On April 20, 1863, Confederate Gens. William E. "Grumble" Jones and John D. Imboden began a raid from Virginia through present-day West Virginia against the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Taking separate routes, they later reported that they marched 1,100 miles, fought several engagements, captured 700 Federals, seized about 1,200 horses and 4,000 cattle, and burned 4 turnpike bridges, more than 20 railroad bridges, 2 trains, and 150,000 barrels of oil, although most bridges were soon repaired and Confederate losses were slight. By May 26, both commands had returned to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Imboden, with Col. William L. "Mudwall" Jackson as his second in command, separated from Jones's cavalry at Buckhannon on May 6 and arrived at Suttonville on May 12. In May 1863, Suttonville still bore the effects of a massive 1861 fire. Imboden recalled that at Bulltown, Suttonville, and Big Birch, the enemy had blockhouses and intrenchments and had destroyed large amounts of stores laid in for the summer's campaign, and that he destroyed their quarters and blockhouses at those places. The small Federal garrison at Suttonville had evacuated, but after the Confederates rode on to Summersville the next day, Union troops soon reoccupied the town. Suttonville stood on the Weston and Gauley Bridge Turnpike, a hard-surfaced dependable road that before the war helped local farmers transport crops to nearby mills, but during the conflict brought occupation and marching armies from both sides. In December 1861, a fire devastated Suttonville while Federal and Confederate troops were nearby, though its origin was never determined. The following summer, Union Gen. William S. Rosecrans's 10,000-man army camped there, the largest force to march through central West Virginia, and left on September 7, 1861; three days later it fought in the Battle of Carnifex Ferry.