165 YEARS AGO: In western Virginia, a Federal force looks to clear Confederates out of the Great Kanawha Valley while Confederates try to coordinate and consolidate their forces.
Category: West Virginia
You Have Annihilated Two Armies
165 YEARS AGO: In northwestern Virginia, one Confederate commander surrenders his force, and another becomes the first general killed in action.
The Battle of Rich Mountain
OTD 165 YEARS AGO: A detachment of George B. McClellan’s Federal army attacks an isolated portion of Robert S. Garnett’s Confederate army near Beverly in northwestern Virginia.
Irksome Delays in Northwestern Virginia
OTD 165 YEARS AGO: Heavy skirmishing erupts at the foot of Laurel Hill as George B. McClellan’s Federals prepared to attack Robert S. Garnett’s Confederate defenders. Garnett expresses doubt about his capability to defend against the advancing enemy, as McClellan strategizes for an impending battle at Laurel Hill and Rich Mountain.
A Foreign and Hostile Country
165 YEARS AGO: Various detachments of Federal and Confederate forces maneuver toward a confrontation in Unionist western Virginia.
The “Reorganized” Virginia State Government
OTD 165 YEARS AGO: Unionists in northwestern Virginia assemble a convention at Wheeling, where they declare their independence from the rest of Virginia and request recognition by the U.S. government.