[1][2] The battle was one of the final conflicts of the war, taking place three weeks after Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House.

[4] On April 27, Union General George Stoneman ordered three brigades, totaling 3,700 men, to march from Asheville down the Saluda River to Belton or Anderson, and finally to head to Augusta in search of Confederate president Jefferson Davis.

[5] Later that day, a group of Confederate cadets from the South Carolina Military Academy attacked the Union forces.

[5] The Confederates repulsed a small group of Union soldiers who were intending to burn down a railroad bridge on the Saluda River.

[5] Due to the Confederate victory, a man named Daniel Brown, who was being executed by the Union army, was rescued.