Contributed photo from Carson Camp
Civil War re-enactors are to recreate Wheeler’s Raid at the Dunlap, Tenn., coke ovens Saturday.Few know that the largest loss of military supplies during the Civil War occurred on the side of Walden’s Ridge near Dunlap in a battle known as Wheeler’s Raid.
From 5 to 8 p.m. CST today, the Sequatchie Valley Historical Association will sponsor a program about Wheeler’s Raid at the Coke Ovens Park museum. The benefit program will raise funds to upgrade the park’s sound system.
Hundreds of military documents detailing the Oct. 2, 1863, battle — as well as newly discovered diary accounts — indicate that Confederate Gen. Joseph Wheeler and nearly 2,000 cavalry soldiers attacked and destroyed 1,206 Union mule wagons.
What: Wheeler’s Raid programWhere: Coke Ovens Park, 350 Mountain View Road, Dunlap, Tenn.When: 5-8 p.m. TodayCost: $5 donation, children under 14 freeFor more information: Call 423-949-4254 or 423-949-3483Source: Sequatchie Valley Historical Association
Sequatchie County historian Carson Camp, who recently researched the documents, said the wagon train was the only supply line available to starving Union soldiers occupying Chattanooga.
“Of the 1,206 mule wagons, over 300 wagons contained ammunition, including tons of cannonballs,” Camp said. “As the wagons burned, massive explosions hurled the ordnance throughout the lower east section of Sequatchie County.”
He said some of the original cannonballs are on permanent display in the Coke Ovens Museum.
Camp, Confederate relic expert Vick Holmes of Marion County and Civil War re-enactor Brian Talbert of Van Buren County will offer lectures and demonstrations today.
The Cumberland Band will play Civil War-period music, with some ballads written specifically about an 1860s Sequatchie church, Wheeler’s Raid and Tennessee’s “Old Red Fox,” Unionist Daniel Ellis, who harried Confederates throughout East Tennessee.