In late May 1861, General George B. McClellan moved Union troops across the Ohio River to secure western Virginia for the Union and protect the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, while Confederates sought to hold the Staunton and Parkersburg Turnpike, a vital route from the Shenandoah Valley to the Ohio River that crossed Rich Mountain through a nearby notch. After the Confederate defeat at Philippi on June 3, in the First Land Battle of the Civil War, Confederate forces reorganized at Huttonsville under General Robert S. Garnett, who fortified the passes at Rich Mountain and Laurel Hill as "the gates to the Northwestern country." Union forces routed the Confederates at Rich Mountain on July 11, and McClellan occupied Beverly the next day, leaving this area in Federal hands for the rest of the war. Garnett became the first general killed in the Civil War at Corrick's Ford, near present-day Parsons, on July 13. General Robert E. Lee came to the area in August and established headquarters at Valley Mountain but failed to drive out the Federals. These Union successes helped lead to two important results: President Abraham Lincoln promoted McClellan to command all Union armies after the Federal defeat at Manassas, Virginia, on July 21, and continued Federal control allowed the statehood movement to grow until West Virginia became the 35th state of the Union on June 20, 1863.