Action at Righter’s House

Friday, June 21, 1861

In June 1861, a Union detachment led by Capt. David F. Cable clashed with pro-Confederate militia at a fortified house in Northwest Virginia. The nighttime skirmish, which resulted in casualties on both sides and the burning of the Righter home, was emblematic of the deep divisions that defined the Civil War in western Virginia.

Narrative

The Action at Righter’s House (aka Coon Run) was fought on Friday, June 21, 1861 between Union forces commanded by Capt. David F. Cable and Virginia cavalry commanded by Capt. John Righter in Marion County, West Virginia.

In late June 1861, the 20th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment (3 Months) led by Col. Thomas Morton was headquartered at Fairmont, Virginia along the Tygart River and Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in Marion County. Its mission was to protect that strategically important railway connecting Washington, DC with the Midwestern states.

Company I of the 20th Ohio was stationed in the town of Mannington, approximately 13 miles west of Fairmont along the B&O Railroad. Its commanding officer, Capt. David F. Cable, had received several reports from “persons of the highest respectability” that a group of rebels were camped at Coon’s Creek (or Coon Run) and assembled for drill at the residence of a man named Peter Baker Righter, a well-known secessionist, near the Marion/Harrison County line.

Peter B. Righter and John Righter lived on either side of Coon Run in what is today the community of Francis, two miles east of West Fork River and the town of Enterprise in Marion County. Peter B. Righter was a wealthy farmer, and his son John would become a Confederate captain commanding Company No. 4 of the Virginia State Rangers in 1862 (he later commanded Company D, 19th Virginia Cavalry in 1863). But in that early summer of 1861, his troop was an ill-trained local militia.

On June 20th, Capt. Cable took a detachment of 27 men to Shinnston, approximately 13.5 miles south of Fairmont along the West Fork River in Harrison County. There they found several local guides to lead them to Righter’s farm. Cable left ten men in Shinnston as a guard and apparently rejected assistance from the local Unionist Home Guard. At around 3am on the morning of Friday, June 21st, Capt. Cable, 17 of his men, and two or three locals arrived at Righter’s House.

A guide approached the house and encountered a man on guard duty. Both returned to their respective sides and reported what they had seen. Capt. Cable arrayed his men in a semi-circle around the house and knocked on the door. Someone blew a horn, and firing erupted from the house and a nearby orchard. Several men, including a local guide, John Nay, were wounded. Cable ordered his men to withdraw to a nearby house where he sent for reinforcements.

In a letter to the Wheeling Intelligencer, Capt. Cable said four of his men were severely wounded, and they killed four of the enemy and wounded six. He took seven prisoners. One of the prisoners, Banks Corbett (or Corbin) was shot and killed trying to escape. When they returned to Righter’s House at daylight, it was abandoned. The Union soldiers confiscated anything of military value, then set fire to the house.

“It is a terrible retribution on a man who lived like a prince, and could have continued to do so, but for an inborn deviltry and sympathy for ruffianism and treason, which has thus worked his ruin,” the Intelligencer editorialized. Peter Righter was arrested by Union troops in May 1862, but President Andrew Johnson granted him a full pardon in 1867.

Like many early skirmishes, newspaper reports of the Action at Righter’s House were exaggerated and full of hearsay and inaccuracies. It was just one of many tragedies to play out in northwestern Virginia as neighbor turned against neighbor.

Opposing Forces

Confederate

Peter B. Righter, Commanding

Unit	Commander(s)	Strength	Killed	Wounded	Captured
Irregulars	Peter B. Righter	?	1+	?	7

Union

Col. Thomas Morton, Commanding

Unit	Commander(s)	Strength	Killed	Wounded	Captured
20th Ohio Inf. Reg., Company I	Capt. David F. Cable	17-20	0	4	0

Casualties

Confederate

Name	Unit	Killed	Mortally Wounded	Wounded	Captured / Missing
Banks Corbin	Righter’s	X			X

Union

Name	Unit	Killed	Mortally Wounded	Wounded	Captured / Missing
Pvt. Albert A. Zook	20th Ohio Inf. Reg., Company I			X
Pvt. Andrew Hutterly	20th Ohio Inf. Reg., Company I			X
Pvt. William Glero	20th Ohio Inf. Reg., Company I			X
John Nay	Civilian guide			X

Timeline

• May 23, 1861: Virginia voters ratify their state’s Ordinance of Secession.

• May 26, 1861: Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan orders Union troops under his command to invade northwestern Virginia, converging on Grafton.

• May 28, 1861: Confederate Col. George A. Porterfield withdraws south to Philippi. Brig. Gen. Thomas A. Morris takes immediate command of all Union forces in the field in northwestern Virginia.

• June 3, 1861: Union troops under Morris surprise and nearly surround Porterfield’s command at Philippi, but the Confederates escape to Beverly on the Tygart Valley River.

• June 20, 1861: The 20th Ohio Infantry Regiment is strung out along the line of the B&O Railroad as far as Grafton, with headquarters at Fairmont.

Location

GPS Coordinates — 39.42296, -80.24292

Primary Sources

News Articles

Reports and Letters

• Jun. 20 Telegram to Brig. Gen. Thomas A. Morris
• Jun. 22 Report of Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan
• June 22 Report of Col. Thomas Morton, 20th Ohio Infantry
• Jun. 23 Report of Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan
• Jun. 23 Proclamation to the People of Western Virginia
• Jun. 25 Address to the Soldiers of the Army of the West

Sources

Hall, Granville Davisson. The Rending of Virginia, A History. Chicago: Mayer & Miller, 1902.

Haymond, Henry. History of Harrison County, West Virginia. Morgantown: Acme Publishing Company, 1910.

Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1866, Vol. 1. Akron: The Werner Company, 1893.

Osborne, Randall. Virginia State Rangers and State Line. Lynchburg: H.E. Howard, Inc., 1994.

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Updated: 7 June 2025
Created: 23 March 2021