After the Federal victory at Rich Mountain on July 11, 1861, Confederate Gen. Robert S. Garnett retreated from Laurel Hill in Barbour County with 4,000 troops, fearing his escape route was blocked and trying to circle back to safety. Army wagons struggled over narrow mountain traces, and the retreat was further slowed at the rain-swollen Shavers Fork of Cheat River. On July 13, 1,800 Federals under Capt. Henry W. Benham caught Garnett's rear guard at Corricks Ford, one-half mile south, and after a bloody skirmish the Confederates withdrew, leaving their dead, a cannon, and most of the wagons. A few minutes later, along the rocky shallows there, Garnett was killed while trying to delay the pursuit, and Federal troops crossed the ford and recovered his body. He was the first general killed in the Civil War.