An Encyclopedia of Early Civil War Virginia
The following account of the death of Brig. Gen. Robert S. Garnett at Corrick's Ford on July 13, 1861 was written by Henry Clay Wheeler (1841-1924), Company E, 7th Indiana, who claimed to be among the party who fired at the general on that fateful day. It appeared in The National Tribune, a veterans' newspaper,…
The Chesapeake Bay, a defining feature of Virginia's maritime border, stretches approximately 200 miles south from the mouth of the Susquehanna River in Maryland to Cape Henry and Cape Charles, Virginia. It is the largest estuary in the United States, providing an important avenue for domestic and international trade and commercial fishing. The 170-mile long…
In June 1861, just weeks after Virginia’s secession from the Union, Governor John Letcher issued a fiery proclamation to the people of Northwestern Virginia—a region increasingly resistant to Confederate alignment. His message was clear: the time for debate was over, and unity under the Confederate cause was now a matter of duty and survival. John…
Continue reading ➞ Governor Letcher’s 1861 Call to Arms: Uniting Virginia for the Confederacy
When a brief Civil War skirmish near Alexandria left two men dead, its aftermath sparked outrage on both sides. A Virginia woman’s diary captured the moment in gut-wrenching detail. Before sunrise on the morning of Sunday, June 30, 1861, a brief but deadly clash unfolded just southwest of Alexandria, Virginia, where Confederate scouts encountered Union…
Continue reading ➞ Account of the Action at Pike’s Creek in the Diary of Anne S. Frobel
Fifty-eight. That’s how many days passed between the Union Army crossing the Potomac River into northeastern Virginia and the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run). During those nearly two months, the Union and Confederate armies shadowboxed in that corner of Virginia, hampered by undisciplined and inexperienced soldiers while probing for enemy weaknesses. The exact number…
In the tense opening days of the Civil War, a single gunshot would mark the first true casualty of battle—but whose name deserves that grim distinction? Between riots, duels, and chaotic skirmishes, the first soldier killed in action is a title claimed by many, but only one truly fits the definition. Because of its proximity…
Continue reading ➞ Who Was the First Civil War Soldier Killed in Action in Virginia?
Determining precisely when Virginia joined the Confederacy is a complex issue. President Abraham Lincoln’s administration maintained that the Union was "indivisible" and that secession was illegal. According to this view, a state could not leave the Union under any circumstances. Therefore, those taking up arms against the federal government were considered rebels or insurrectionists, while…
In the late spring and early summer of 1861, all eyes were on northeastern Virginia as both sides contemplated their first moves in a war they predicted would be over in a single climactic battle. The small skirmishes that took place on the road to First Manassas were few in number but received outsized attention…
Portrait of John C. Higginbotham of Buchkannon. West Virginia & Regional History Center, Morgantown, WV Soon after Virginia voted to secede, John Carleton Higginbotham (1842-1864), an 18-year-old student at Lynchburg College, returned home to fight for the Confederacy. His father, William Thomas Higginbotham (1821-1892), was a prominent landowner in Upshur County and owned nearly 10…
Continue reading ➞ “No Meat Hurt”: Letter from John C. Higginbotham
On Friday, July 19, 1861, a seven-man patrol from Captain Henry W. Burdsall's Independent Company of Ohio Cavalry was ambushed along the West Fork of the Greenbrier River, near present-day Durbin, West Virginia, in Pocahontas County. Confederate reports claimed that all but one of the men were killed, but the reality was different. One man…
Spirit of '61 