The Western Virginia Campaign, also known as Operations in Western Virginia or the Rich Mountain Campaign, occurred from May to December 1861 during the American Civil War.[1] Union forces under Major GeneralGeorge B. McClellan invaded the western portion of Virginia to prevent Confederate occupation; this area occupied by the Union later became the state of West Virginia. Unionist West Virginians would fight in the campaign, while also voting to elect a new state governor, Francis H. Pierpont, as part of the 1861 Wheeling Convention. Although Confederate forces would make several raids into the area throughout the remainder of the war, they would be unable to reoccupy the state.
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865, between the North (Union) and the South (Confederacy). The most studied and written about episode in U.S. history, the Civil War began primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people. War broke out in April 1861 when secessionist forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina shortly after Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated as the President of the United States. The loyalists of the Union in the North, which also included some geographically western and southern states, proclaimed support for the Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States in the South, who advocated for states' rights to uphold slavery.
George Brinton McClellan was an American soldier, civil engineer, railroad executive, and politician. A graduate of West Point, McClellan served with distinction during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), and later left the Army to work in railroads until the outbreak of the American Civil War (1861–1865). Early in the war, McClellan was appointed to the rank of major general and played an important role in raising a well-trained and organized army, which would become the Army of the Potomac in the Eastern Theater; he served a brief period as general-in-chief of the Union Army. Although McClellan was meticulous in his planning and preparations, these very characteristics hampered his ability to challenge aggressive opponents in a fast-moving battlefield environment. He chronically overestimated the strength of enemy units and was reluctant to apply principles of mass, frequently leaving large portions of his army unengaged at decisive points.
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States located between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, which provide habitat for much of its flora and fauna. The capital of the Commonwealth is Richmond; Virginia Beach is the most populous city, and Fairfax County is the most populous political subdivision. The Commonwealth's estimated population as of 2018 is over 8.5 million.
Western Virginia was an important source of minerals the Confederates needed for the production of arms and ammunition. It also contained several roads and turnpikes which would grant the Union access to Tennessee, North Carolina, and the Shenandoah Valley, while the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the northern part of the area connected the eastern Union states to the Midwest.[2]
Tennessee is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th largest and the 16th most populous of the 50 United States. Tennessee is bordered by eight states, with Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south, Arkansas to the west, and Missouri to the northwest. The Appalachian Mountains dominate the eastern part of the state, and the Mississippi River forms the state's western border. Nashville is the state's capital and largest city, with a 2017 population of 667,560 and a 2017 metro population of 1,903,045. Tennessee's second largest city is Memphis, which had a population of 652,236 in 2017.
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. North Carolina is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the 50 United States. North Carolina is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and South Carolina to the south, and Tennessee to the west. Raleigh is the state's capital and Charlotte is its largest city. The Charlotte metropolitan area, with an estimated population of 2,569,213 in 2018, is the most populous metropolitan area in North Carolina and the 23rd-most populous in the United States and the largest banking center in the nation after New York City. North Carolina's second largest metropolitan area is the Research Triangle, with an estimated population of 2,238,312 in 2018, is home to the largest research park in the United States.
The Shenandoah Valley is a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia in the United States. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, to the north by the Potomac River and to the south by the James River. The cultural region covers a larger area that includes all of the valley plus the Virginia highlands to the west, and the Roanoke Valley to the south. It is physiographically located within the Ridge and Valley province and is a portion of the Great Appalachian Valley.
Background
George B. McClellan, Union commander in western Virginia from May to June 1861
In April 1861 a Virginia state convention voted to secede and join the Confederacy. However, there was much opposition to this action from the western counties of the state, which were tied closer to western Pennsylvania and Ohio than to eastern Virginia. Following the secession vote in Richmond, John Carlile, a Unionist leader from northwest Virginia, led a meeting at Clarksburg which called for a convention to meet at Wheeling the next month for determining what steps "the people of Northwest Virginia should take in the present emergency."[3] The 1st West Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment was also raised the same month as Union infantry, participating in the first battle of the campaign at Philippi. To organize Union forces in the area, George B. McClellan was appointed commander of the Department of the Ohio, covering Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, western Pennsylvania, and western Virginia. He gathered several regiments raised in Ohio, Indiana, and western Virginia and moved into Virginia in early May, moving along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Kanawha River.[4] West Virginia, both before and after it was granted statehood, raised several infantry, cavalry and artillery regiments throughout the war to fight on the side of the Union.
The Virginia Secession Convention of 1861 was called in Richmond to determine secession from the United States, to govern the state during a state of emergency, and to write a new Constitution for Virginia, which was subsequently voted down in referendum under the Confederate regime.
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state located in the northeastern, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The Appalachian Mountains run through its middle. The Commonwealth is bordered by Delaware to the southeast, Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, Lake Erie and the Canadian province of Ontario to the northwest, New York to the north, and New Jersey to the east.
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the Great Lakes region of the United States. Of the fifty states, it is the 34th largest by area, the seventh most populous, and the tenth most densely populated. The state's capital and largest city is Columbus.
The Confederates appointed several commanders to organize troops in western Virginia: Colonel George A. Porterfield in northwestern Virginia, and Brigadier GeneralsJohn B. Floyd and Henry A. Wise in the Kanawha Valley. This divided command structure prevented the Confederates from coordinating their response to the Union invasion; in addition, General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Virginia militia forces, underestimated the strength of Unionist support in western Virginia.[5]
George Alexander Porterfield was a junior officer of United States forces in the Mexican–American War, colonel, in the Confederate States Army during the first year of the American Civil War and longtime banker in Charles Town, West Virginia after the war. He was in command of Confederate forces at Philippi in northwestern Virginia, later West Virginia, when they were surprised and routed, though with only a few soldiers wounded or captured, by Union Army forces on June 3, 1861 near the beginning of the Civil War. After serving in staff and temporary field positions for 11 more months, Porterfield resigned from the Confederate Army because he lost his position in a regimental election. In 1871 he helped found a bank at Charles Town, West Virginia which he served for many years. At his death, he was the third-last surviving veteran officer of the Mexican–American War.
John Buchanan Floyd was the 31st Governor of Virginia, U.S. Secretary of War, and the Confederate general in the American Civil War who lost the crucial Battle of Fort Donelson.
Henry Alexander Wise was an American lawyer and politician from Virginia. He was a U.S. Representative and Governor of Virginia, and US Minister to Brazil. During the American Civil War, he was a general in the Confederate States Army. He was the father of Richard Alsop Wise and John Sergeant Wise, who both served as U.S. Representatives.
Confederate Colonel Porterfield concentrated a force of 775 new recruits at the town of Philippi during the month of May. On June 3, a Union column under the command of Brigadier General Thomas A. Morris launched a two pronged attack on the Confederate camp. The Confederates fired a single volley and then retreated from the town. Only a few were wounded on each side.[6]
Thomas Armstrong Morris was an American railroad executive and civil engineer from Kentucky and a soldier, serving as a brigadier general of the Indiana Militia in service to the Union during the early months of the American Civil War. During the Western Virginia Campaign in 1861, he played an important role in leading regiments from West Virginia, Indiana and Ohio in clearing the Confederate army from western Virginia during the Battle of Philippi, a move that helped bolster pro-Union sentiment and contributed to the creation of the separate state of West Virginia. Morris was also instrumental in the planning and construction of the postbellum Indiana State House.
Confederate Brigadier General Robert S. Garnett concentrated a small force around Laurel Hill and Rich Mountain. McClellan detached a small force which outflanked and routed the Confederate left wing on Rich Mountain, which left the main Confederate force at Laurel Mountain isolated and forced Garnett to retreat.[7]
Robert Selden Garnett was a career military officer, serving in the United States Army until the American Civil War, when he became a Confederate States Army brigadier general. He was the first general officer killed in the Civil War.
Laurel Mountain, also called Laurel Hill, is a long ridge in north-central West Virginia, US. Along with Rich Mountain to the south, it is considered to be the westernmost ridge of the Allegheny Mountains and the boundary between the Alleghenies and the Allegheny Plateau.
During the Confederate retreat from Rich Mountain, Garnett deployed a small force of skirmishers at a ford at the Cheat River in order to delay the Union pursuit. However, Garnett was killed by a Union volley, thus becoming the first general officer of either army to die in the war. The Confederate force was routed.[8]
The Confederate brigade of Floyd attacked a Union regiment under Colonel Erastus Tyler at Kessler's Cross Lanes and routed it, temporarily securing the eastern Kanawha Valley for the Confederates.[9]
Brigadier General William S. Rosecrans took three brigades from Clarksburg and attacked Floyd's brigade at Carnifex Ferry. Although the Confederates were able to hold off the Union attacks, they were outnumbered and were forced to retreat that night.[10]
During the summer, the Union army concentrated their forces to protect the main highways through western Virginia. Brigadier General Joseph J. Reynolds commanded the Union garrison on Cheat Mountain that was supposed to protect the Staunton and Parkersburg Turnpike. Lee attempted to drive this force off the mountain with a complicated plan involving several columns which would converge on and surround the garrison. However, one of the brigade commanders who was scheduled to start the attack retreated at the last minute, forcing Lee to cancel the offensive.[11]
Union Brigadier General Reynolds attacked the camps of Henry R. Jackson's brigade but was repulsed. Following an artillery bombardment, Reynolds withdrew back to Cheat Mountain.[12]
Union Brigadier General Robert H. Milroy attacked Camp Allegheny, where Colonel Edward Johnson's main Confederate force in western Virginia was located. The Federal soldiers were repulsed.[13]
Aftermath
Robert E. Lee would be blamed for the Confederate defeats in western Virginia
The Union army would occupy the western region of Virginia for the rest of the war, despite several raids by the Confederates into the area. West Virginia would later be split from the Department of the Ohio and be formed into a new Department of Western Virginia.[14] The Wheeling convention quickly organized the Restored Government of Virginia. This Unionist government claimed to be the legitimate government for the whole of Virginia with Richmond as its capital, although its de facto control was limited to those parts of the state held under federal arms. This arrangement would last until 1863 when western Virginia was admitted to the Union as the state of West Virginia.[15] Following West Virginian statehood, the Restored Government re-located to Alexandria where it remained for the duration of the war.
Due to his victories in western Virginia, McClellan's reputation quickly grew in the North, where the newspapers called him the "Young Napoleon." Following the Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run, he was given command of the Army of the Potomac.[16] Lee was much criticized in the press because of his defeat in Western Virginia. Called by the press and the soldiers "Granny Lee" and "Evacuating Lee", he was transferred to South Carolina to supervise construction of coastal fortifications. The remaining forces in Western Virginia were organized into the Army of the Northwest until it was incorporated into the Valley District of the Army of Northern Virginia.[17]
Boeche, Thomas L. "McClellan's First Campaign." America's Civil War, January 1998.
Cochran, Darrell. "Granny Lee's Inauspicious Debut." America's Civil War, September 1994.
Gallagher, Gary W. "Rich Mountain, West Virginia (WV003), Randolph County, July 11, 1861." from The Civil War Battlefield Guide, 2nd Edition, edited by Frances H. Kennedy. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1998
Kennedy, Frances H. The Civil War Battlefield Guide, 2nd Edition. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1998
Newell, Clayton R. Lee Vs. McClellan: The First Campaign. Washington, D.C.: Regnary Publishing Inc., 1996. ISBN0-89526-452-8
Mallinson, David "Confused First Fight." America's Civil War, January 1992.
The Battle of South Mountain—known in several early Southern accounts as the Battle of Boonsboro Gap—was fought September 14, 1862, as part of the Maryland Campaign of the American Civil War. Three pitched battles were fought for possession of three South Mountain passes: Crampton's, Turner's, and Fox's Gaps. Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, commanding the Union Army of the Potomac, needed to pass through these gaps in his pursuit of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's precariously divided Army of Northern Virginia. Although the delay bought at South Mountain would allow him to reunite his army and forestall defeat in detail, Lee considered termination of the Maryland Campaign at nightfall.
The Battle of Harpers Ferry was fought September 12–15, 1862, as part of the Maryland Campaign of the American Civil War. As Gen. Robert E. Lee's Confederate army invaded Maryland, a portion of his army under Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson surrounded, bombarded, and captured the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, a major victory at relatively minor cost.
The following is a list of engagements that took place in 1861 during the American Civil War.
The following is a list of engagements that took place in 1862 during the American Civil War. During the summer and early spring of the year, Union forces gained several successes over the Confederacy, seizing control of Missouri, northern Arkansas, Kentucky, and western Tennessee, along with several coastal areas. Confederate forces defended the capital of Richmond, Virginia, from Union assaults, and then launched counter–offensives into Kentucky and Maryland, both of which end in Union victories.
The Seven Days Battles were a series of seven battles over seven days from June 25 to July 1, 1862, near Richmond, Virginia, during the American Civil War. Confederate General Robert E. Lee drove the invading Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, away from Richmond and into a retreat down the Virginia Peninsula. The series of battles is sometimes known erroneously as the Seven Days Campaign, but it was actually the culmination of the Peninsula Campaign, not a separate campaign in its own right.
The Battle of Glendale, also known as the Battle of Frayser's Farm, Frazier's Farm, Nelson's Farm, Charles City Crossroads, New Market Road, or Riddell's Shop, took place on June 30, 1862, in Henrico County, Virginia, on the sixth day of the Seven Days Battles of the American Civil War.
The Battle of Rich Mountain took place on July 11, 1861, in Randolph County, Virginia as part of the Operations in Western Virginia Campaign during the American Civil War.
The Battle of Carnifex Ferry took place on September 10, 1861 in Nicholas County, Virginia, as part of the Operations in Western Virginia Campaign during the American Civil War. The battle resulted in a Union strategic victory that contributed to the eventual Confederate withdrawal from western Virginia. The campaign helped pave the way for the subsequent creation of the separate state of West Virginia.
The Battle of Cheat Mountain, also known as the Battle of Cheat Summit Fort, took place from September 12 to 15, 1861, in Pocahontas County and Randolph County, Virginia as part of the Western Virginia Campaign during the American Civil War. It was the first battle of the Civil War in which Robert E. Lee led troops into combat. During the battle, Lee attempted to surround the Union garrison atop Cheat Mountain, but the attack was never launched, due to false information from prisoners and poor communications among the various Confederate commands.
The First Battle of Kernstown was fought on March 23, 1862, in Frederick County and Winchester, Virginia, the opening battle of Confederate Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's campaign through the Shenandoah Valley during the American Civil War.
The Battle of Manassas Gap, also known as the Battle of Wapping Heights, took place on July 23, 1863, in Warren County, Virginia, at the conclusion of General Robert E. Lee's retreat back to Virginia in the final days of the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War. Union forces attempted to force passage across the Blue Ridge Mountains and attack the Confederate rear as it formed a defensive position in the upper Shenandoah Valley. Despite successfully forcing the passage at Manassas Gap, the Union force was unable to do so before Lee retreated further up the valley to safety, resulting in an inconclusive battle.
Henry Heth was a career United States Army officer who became a Confederate general in the American Civil War.
The Battle of Cloyd's Mountain was a Union victory in western Virginia on May 9, 1864 that allowed the Union forces to destroy the last line connecting Tennessee to Virginia.
The U.S. state of West Virginia was formed out of western Virginia and added to the Union as a direct result of the American Civil War, in which it became the only state to declare its independence from the Confederacy. In the summer of 1861, Union troops, which included a number of newly-formed Western Virginia regiments, under General George McClellan, drove off Confederate troops under General Robert E. Lee. This essentially freed Unionists in the northwestern counties of Virginia to form a functioning government of their own as a result of the Wheeling Convention. Prior to the admission of West Virginia the government in Wheeling formally claimed jurisdiction over all of Virginia, although from its creation it was firmly committed to the formation of a separate state.
The Eastern Theater of the American Civil War consists of the major military and naval operations in the states of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, and the coastal fortifications and seaports of North Carolina.
The 2nd West Virginia Volunteer Cavalry Regiment served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was organized in Parkersburg, Virginia during September 1861. Most of the original members of this regiment were from southeastern Ohio, and planners thought that this regiment would become the 4th Ohio Cavalry. Their application was rejected by the governor of Ohio, so the unit became the 2nd Regiment of Loyal Virginia Volunteer Cavalry. The "Loyal Virginia" part of the name was replaced with "West Virginia" after the state of West Virginia was officially admitted to the Union in 1863. Today, the National Park Service lists them as 2nd Regiment, West Virginia Cavalry under a heading of Union West Virginia Volunteers.
The 9th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment was a volunteer infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was organized on April 22, 1861, for three-months' service in Indianapolis. After being reorganized for three years' service in late August and early September 1861, the 9th took part in many major battles, including Shiloh, Stones River, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Kennesaw Mountain and the Siege of Atlanta.
The Battle of Corrick's Ford took place on July 13, 1861, on the Cheat River in western Virginia as part of the Operations in Western Virginia Campaign during the American Civil War. By later standards the battle was a minor skirmish. Often considered a final part of the Battle of Rich Mountain, it was the end of a series of battles between the forces of Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan and Confederate Brig. Gen. Robert S. Garnett.
The Battle of Garnett's and Golding's Farms took place June 27–28, 1862, in Henrico County, Virginia, as part of the Seven Days Battles of the American Civil War's Peninsula Campaign. While the battle at Gaines's Mill raged north of the Chickahominy River, the forces of Confederate general John B. Magruder conducted a reconnaissance in force that developed into a minor attack against the Union line south of the river at Garnett's Farm. The Confederates attacked again near Golding's Farm on the morning of June 28 but in both cases were easily repulsed. The action at the Garnett and Golding farms accomplished little beyond convincing McClellan that he was being attacked from both sides of the Chickahominy.
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