An Encyclopedia of Early Civil War Virginia
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 