In April 1863, cannons on Cannon Hill helped defend Rowlesburg and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad during a Civil War skirmish. Because the railroad crossed the Cheat River at Rowlesburg, the area was strategically important to both Union and Confederate forces, linking eastern and western Union forces with supplies of food, ammunition, and troops. On April 26, 1863, 1,000 Confederate troops led by General W.E. "Grumble" Jones arrived to destroy the railroad's bridges, viaducts, and trestles in the area, but the Sixth West Virginia Infantry, 250 strong, and local residents joined under Major John Showalter to prepare an ambush south of town, protect the bridge from behind the railroad embankment, block the tracks with railroad ties, and ready the cannons atop Cannon Hill. Confederate attacks came from the south and from the eastern end of the railroad bridge across the river, but Union artillery turned them back, Showalter's force kept them from entering Rowlesburg or reaching their targets, and by nightfall Jones's troops had retreated west. The Confederates never threatened Rowlesburg again, and railroad traffic through the Cheat River canyon remained unimpeded for the rest of the war.