In September 1863, Confederate Maj. Joseph K. Kesler of the 19th Virginia Cavalry led a raid from Pocahontas County through Upshur County and Centerville, present-day Rock Cave. On September 2, his commander, Col. William L. Jackson, ordered him with 200 men on foot to proceed to Sutton, capture the force there, and return. As Kesler made his way back to Pocahontas County from Sutton, he moved through Upshur County and on September 12 captured Capt. Daniel Gould’s company of Upshur County militia at Centerville, where they were stationed to protect the intersection of the Buckhannon and Little Kanawha Turnpike with Hacker Valley Road. Gould reportedly surrendered without firing a shot, and the Confederates burned the nearby fortification before marching away with their prisoners. Of the seventy militiamen captured there, seven later escaped and twenty-five were paroled, but the remaining forty-three died in Confederate prisoner-of-war camps including Belle Isle in Richmond, Virginia, Salisbury, North Carolina, and Andersonville, Georgia. Kesler’s successful scout earned him a letter of commendation from Maj. Gen. Samuel Jones on September 19 praising the gallantry, skill, enterprise, courage, and good conduct shown in the expedition.