Military
In August 1861, Confederate soldiers under Gen. Henry R. Jackson of Georgia erected Camp Bartow here, where fortifications on these hills guarded a disputed middle ground between Union and Confederate forces on the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike. The defenses were named in honor of a Georgian killed at First Manassas. Confederates stationed at Camp Bartow took part in Gen. Robert E. Lee's failed September assault on the fortress on Cheat Mountain, 12 miles west. On October 3, 1861, nearly 5,000 Union troops under Gen. Joseph Reynolds attacked 1,800 Confederates here in the Battle of Greenbrier River, but Reynolds retreated to Cheat Mountain after a spirited artillery duel. Gen. Jackson's defenders received a commendation from the Confederate War Department for their victory. Confederates at Camp Bartow suffered greatly from disease, and by late November the Southern army abandoned these works and withdrew nine miles east to Camp Allegheny, where they endured a horrible winter in the mountains.
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West Virginia · United States
