An Encyclopedia of Early Civil War Virginia
First Lieutenant Roger Jones, a cousin of Robert E. Lee, was on recruiting duty at Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania when ordered to take a small force south through Maryland to protect the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, a small mountain town nested at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. Though Virginia had…
Continue reading ➞ 160 Years Ago Today: Harpers Ferry Armory Burned
160 years ago today, Wednesday, April 17, 1861, 143 delegates from across the Commonwealth of Virginia crowded into the neoclassical Capitol of Virginia at 10:00am to debate secession from the United States. Six Southern states had already seceded. South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas formed the Confederate States of America on February…
Continue reading ➞ 160 Years Ago Today: Virginia Adopts Ordinance of Secession
Yesterday, I posted about a mystery skirmish mentioned in Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's July 5, 1861 report to Assistant Adjutant-General E. D. Townsend that supposedly took place around present-day Ravenswood, West Virginia along the Ohio River in early July 1861. The engagement is not listed in any source that I am aware of.…
Just when I thought I'd found every early Civil War skirmish in Virginia and West Virginia, I came across several references to an engagement near what is today Ravenswood, West Virginia along the Ohio River in Jackson County. Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan mentions it in his July 5, 1861 report to Assistant Adjutant-General…
Henry Alexander Wise (1806–1876) was a Virginia lawyer and politician, serving as a U.S. Representative from 1833 to 1843 and Governor of Virginia from 1856 to 1860. As governor, Wise oversaw the imprisonment, trial, and execution of John Brown for his attack on the Harpers Ferry arsenal. Ironically, Wise organized an armed seizure of Harpers…
The Confederate Army of the Kanawha was formed on June 6, 1861 under the commander of former Virginia governor Henry A. Wise. Its mission was to defend the Kanawha River Valley in what was then western Virginia (today the state of West Virginia). Despite its name, the Army of the Kanawha was never more than…
Robert Latimer McCook (1827-1862) was a lawyer from Ohio, one of nine children of Daniel McCook. Robert, seven of his brothers, and his father all fought for the Union during the Civil War. Their family was known as the "Fighting McCooks". When the Civil War broke out, Robert recruited the 9th Ohio Infantry from among…
Maneuvers and battles in Virginia prior to the Battle of First Manassas were centered around control of major waterways. Virginia had three main waterways that defined its antebellum borders: the Ohio, Potomac, and Chesapeake rivers. Whoever controlled these rivers could rapidly transport troops and supplies and prevent the enemy from crossing over into friendly territory.…
Of the 27 separate engagements I'm tracking in Virginia prior to the Battle of First Manassas, I’ve completed stub pages for all but one. I found mention of a skirmish at Harper's Ferry when Union troops re-occupied the town after crossing the Potomac River, and two closely-related engagements near Newport News that took place in…
William Starke Rosecrans (1819-1898) was born in Ohio and despite having no formal education, graduated from West Point in 1842. He did not fight in the Mexican War and went into business as president of the Preston Coal Oil Company. When the Civil War broke out, he became aide-de-camp to Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan…
Spirit of '61 