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Civil War West Virginia

American Civil War
May 15-17, 1862

By early May 1862 Union forces in today's West Virginia were positioned to breach the Alleghenies and debouch into Virginia's Great Valley at two points more than 100 miles apart.

Union Brigadier General Robert H. Milroy's column, its axis of march the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike, advanced from Cheat Mountain and occupied in succession Camp Allegheny, Monteray, McDowell, and Shenandoah Mountain.

Retreating before the oncoming Federals, Confederate Brigadier General Edward Johnson pulled back to Westview, six miles west of Staunton.

Union soldiers of Brigadier General Jacob D. Cox's District of Kanawha threatened the East Tennessee & Virginia Railroad. The Federals by mid-May, although ousted from Pearisburg, held Mercer County and braced for a lunge at the railroad. Confederate Brigadier General Humphery Marshall arrived from Abingdon, Virginia, with the Army of East Kentucky. Boldly seizing the initiative, Marshall bested Cox's two brigades during three days of fighting, May 15-17, in Mercer County centering on Princeton Courthouse.

Breaking contact with the Confederates on the night of the 17-18, Cox withdrew 20 miles to Camp Flat Top. Col. George Crook, commanding Cox's 3rd brigade, marched via the James and Kanawha Turnpike and occupied Lewisburg, where on May 23 he defeated Brigadier General Henry Heth's brigade.

Upon learning that Major General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's army had routed Major General N.P. Banks' division at Winchester (March 25) and driven it across the Potomac, Crook evacuated Lewisburg and pulled back to Meadow Bluff.

Result(s): Confederate victory

Location: Mercer County

Campaign: Jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign (1862)

Date(s): May 15-17, 1862

Principal Commanders: Brigadier General Jacob D. Cox [US]; Brigadier General Humphery Marshall [CS]

Forces Engaged: District of the Kanawha [US]; Army of East Kentucky and Col. Gabriel C. Wharton's Brigade, Department of Southwest Virginia [CS}

Estimated Casualties: 129 total (US 23k/69w/21m; CS incomplete, Marshall 4k/12w, Wharton no report)


Clash of Loyalties: A Border County in the Civil War West Virginia and Appalachia
The story of one county in the mountainous Northwest of Virginia, is a telling microcosm of the deep divisions which both caused the war and were caused by it. With a meticulous examination of census and military records this is a compelling account of the passion and violence which tore apart Barbour County and the Nation


72 Piece Civil War Army Men
Play Set 52mm Union and Confederate Figures, Bridge, Horses, Canon
  • 48 Union and Confederate Soldiers up to 2-1/8 inches tall
  • 4 Horses, 4 Sandbag Bunkers, 6 Fence Sections, 3 Cannon, 3 Limber Wagons (Ammo Carts)
  • Bridge, Small Barracks, 2 Cardboard buildings
  • Scale: About 1/35th
West Virginia State Battle Map
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Burnside Bridge Plastic Army Men
Playset 2.5 feet long with TEN 2inch
Great looking bridge play set with 5 Union and 5 Confederate Soldier Figures. Bridge comes unassembled with 22 pieces and snaps and slides together easily
American Civil War Book Titles

The Divided Family in Civil War America
In hundreds of border state households, brothers--and sisters--really did fight one another, while fathers and sons argued over secession and husbands and wives struggled with opposing national loyalties. Even enslaved men and women found themselves divided over how to respond to the war
Lee's Endangered Left: The Civil War In Western Virginia, Spring Of 1864
Grant devised a plan of concerted action to bring down the Confederacy. He aimed to destroy General Lee's supply source for his Army in Western Virginia and to use military activity there as an extended turning movement to threaten Lee from the west
Kentucky Cavaliers in Dixie: Reminiscences of a Confederate Cavalryman
Mosgrove was born in Kentucky, in 1844, and enlisted in the Fourth Kentucky Cavalry Regiment on September 10, 1862. His eyewitness account illuminates the western theater of the Civil War in Kentucky, east Tennessee, and southwest Virginia
Rebels At The Gate
The dramatic story of the first Union victories of the Civil War and the events that caused Virginians to divide their state. In a defiant act to sustain President Lincoln's war effort, Virginia Unionists created their own state government in 1861-destined to become the new state of West Virginia. Their actions blocked what should have been Confederate control of the territory and closed one of their key gateways to the Union states

The Railroads of the Confederacy
The story of the first use of railroads on a major scale in a major war. A complex and fascinating tale, with the railroads of the American South playing the part of tragic hero in the Civil War: at first vigorous though immature; then overloaded, driven unmercifully, starved for iron; and eventually worn out
The Northern Railroads in the Civil War, 1861-1865
Account of the impact of the railroads on the American Civil War and vice versa. How the North was helped to victory through its effective use of the rails, also how the war changed the way railroads were built, run and financed after the war.
Two Great Rebel Armies: An Essay in Confederate Military History
The Army of Northern Virginia was able to compile a large number of impressive victories during the war. The Army of Tennessee was only able to win at Chickamauga, and even that victory proved barren strategically.
Cavalryman of the Lost Cause: A Biography of J. E. B. Stuart
James Ewell Brown Stuart was the premier cavalry commander of the Confederacy. He gained a reputation for daring early in the war when he rode around the Union army in the Peninsula Campaign, providing valuable intelligence to General Robert E. Lee at the expense of Union commander George B. McClellan

 

Sources:
U.S. National Park Service
U.S. Library of Congress.

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