On the night of June 12, 1861, Col. Lewis Wallace led his 11th Indiana (Zouaves) Regiment from Cumberland, Maryland, by train across the Potomac River into present-day West Virginia after learning that several hundred Confederate troops were in Romney, drilling and forcing Unionists into Confederate service. After detraining and marching across the mountains before dawn, Wallace and his men neared Romney about 8 A.M. on June 13, encountered pickets who fired and ran into town to give the alarm, and approached the covered wooden bridge spanning the South Branch of the Potomac River. Seeing a battery of two guns positioned to sweep the road, Wallace sent his advance guard across the bridge on the run to leap down an embankment and watch the windows of the large brick house Sycamore Dale, from which a warm fire opened; the guard returned the fire, suffering only a sergeant wounded, and Wallace then led a second company across and soon drove the enemy from the house. Wallace and his regiment pursued the Confederates, but they fled along with most of Romney’s civilians, and after searching the town for weapons and supplies, he marched his men back to Cumberland, arriving at 11 P.M.

Photo: Anonymous

Photo: J. J. Prats

Photo: J. J. Prats

Photo: Devry Becker Jones

Photo: Devry Becker Jones

Romney, West Virginia · USA