It should be emphasized again that all of the Union troops,
and most of the Confederate defenders were from Kentucky.
The Tennesseans present were actually from just
across the border from the Kentucky troops.
Even those nominally Virginia units, such as the 64th
Virginia Mounted Infantry, was actually about a third from
Kentucky. The
war in Kentucky was as bad as it got.
It consisted of neighbors bushwhacking neighbors.
The term in common usage at the time was that they
were all “border ruffians”.
Everyone understood that this term covered a lot of
sins. Add to
this lethal mix the participation of Black Soldiers who were
in the eyes of the law escaped slaves, and the law further
dictating that slaves found to be in armed insurrection
against their masters could be shot on the spot, what was to
happen next would have seemed to have been inevitable.
After the battle the Confederates began to comb the
battlefield for the wounded and the dead.
Just to the west of Glade Spring stood Emory and
Henry College.
It had been set up as a Confederate convalescent hospital,
used to open up acute care beds in the 50 army hospitals in
Richmond.
Wounded Confederates from the Battle of Saltville were taken
there, along with many of the wounded Union soldiers – both
White and Black.
However, in the gathering dusk, pistol shots rang out time
and time again.
Many
of the 118 wounded mostly Black troopers who had been
abandoned on the battlefield were shot where they lay.
