Map of Laurel Hill Battle

The Battle of Belington (Laurel Hill) was fought from Sunday, July 7 to Thursday, July 11, 1861 between Union forces commanded by Brig. Gen. Thomas A. Morris and Confederate forces commanded by Brig. Gen. Robert S. Garnett in what is today Barbour County, West Virginia. It involved around 8,000 Union and Confederate soldiers.

I created this map using Photoshop based on satellite and terrain maps, the Fletcher “spy map”, and research on the roads and structures at the time. The “battle”, which was a series of skirmishes, was mostly fought on the hills immediately east of Belington (then spelled Bealington). The Confederate camp is what is today known as Laurel Hill Battlefield.

I’m not aware of any modern attempts to map this battle, but I have found descriptions of the battle and landmarks in books like The Tygarts Valley Line (2003) by Eva Margaret Carnes, which help to orient the map. In a future post, I will attempt to correlate portions of the map with written descriptions.

I’m not 100% certain of the location of each unit, but I know the 1st Georgia Regiment was north of the Turnpike and 23rd Virginia and Confederate cannon were south of it. The Union regiments were camped north of Belington, and the 9th Indiana Regiment was in front.

If you have any suggestions for improvement, or know of an additional source, please leave a comment below.