Battle of Philippi

In the spring of 1861, Union forces moved into northwestern Virginia to secure the vital Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, protect important turnpikes, and support Unionists against Confederates as the two sides fought numerous engagements between June and December, including Philippi, the war's first land battle. Union guns opened on Philippi on June 3, 1861, after both sides had moved to hold positions along the railroad in the previous month. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee had ordered Col. George A. Porterfield to raise troops in western Virginia, and Porterfield reached Philippi on May 30, where Capt. Albert G. Reger had formed a company, while Union forces under Col. Benjamin F. Kelley arrived the same day in Grafton, fifteen miles north. On the night of June 2-3, Federal forces advanced on Philippi in two columns, one under Kelley and one under Col. Ebenezer Dumont, marching through a driving rain. Dumont arrived first and ordered Col. James B. Steedman to place two six-pounder cannons on Talbott Hill and wait for a pistol shot signaling that the other column was in position. According to tradition, Mrs. Matilda Humphreys sent her youngest son, Newton Humphreys, to warn the Confederates, then fired her pistol when Union soldiers intervened, and the gunners mistook it for the planned signal and shelled Philippi before Kelley's column arrived. Col. Frederick W. Lander then led Dumont's troops down Talbott Hill and across the covered bridge in a charge, racing his horse down the muddy slope at breakneck speed, and the Confederates fled. Only a few men were wounded, and no one was killed. The many Union victories in northwestern Virginia helped make George B. McClellan's reputation and damaged that of Robert E. Lee, though that situation reversed in 1862, and despite later Confederate raids, today's West Virginia remained largely under Federal control for the rest of the war.

Philippi, West Virginia · United States