On April 20, 1863, Confederate Gens. William E. “Grumble” Jones and John D. Imboden began a raid from Virginia through present-day West Virginia against the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Taking separate routes, they later reported that they marched 1,100 miles, fought several engagements, captured 100 Federals, seized about 1,200 horses and 4,000 cattle, and burned 4 turnpike bridges, more than 20 railroad bridges, 2 trains, and 150,000 barrels of oil, although most bridges were soon repaired and Confederate losses were slight. By May 26, both commands had returned to Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. After leaving Jones at Buckhannon on May 6, Imboden and his cavalry marched toward Summerville, where the two forces would reunite a week later. On May 12, with Col. William L. “Mudwall” Jackson and his second-in-command, Imboden struck Suttonville, where the small Federal garrison had just evacuated the town. Because bad weather and muddy roads had slowed his progress, he later wrote that no incident of interest had occurred until his men reached Big Birch River in Braxton on the evening of May 12, and that at Bulltown, Suttonville, and Big Birch the enemy had block-houses and intrenchments and had destroyed at each place large amounts of stores laid in for the summer’s campaign, after which he destroyed their quarters and block-houses at those places. Imboden and his men rode on to Summersville the next day, and Union troops soon reoccupied Suttonville. Local tradition later held that Phoebe Hefner, angered after being delayed in returning to her sister Elizabeth, who died of typhoid fever, went to Jackson’s camp and provided information on the Federal force’s strength and position that made Suttonville’s capture easy. Suttonville’s location on the Weston and Gauley Bridge Turnpike, one of the better roads in a rugged region with few roads, made it strategically important to both Union and Confederate forces for moving men and supplies north and south, and ensured that the community would be occupied or passed through several times during the war. In the summer of 1861, Union Gen. William S. Rosecrans and his 10,000-man army camped there, the largest force ever bivouacked in Suttonville or marched through central West Virginia; they left on September 7, 1861, and three days later fought the Battle of Carnifex Ferry.