In 1861, Col. Erastus B. Tyler’s 7th Ohio Infantry constructed earthworks near Suttonville to protect the suspension bridge across the Elk River. Later that year, Capt. Weston Rowand’s Co. K, 1st Virginia Cavalry (US), about a hundred men, occupied the fort. At 10 A.M. on Wednesday, December 29, approximately eighty Confederate partisans known locally as the Moccasin Rangers attacked the Federals. Because Rowand and his second-in-command, 1st Lt. Charles D. Lawson, were absent, 2nd Lt. Andrew Dawson directed the defense. Capts. John L. Spriggs and George Down, who later commanded companies of the 19th Virginia Cavalry (CS), led the Confederate attack. The engagement lasted until 4 P.M., when the Federals, low on ammunition and believing they were about to be overrun, withdrew toward Weston. Spriggs pursued them to within three miles of Bulltown and, on returning, found Suttonville ablaze. Who started the fire is uncertain, but it consumed most of the town, including the courthouse. The Confederates then marched south to Webster County after burning the Federal stores they could not carry off. On December 30, Union Col. Henry Anisansel led detachments of the 1st Virginia Cavalry and 3rd Virginia Infantry from Weston and attacked the partisans in Webster County. Union Col. George Crook joined the pursuit the next day from Summersville with six companies of the 26th Ohio Infantry. The Federals killed several partisans and burned buildings. When Union forces reoccupied Suttonville, several residents accompanied the troops to safety in Weston because their sustenance had been destroyed, and the county records, earlier removed to Felix Sutton’s house for safekeeping, were also taken to Weston.