The Civil War battle fought here on September 10, 1861, was named by the Union army after a nearby river ferry. Although it was more than a mile downstream, the ferry was the closest well-known landmark. Built by William Carnefix in the early 1800s, it formed an important link between the James River and Kanawha Turnpike, now Route 60, and the Gauley and Weston Turnpike, now part of Routes 39 and 19. The spelling of the name Carnifex has varied over the years, and Carnefix is the form found on the gravestone of William Carnefix, who died in 1856.