Campaign for Western Virginia

"West Virginia has often been called the War-Born State, as no other state began amid such turmoil or was so dependent for its survival upon the continued existence of the Union as a whole. Indeed, the creation of West Virginia during the Civil War is perhaps the central theme of the state's history, with more attention devoted to its origins than any other aspect."
-- John W. Shaffer, Loyalties in Conflict: Union and Confederate Sentiment in Barbour County.

"The woman of the house was very indignant, and spoke in disrespectful terms of the Union men of the neighborhood. She said she had come from a higher sphere than they, and would not lay down with dogs. She was an eastern Virginian, poor as a church mouse."
-- John Beatty, Indiana soldier, Memoirs, p 22.

"The Kanawa Valley is wholly traitorous ... You cannot persuade these people that Virginia can or ever will reconquer the northwest."
-- Brigadier General Henry A. Wise, telegraph to Richmond, September 1861.

"The rupture of the railroad at Cheat River would be worth to us an army."
-- Robert E. Lee, special assistant to the Governor of Virginia, 1 July 1861.

Principal Engagements and Battles

*The North and South often had different names for the same battles. Northerners, with better access to maps, often named battles after the closest physical feature. Southerners, from more rural backgrounds and lacking maps, often referenced locations by the nearest town, village, or community. Other names for battles are listed in parentheses.

Background

West Virginia is the birthplace of rivers. At the beginning of the Civil War, the counties that make up what is now West Virginia were still part of Virginia. From here, the north and south branch of the Potomac flow northward out of the Potomac Plateau into western Maryland, winding its way to the Atlantic via the Chesepeake Bay. The Tygart and Cheat Rivers flow into the Monongahela thats crosses the western Pennsylvania coalfields on its way to the Ohio, mixing with western waters to form the Mississippi. In its passing, the Ohio drains the Kanawa, whose waters are supplied by the Gauley and New Rivers. All these rivers flow northward, as did the political sentiment of the inhabitants during the early days of 1861.

Virginia had not joined the Confederacy with the original group of deep-South states at the end of 1860 and early 1861. It was not until mid-April, when President Lincoln called for volunteers to put down the rebellion following Fort Sumter, that Virginia voted to do so. As Virginia had begun to move towards secession, many in the far western counties of the state were determined to stay in the Union. The people who settled the region were mostly of Scotch-Irish and German descent who had migrated from northern states -- primarily from Maryland and Pennsylvania, but also from Ohio and Indiana. They brought a strongly nationalistic idealogy, and one opposed to slavery. Many became landless, tenant farmers, who mixed with those whose forefathers had moved westward from the lush farmland of eastern Virginia. As peace-time neighbors they lived together for decades, but as talk of war increased their loyalties clashed. Even families became divided in their sympathies, with brother literally fighting brother. For the people of West Virginia, the term "civil war" was even more meaningful.

The western counties had long felt neglected by the Richmond government and some disaffected western Virginians seized the opportunity to form a new government independent of Richmond. The newly organized state body was was led by Francis H. Pierpont, its Governor. They set up Wheeling as their capitol and called themselves the state of Kanawa. Encouraged by the Federal government who needed to maintain control of vital transportation links that crossed the northern and western Virginia frontier, they remained loyal to the Union.

The Confederacy was anxious to maintain its tenuous hold on western Virginia for a number of reasons. If these high mountains could be held, the North would be squeezed to a narrow corridor of only 100 miles through which to bring western supplies. And with luck -- albeit a great deal -- perhaps it could even be cut in half. The Confederates hoped to move north and westward to take over, or at least break, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad that brought men and supplies from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. And finally, the South wanted to expel the newly formed government at Wheeling and re-take control of the northwest part of the state. With those goals in mind, Colonel George A. Porterfield was sent by Virginia Governor John Letcher to organize forces sympathetic to the budding Confederacy. Porterfield was able to gather only a few companies of less than 1,000 men. Many were untrained, undisciplined, and unarmed. He moved his collection of green volunteers into Grafton -- a vital Baltimore and Ohio Railroad terminus -- to repel an expected invasion from Ohio and protect the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike that linked the heart of Virginia to its western counties.

The Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike was built to provide access from the upper Shenandoah Valley of Virginia to the Ohio River, and was completed in 1848. It crossed high mountains and deep rivers, no insignificant engineering feat, and opened up large sections of western Virginia to settlement and trade. And, as the war began, it gave the South access to strongholds from which to strike at the railroad, the Chesepeake and Ohio Canal, and many turnpikes that connected the north and south. Major General George B. McClellan, commanding the Federal Department of the Ohio from Columbus, was charged with maintaining control of western Virginia and protecting these vital links.

But Union activities in western Virginia took on more than a defensive role. Much as the South saw the mountains as a place from which to launch attacks against the Union, the Federals saw the sheltering mountains as a logical point from which to mount offensives into the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Besides threatening the Virginia Central Railroad and the valuable breadbasket of the Valley, it could also trap Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. They could even strike towards the new capitol of the Confederacy, located now at Richmond, Virginia. In fact, McClellan had proposed such a plan. He suggested moving up the Kanawa Valley, through the Greenbrier River Valley, then over Allegheny Mountain against Richmond. But reports from the Charleston area advised against moving Federal troops into the Kanawa Valley. The southern part of the region was more sympathetic to the Confederacy, and the Union war department rejected the proposed campaign. Instead, McClellan sent troops across the Ohio River at Parkersburg in response to Confederate attacks on railroad bridges. Thus did the usually quiet mountainside communities prepare for war in early 1861, though it would be summer before armies would clash.

Operations, Phase I: McClellan's Rise to Fame

Porterfield found little support for the southern cause in Grafton. Believing Union troops were about to move on his position, he destroyed some railroad bridges and moved his raw troops south. He found a good location near a two-lane covered bridge that crossed the Tygart River at Philippi, where the locals were more sympathetic to the Confederacy. But on 3 June, Union Brigadier General Thomas A. Morris with 3,400 Union troops suddenly occupied the heights above the town. Their plan was to capture the entire Confederate force. They failed to do so, but the surprised and outnumbered Confederates fled in a confused mass down the turnpike into Randolph County in an encounter often called The Philippi Races. The Confederate flight was seen as a debacle and Porterfield lost his command, but the South retained most of their troops. The Union army was satisfied to take control of the bridge.

Click here for details about the Battle of Philippi Bridge

Up until 8 June, when state troops were transferred to the newly enlarged Confederacy, Southern units were organized in and for their home town or county -- the Barbour Grays and Barbour Mountain Guards, for example. These independent companies were transferred to the central government and organized by their new commander, Brigadier General Robert S. Garnett. Local troops from what is now central West Virginia and its northern mountains became companies within the 9th Virginia Infantry Battalion, the 25th Virginia Infantry Regiment, and the 31st Virginia Infantry Regiment. They were soon joined by other Virginians as well as troops from Georgia and Tennessee. By the middle of June they were entrenched in two key areas -- at Wilmoth Pass on Laurel Hill north of Beverly, and the Rich Mountain pass west of Beverly -- the latter guarding the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike. Since the Union forces were to the north, Garnett believed any attack would come at his Laurel Hill entrenchment, so had moved the bulk of his force and set up headquarters there. A smaller force was located at the fortification on Rich Mountain. It was named for Garnett, but in direct command of the southern troops at Fort Garnett was Colonel John Pegram.

McClellan finally came eastward into the area from Columbus on 23 June, and established heaquarters in a house located in Webster, four miles south of Grafton. Built in 1854, It became the first field headquarters of the Civil War and was the childhood home of Anna Jarvis, whose efforts to honor her mother resulted in the founding of Mother's Day. From there McClellan began to prepare his campaign against the confederates. By the beginning of July he had circled to the southwest and had troops in Buckhannon, ready to move on the rebels. On 6 July, he began to move. While Morris held Garnett in check through 7-11 July at Laurel Hill, McClellan moved the bulk of his force into position before the confederate entrenchements at Fort Garnett in the Rich Mountian pass. On 11 July, McClellan sent Brigadier General William S. Rosecrans on a southerly flanking movement, and Union forces were able to take Fort Garnett at the Battle of Rich Mountain.

Click here for details about the Battle of Rich Mountain

Now that McClellan was behind him, Garnett feared being encircled at Laurel Hill and withdrew his forces. Receiving false information that the road to Beverly was blocked, Garnett instead retreated northeast along the ridges and valleys that flowed into the Cheat River -- hoping to cross it at St. George, turn up South Branch Valley, and head home. On the morning of 12 July, Morris discovered that Garnett had fled and pursued, as McClellan had ordered. Under incessant rain and over primitive roads between steep slopes of dense forest, the retreating Confederate column of troops and wagons stretched over two miles long. The Federals easily followed the Confederate march along Pheasant Run Road through the quagmire of mud, led by discarded equipment. Although slowed by felled trees left behind by the southerners, Morris caught up with their rear guard at noon on 13 July, at Kalar's Ford of Shaver's Fork. What followed was a Federal chase and fight at stream crossings over the next several days. Crossing at Corrick's Ford (spelled variously Carrick's Ford and Carricksford), near Parsons, Confederate troops on a high bluff gave cover for their troops to cross the river. While directing this rearguard action, Garnett was shot and killed. He was the first general officer killed in the Civil War. Morris stopped there, having captured a number of Confederate troops and most of their wagons. The remains of Garnett's troops struggled east through the wilderness, eventually straggling into Monterey, Virginia.

At the same time, from 11-29 July, troops were on the move further south. Confederate Brigadier General Henry A. Wise had positioned himself down the Kanawa River from Charleston. He had been the Governor of Virginia before the state had seceded and had held that position during the John Brown Insurrection at Harpers Ferry. Wise had organized an independent "Legion" and set up his headquarters in Charleston at the suggestion of Jefferson Davis. But on 11 July, Union Brigadier General Jacob D. Cox began advancing up the Kanawa. On 17 July they crossed swords at Scary Creek, fifteen mile west of Charleston. With Wise in that battle was Colonel George S. Patton, whose grandson would later achieve military fame and honor in World War II. The Confederates won the engagement, but faced by superior numbers Wise was forced to retreat up the Kanawa ahead of Cox. Fearful that McClellan would move south and trap him, Wise retreated to near Lewisburg. By 25 July Cox was in Charleston, and by the end of July he had taken up position at Gualey Bridge. Three-quarters of western Virginia now lay in Federal hands.

Two weeks after the victory at Rich Mountain, the North suffered a devastating defeat at the Battle of First Manassas in eastern Virginia. They too were routed in a fashion similar to what the Confederates had experienced at Philippi, but on a much grander scale. Badly in need of a successful commander, President Lincoln turned to McClellan, whom he promoted and summoned to Washington to take command of the Army of the Potomac. Overall command of the Federal forces in western Virginia passed to Rosecrans.

Operations, Phase 2: Lee in Western Virginia

Following the Battle of Rich Mountain, the Confederates began to fortify positions guarding vital roads, in order to stop the Federal advance. The fortifications were built at Camp Bartow, in the hills above Traveller's Repose, and Camp Allegheny at the top of Allegheny Mountain. They established their supply base at Huntersville. The Federals in turn built fortifications commanding crucial turnpike passes in the upper Tygarts Valley. A fortification at Elkwater blocked the Huttonsville-Huntersville Turnpike. More important was the fortification at Cheat Summit Fort -- also called White Top and later Camp Milroy -- 12 miles to the west of Camp Bartow. Another large encampment named Cheat Mountain Pass, at the western base of Cheat Mountain, provided their supply base.

On 28 July 1861, Major General Robert E. Lee was sent to western Virginia to reconcile dissention in the ranks and mitigate differences between commanding officers in the region. He was also to assist in the reorganization of Garnett's shattered forces, put the armies in condition to withstand Federal advances, and if possible take the offensive to recapture critical roads. Lee had been the obvious choice. He was known as Virginia's First Soldier and was a hero of the Mexican War. While he did not directly participate in the Confederate victory at the Battle of First Manassas, his rapid mobilization of Virginia's troops had made the victory possible. That fact was not generally known to the public and the press, but was gratefully acknowledged by Jefferson Davis who had great faith in Lee. One week after the Confederate victory in eastern Virginia Lee was in western Virginia, carrying the hopes and perhaps the overly-high expectations of a new nation.

Lee came to a region that was infested with Unionists intent on creating a new state. Every move that the Confederates made was immediately reported to their Union antagonists by the hostile inhabitants. They were, for all intents and purposes, in enemy territory. Complicating matters was the fact that Lee had not been sent to command, but to advise and coordinate the armies present. He was hampered in his efforts by petty jealousies among four commanding officers in the region: one professional soldier (Brigadier General W.W. Loring), one scholarly ex-diplomat (Brigadier General Henry R. Jackson), and two politicians (Brigadier Generals John B. Floyd and Henry A. Wise). Loring, in the Tygart River Valley west of Cheat Mountain, resented Lee's intrusion and was uncooperative. Jackson, at Camp Bartow on the east side of Cheat Mountain, was willing but lacked experience. The two political commanders, encamped a hundered miles south, were high-tempered and in the midst of a festering quarrel. Holding independent positions close to one another, they seemed more intent on destroying each other than the enemy. Floyd had been a talented politician before the war, culminating in his being selected as Secretary of War under President James Buchanan. He could have been invaluable to the Confederacy in a political role, but chose a military one instead. He had come into the area as Wise's senior and was determined to exert his authority. Wise absolutely refused and the two began their own war. Into this tempestuous maelstrom Lee was sent to work a miracle.

Ever the strategist and always willing to take chances, Lee jumped right to the last of his reasons for being there -- to take the offensive. He planned a complex series of simultaneous attacks on the Federal fortifications at Cheat Summit and Elkwater. In the south, Floyd had begun a drive down the Kanawa Valley, attacking a small Union force at Kessler's Cross Lanes. He was successful, but two weeks later retreated back up the Kanawa Valley because of superior Union numbers after the Battle of Carnifex Ferry. Days later Lee's attack on Cheat Mountain and Elkwater finally materialized. But the coordinated attacks faltered and Lee's plan unravelled -- defeated by timid commanders, blunders, rough terrain, and rainy weather. Lee turned his attention for another push down the Kanawa Valley by Floyd and Wise. But that too failed miserably. After three months, the miracle that the South was expecting never happened. Lee accomplished nothing of what the public had expected. With winter approaching he could do little but withdaw without delivering a major blow to the Federals. He ordered the troops into winter quarters and returned to Richmond on 30 October. Over the winter, Union and Confederate armies continued to face each other over the high mountain peaks. They would battle twice more before the year ended.

Click here for details about Lee's Operations in western Virginia

Operations, Phase 3: Winter Battles in the Mountains

Inactivity marked early September on Cheat Mountain. Torrential rains churned the mountain roads into impassible quagmires. Near the end of September the rains ceased and in early October Union forces in the high mountains under Brigadier General Joseph J. Reynolds pressed toward Camp Bartow in an armed reconnaissance. An artillery duel ensued, but Reynolds failed to dislodge Brigadier General Henry R. Jackson's well-drilled and well-disciplined Confederates from their position. After two failed attempts to turn both Confederate flanks, Reynolds withdrew to Cheat Summit.

In November, the Confederates abandoned Camp Bartow, concentrating their forces at Camp Allegheny. It was here in December that the Federals, under new commander Brigadier General Robert H. Milroy, struck the Rebel forces under Colonel Edward Johnson. Milroy likewise failed to move the Confederates from their postition, and both armies ceased operations for the winter. The winter that followed was harsh, and when spring came, both armies were more than ready to push down the turnpike into the Shenandoah Valley, leaving behind the cold, desolate wilderness of that first winter of war that saw a nation divide and a state splinter in half. Both Cheat Summit and Camp Allegheny were abandoned in April 1862.

Click here for details about Winter Battles in the mountains

Aftermath

Due to the Union military successes, The political situation in western Virginia was strengthened for the Union and secession was repressed. Except for scattered raids throughout the war, the Union continued to control northwestern Virginia. The two things most feared by the South had came to pass. The newly formed Wheeling-based government would survive and within two years a new state would emerge. One week before the battle of Rich Mountain, Lincoln recognized Governor Pierpont in an address to the first session of the wartime Congress. Of equal importance, the vital Baltimore and Ohio Railway was lost to the Confederacy. It would be a target many more times before the struggle would end in 1865, most notably at Harpers Ferry, but never again would the South possess such an opportunity for wholesale disruption of vital transportation links to the west.

There was great division over the Federal actions that created the state of West Virginia. During 1862, the U.S. Congress approved a bill to admit the state, which may have been unconstitutional. State admissions require a quarum for a congressional vote. The North never acknowleded the right of the southern states to secede, and throughout the war considered them to be part of the Union, but in rebellion. With the southern representatives in absentia, a quarum was never acheived. In addition, Congress had accepted as representatives, delegates from the counties of western Virginia that had illegally passed ordinances to reorganize the state. President Lincoln disapproved of the bill, considered vetoing it, but reluctantly consented. And so on 20 June 1863, the state of West Virginia was officially admitted to the Union amid a storm of protest. It was nothing new to a war-torn West Virginia that remained a battleground throughout the war.

Western Virgina was lost to the Confederacy, but one more attempt would be made to wrestle control. That plan came from the fertile strategic mind of Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson. From his headquarters in Winchester, Virginia, he proposed marching west on Romney and then to the Monongahela and Little Kanawa Rivers. He felt the Union was not expecting an attack along the region's northern environs, and that it was important to maintain a presence in western Virginia. Brigadier General W.W. Loring, who had been so contentious with Lee at Cheat Mountain, was assigned to assist Jackson in January 1862. They immediately marched from Winchester and forced the scattered Union troops from Romney, 30 miles southeast of Winchester. However, Jackson had to return to to watch the buildup of Union troops in the Valley under Union Brigadier General Nathaniel P. Banks. He left Loring at Romney to guard the western perimeter and secure a starting point for his prospective spring campaign. An expert at quick marches, Jackson knew Loring was within supporting distance and in no danger. Loring, however, felt slighted at being assigned to an outpost with poor living conditions while Jackson wintered in comfort at Winchester. Loring's officers began a letter-writing campaign to discredit Jackson, saying he suffered deficient mental capacity. Loring finally went over Jackson's and even General Joseph E. Johnston's head (the latter being Jackson's commanding officer), and informed Richmond that he was exposed and requested to be recalled to Winchester. Jackson received a directive from the War Department informing him to do so. He immediatly did so, but rankled at the interference in his command. Just as immediately he asked to be reassigned to the Virginia Military Institude, or failing that, to accept his resignation. Johnston fought to have the resignation nullified, and Virginia Governor Lecter likewise interceded. In a public scene in the War Department, Lechter criticized the War Department, then met with Jackson and convinced him to remain. Loring was reassigned, but the feud undid all the good Jackson had started. With Romney undefended, the three-county region was at the mercy of the Union. All three eventually became part of West Virginia when it was admitted to the Union.

Of the notable generals who fought in western Virginia early in their Civil War careers, only Lee -- who had failed so miserably -- would go on to the greatest fame. He would spend a short time improving coastal defenses, where he received another nickname, the King of Spades. But in a freakish circumstance, he would be visiting the field with Jefferson Davis at the Battle of Seven Pines, and step in for a wounded General Joseph E. Johnston. From there he would never reliquish control of the public's favor and would become arguably the South's greatest hero. McClellan went on to both greater fame and greater ignomity following the campaign for western Virginia. A supberb organizer, he was nevertheless too timid and prone to over-estimate enemy numbers to be successful on the battlefield and would be relieved of his command twice by President Lincoln. Rosecrans would rise through the ranks rapidly, and at one point become part of an overall scheme in which Lincoln would use a triad of his favored generals to break the Confederacy -- Grant to take Vicksburg, Rosecrans to take Chattanooga, and Burnside to take Richmond. Only Grant would survive to greater fame.

1. Basler, Roy P., ed. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. 1953.
2. Casdorph, Paul D. Lee and Jackson, Confederate Chieftains. 1992.
3. Faust, Patricia, L., ed. Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War. 1986.
4. Foote, Shelby. The Civil War, A Narrative: Vol 1. 1986.
5. Glatthar, Joseph T. Partners in Command, The Relationship Between Leaders in the Civil War: Lee and Jackson. 1994.
6. McPherson, James M., ed. The Atlas of the Civil War. 1994.
7. Ambler. Sectionalism in Virginia from 1776 to 1861. 1964.
8. McGregor, James C. The Disruption of Virginia. 1922.

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