Battle of Greenbrier River, 1861: the attack on Camp Bartow

In the summer of 1861 the Union and the Confederacy fought for the mountains of western Virginia, where the turnpikes and passes of the Alleghenies linked the East with the Ohio valley. After the Union victory at Rich Mountain in July, Federal troops pushed east into Pocahontas County and built a fort on top of Cheat Mountain to hold the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike.²

In September General Robert E. Lee came to western Virginia to direct the Confederate effort. On 12 September he tried to take the Cheat Mountain fort and the Union camp at Elkwater with converging columns, but rain, rough country and bad communications wrecked the plan, and the Confederates fell back. Brigadier General Joseph J. Reynolds held his ground. In the account of e-WV, what worried the Confederates was the safety of the Virginia Central and the Virginia and Tennessee railroads behind them. Lee's aide-de-camp, Colonel John A. Washington, the last private owner of Mount Vernon, was killed while scouting at Elkwater, and the attackers were described as too wet and too hungry to fight. American History Central counts about 11,000 men in the Confederate Army of the Northwest under General William W. Loring, which Lee joined for the offensive.³ › Battle of Rich Mountain, 1861

Camp Bartow

After the failure at Cheat Mountain the Confederates dug in where the turnpike crossed the Greenbrier River. The position was called Camp Bartow, and it was commanded by Brigadier General Henry R. Jackson. American History Central puts his garrison at about 1,800 men.⁴

The success at Cheat Mountain encouraged Reynolds to strike back. The National Park Service and the American Battlefield Trust describe the operation as a reconnaissance in force; American History Central writes that he hoped to drive the Confederates from the camp and open the turnpike toward eastern Virginia, and puts his force at about 5,000 men.⁵

The night march

During the night of 2 to 3 October Reynolds advanced from Cheat Mountain with two brigades. Any hope of surprise ended when the Confederate pickets spotted the column before it reached the camp. The Federals drove the pickets in and opened fire with their artillery. American History Central dates the start of the main action to about eight in the morning.⁶

The fighting went on through the morning. Jackson's men, well dug in, held firm under a long bombardment, and an attempt to turn the Confederate right failed. After about four and a half hours, American History Central writes, Reynolds saw Confederate reinforcements approaching from Camp Allegheny on the mountain above and, wrongly fearing that he would be outnumbered, broke off the fight and marched back to Cheat Mountain.⁷

Small losses, large claims

For all the noise, the losses were light. The Union lost 43 men, 8 killed and 35 wounded, and the Confederates 52, 6 killed, 33 wounded and 13 missing. The American Battlefield Trust notes that in the months that followed both sides greatly exaggerated the losses they had inflicted, when in fact fewer than a hundred men had been hit in all; American History Central makes the same point about the two generals' reports.⁸

The National Park Service classes the result as indecisive. Reynolds had failed to dislodge Jackson, while the Confederates stayed where they were.⁹

Winter on the Allegheny

Camp Bartow did not last. Disease broke out among the Confederates, and more than a month after the battle they abandoned the camp and moved up to winter quarters on the summit of Allegheny Mountain. There, on 13 December 1861, e-WV records, Union General Robert H. Milroy attacked them with about 1,900 men against about 1,200, in one of the bloodiest fights of the war's first year, and was beaten off. Ironically, the e-WV entry notes, the Confederate brigade had received orders to withdraw a few days earlier; the failed attack persuaded Loring to leave Colonel Edward Johnson's men on the mountain for the winter. Camp Allegheny and the nearby Civil War campsites were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.¹⁰ › Battle of Droop Mountain, 1863