Battle of Laurel Hill

Union and Confederate forces clashed along the Beverly-Fairmont Turnpike on July 7-11, 1861, as Union General Morris was ordered to "amuse" General Garnett at Laurel Hill and make him believe the main attack would come there while Major General George McClellan flanked the Confederates 20 miles south at Rich Mountain. Spirited skirmishing took place among these hills, and Morris found it hard to restrain his troops while the Confederates fought with equal enthusiasm. Many deeds of bravery were witnessed there in what was the baptism of fire for both armies. Colonel William B. Taliaferro of the 23rd Virginia Infantry, C.S.A., recalled "The whistling of musket balls and the peculiar note of the Minnie projectiles as they rush madly past on their errand of death is a frightful sound to the recruit who for the first time hears it." John B. Pendleton of the 23rd Virginia Infantry, C.S.A., said, "I can say with truth that when called out to meet the enemy I am perfectly cool and deliberate." Ambrose Bierce of the 9th Indiana Infantry, U.S.A., remembered that a few dozen men who had been exchanging shots with Confederate skirmishers grew tired of the resultless fighting and, apparently without orders or officers, ran forward into the woods to attack the Confederate works, then came out faster than they had gone in.

West Virginia · United States