiers later admitted that the "Negro troops" fought with a ferocity that surprised them.
The battle itself was a Union failure. Burbridge was a controversial figure—often called the "Butcher of Kentucky"—and his tactical decisions at Saltville were, frankly, terrible. He sent his men up steep, rugged hills against well-entrenched Confederates. By the time the sun went down on October 2, 1864, the Union was in full retreat. They left their wounded behind.
That’s when the "battle" turned into the Saltville Massacre.
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The Morning of the Execution
Imagine being a wounded soldier lying on a cold Virginia hillside. You’re bleeding, you’re exhausted, and you’re waiting for the medics to find you. But instead of help, you hear the sound of pistol shots getting closer.
On the morning of October 3, Confederate soldiers—largely led by a man named Ferguson and his band of guerrillas—roamed the battlefield. They weren't looking for survivors to help. They were looking for the black soldiers.
It was a systematic slaughter.
Confederate Captain Orange Sells of the 12th Ohio Cavalry, who was himself wounded and captured, later testified to the horrors. He watched as Confederate soldiers moved from man to man. If the soldier was white, they might take his boots or his watch. If the soldier was black, they shot him in the head.
One of the most chilling accounts comes from a Confederate soldier, Harry Shocker, who watched his comrades murder the wounded. He described men begging for mercy only to be met with a bullet or a bayonet. It wasn't just the guerrillas, either. While some regular Confederate officers tried to stop it, many just stood by and let it happen. Some even joined in.
General Robert E. Lee actually heard about this. He was reportedly disgusted and ordered an investigation, but in the chaos of the war's final months, nothing really came of it. The commander on the ground, General Breckinridge, tried to distance himself from the mess, but the blood was already on the soil.
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Why Do We Call it the Lost Massacre?
It’s "lost" because for a long time, historians didn't want to touch it. During the era of the "Lost Cause" myth—the idea that the South fought a noble, gentlemanly war—stories of war crimes like the Saltville Massacre were scrubbed. It didn't fit the narrative of the chivalrous Southern officer.
Even the Union was quiet about it. Burbridge had failed his mission and lost a huge chunk of his men. Reporting a massacre of his own troops would only highlight his incompetence. So, the 5th USCC's sacrifice was essentially filed away in the "miscellaneous" folders of the National Archives.
The Numbers They Tried to Hide
How many died? We don't actually know the exact number. That’s the most haunting part. Official reports were doctored.
- Some estimates say 46 soldiers were murdered after the battle.
- Other historians, looking at hospital records and missing-person rolls, suggest the number could be well over 100.
- The bodies were often tossed into sinkholes or shallow trenches, making a modern forensic count nearly impossible.
The Emory and Henry Hospital Murders
If the battlefield was bad, the hospital was worse. Some of the wounded had been taken to a makeshift hospital at Emory and Henry College nearby.
Confederate guerrillas, led by the notorious Champ Ferguson, forced their way into the hospital. They walked past the guards. They found the ward where the Union wounded were being kept. Ferguson reportedly walked up to a white Union officer, Lieutenant Elza Smith, and shot him dead in his bed because Smith had been a personal enemy back in Tennessee. Then, his men turned their guns on the wounded black soldiers lying in the beds next to him.
This wasn't heat-of-the-moment combat. This was cold, calculated murder in a place of healing.
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Ferguson was one of the few men actually executed for war crimes after the Civil War. While his hanging in 1865 was technically for a long list of murders, the events at Saltville and the hospital at Emory and Henry were the primary evidence against him. He died a villain, but many of the other men who pulled triggers that morning went home to their farms and lived out their lives in peace.
The Significance Today
We have to talk about Saltville because it changes the way we view the end of the Civil War. By 1864, the war had become "total war." The veneer of "civilized" conflict was gone.
The Saltville Massacre serves as a brutal reminder of the specific risks black soldiers took. For a white Union soldier, surrender meant a miserable stay in a prison camp like Andersonville. For a black Union soldier, surrender often meant a death sentence. They knew this going in. They fought anyway.
Modern Research and Findings
In recent years, historians like Thomas Mays, who wrote The Saltville Massacre, have done the heavy lifting to pull these names out of the shadows. Archaeology at the site has been difficult because the land is still mostly private property, but the evidence of the brutality is scattered all through the local records and letters of the men who survived.
When you visit Saltville now, it's a quiet, beautiful place. You can see the salt kettles and the earthworks. But if you stand on those hills, you're standing on a crime scene that was never fully processed.
What You Should Do Next
If you want to actually understand the Saltville Massacre beyond a surface level, stop looking at general Civil War summaries. They gloss over the grit.
- Read the Primary Sources: Look up the trial transcripts of Champ Ferguson. It is a gruesome read, but it provides the most direct evidence of what happened at the Emory and Henry hospital.
- Visit the Site (Virtually or in Person): The Museum of the Middle Appalachians in Saltville has a dedicated section on the battle. They don't sugarcoat it. Seeing the terrain makes you realize how trapped those men were.
- Check the Rosters: Look at the 5th United States Colored Cavalry's casualty lists. When you see "Missing in Action" dated October 3 (the day after the battle), you're looking at a likely victim of the massacre.
- Support Battlefield Preservation: Organizations like the American Battlefield Trust work to preserve these sites so they aren't paved over. A paved-over battlefield is a forgotten story.
The history of the Civil War is incomplete without the stories of the men who were murdered for the color of their uniform and the color of their skin. Saltville is a jagged piece of the American puzzle. It doesn't fit neatly, and it hurts to touch, but you can't see the full picture without it.