An Encyclopedia of Early Civil War Virginia
When the departure of Lew Wallace’s 11th Indiana left the B&O Railroad exposed in July 1861, Pennsylvania Reserves faced off against Confederate raiders in another fierce skirmish at New Creek Station. In early July, Colonel Lewis “Lew” Wallace and his 11th Indiana Infantry Regiment, stationed in Cumberland, Maryland, along the Potomac River, were ordered to…
Continue reading ➞ The Bucktail’s Stand at New Creek: A Detailed Account of the July 1861 Skirmish
Largely forgotten today, Thornsbury Bailey Brown was among the first Union casualties of the Civil War.
In late June, the small town of New Creek (today, Keyser, WV) along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was the scene of a brief skirmish between Maryland Home Guard and three Confederate companies, who ultimately burned the railroad bridge over the Potomac River. Accurate information on this skirmish is scarce, but while researching it, I…
In mid-June, Col. Lewis “Lew” Wallace, commanding the 11th Indiana Infantry Regiment, arrived in Cumberland, Maryland across the Potomac River from Virginia with a mission to guard the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. His 11th Indiana routed a Confederate force out of Romney, Virginia on June 11, then withdrew. Confederate reinforcements under Col. Ambrose Powell Hill…
Continue reading ➞ 160 Years Ago Today: Skirmish at Frankfort and Patterson’s Creek
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…
Continue reading ➞ 160 Years Ago Today: Action at Righter’s House
On June 11, 1861, Union Col. Lewis “Lew” Wallace, commanding the 11th Indiana Infantry Regiment at Cumberland, Maryland, attacked several companies of ill-trained militia at Romney, Virginia (today West Virginia) along the South Branch of the Potomac River. The Confederates fled in disorder. This, and the threat of McClellan's army coming over the mountains from…
Continue reading ➞ 160 Years Ago Today: Skirmish at New Creek
Col. Lewis "Lew" Wallace, commanding the 11th Indiana Infantry Regiment, was a bit of an aberration. He was a lawyer and friend of Indiana Governor Oliver P. Morton, and would go on to write the novel Ben Hur (1880). Wallace used his political connections to get his regiment, styled in French-inspired "zouave" jackets, transferred closer…
Continue reading ➞ 160 Years Ago Today: Engagement at Romney
For 36 days following adoption of a secession ordinance in Richmond, the federal government had respected Virginia's sovereignty, despite the seizing of federal property and facilities by secessionists and hostile exchanges of fire between U.S. Navy ships and Virginia shore batteries. That changed on May 23, 1861, when Virginia voters ratified secession by a large…
Continue reading ➞ 160 Years Ago Today: Grafton Occupied by Union Troops
Spirit of '61 