Christopher Q. Tompkins, born in 1813 in Matthews County, Virginia, graduated from West Point in 1836 and became a prominent industrial businessman in the Kanawha Valley before the Civil War. From May to November 1861 he served as colonel of the Confederate 22nd Virginia Infantry, then resigned his commission, moved to Richmond, and used his knowledge to aid war manufacturing efforts. He died in May 1877 in Richmond. Gauley Mount, located 3 miles east of Gauley Bridge, was the home of Christopher and Ellen Tompkins. Except for a brief period in 1862, the estate served as a major Union encampment during the Civil War, with Ellen and the children there through late 1861. General Floyd’s decision to fire artillery at the camp in 1861 led Colonel Tompkins to resign from the 22nd Virginia Infantry.