The Road to Mount Airy Depot

On July 13, 1863, Union Col. John T. Toland led 872 officers and men of the 34th Regiment Mounted Ohio Volunteer Infantry from Camp Piatt, West Virginia, into Southwest Virginia to attack the railroads, telegraphs and salt and lead mines essential to the Confederated cause. Here, about six miles north of Wytheville, Toland detached companies D and F of the 2nd West Virginia Cavalry under Capts. George Millard and Alexander H. Ruker and ordered them to destroy the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad tracks at Mount Airy Depot (present-day Rural Retreat), Virginia.

Toland planned to continue his march to Wytheville and to divide his command again about two miles from here. He would leave the main road with part of his regiment and destroy the high Virginia and Tennessee Railroad bridge (Walters Bridge), that stood near the Old Stage Road and spanned Reed Creek. But after realizing that he had sent his only reliable guide with Millard and Ruker to Mount Airy Depot, Toland changed his mind and ordered the entire command to march on to Wytheville, leaving the railroad bridge untouched.

According to a Union report written after the raid, the tracks at Mount Airy Depot were not destroyed because the areas was "strongly guarded" by Confederate troops. For this reason, Millard and Ruker aborted their mission and rejoined the regiment at Wytheville early the following morning of July 19.

(captions)
Walters or High Bridge spanning Reed Creek on the Old Stage Road southwest of Wytheville. The bridge was on the Federal target list and was threatened during Toland's Raid, but it was not destroyed during the war.

Destroying railroads included heating and "wrapping" the rails.

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