Putnam County was a microcosm of the Civil War, sending about 10 percent of its population into service, nearly evenly divided between the Union and Confederacy, while soldiers and civilians alike endured occupation, theft, loss, divided families, combat, imprisonment, and death in ways that reflected the wider national experience. Although the county saw no major battles, it experienced extensive guerrilla warfare as partisan rangers raided, foraged, attacked at night, captured boats, and burned bridges, actions encouraged in 1862 by Virginia Governor John Letcher and often remembered by civilians as some of the worst hardships of the war. Prison camps were also among the harshest experiences, with makeshift conditions, poor sanitation, scarce food, and high mortality among captured soldiers. Buffalo served as a recruiting center for both sides, first for Confederate forces under Lt. Col. John McCausland in May and June 1861 and later for Union forces, including the 7th West Virginia Cavalry. Fighting tied to Putnam County included the Battle of Scary Creek on July 17, 1861, where Confederate forces under Col. George S. Patton checked a larger Union advance before the Confederacy soon abandoned Charleston; the Battle of Buffalo on September 26, 1862, when the 91st Ohio engaged the 16th Virginia Cavalry near the Atkeson farm; the skirmish at Hurricane Bridge in spring 1863, when Col. Albert G. Jenkins fought Union troops for five hours before moving on to Point Pleasant in an inconclusive action; the capture of Union General Eliakim P. Scammon at Winfield on February 3, 1864, after Confederate Major James H. Nounnan seized the steamboat Levi; and the skirmish at Winfield on October 26, 1864, when partisan ranger Capt. Phillip J. Thurmond was mortally wounded and Union control of Red House Shoals was preserved. The war also split households: of 602 traced soldiers from Putnam County, 311 joined the Confederacy and 291 the Union, and men sometimes fought while close relatives served on the other side, as in the case of George Washington Smith, who refused to fight for slavery while his brothers William and John served in the Confederate 2nd Virginia Cavalry. Civilians faced displacement and foraging by soldiers, and the county’s wartime divisions continued into peace, as West Virginia disfranchised former Confederates after the war before restoring political rights in 1871 through the Flick Amendment, which also guaranteed Black West Virginians the right to vote.