Capt. Harlock
Posts: 5358
Joined: 9/15/2001 From: Los Angeles Status: offline
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150 Years Ago Today: Near the head of the Gauley River at Cheat Mountain was a key position that controlled the traffic on the major turnpike and several mountain passes. It was held by almost 2,000 Union troops under General Joseph Reynolds. The bulk of his men were in a defensive position on the turnpike, with one regiment in a fort at the summit. Against this, General Robert E. Lee brought a force of about 5,000 men, the first time he would command a battle in the Civil War. Knowing the Federals were well fortified, Lee came up with a fairly complex battle plan which involved coordinated attacks on the Union positions from three directions. But his troops were not as well trained as those he had been accustomed to as an officer in the Mexican-american War. More, the weather was rainy and foggy, and for once the Union troops knew the terrain better than the Confederates. The result was confusion, and the longest-lasting battle yet fought in the Civil War. (In fact, different sources give different dates, but it appears to have gone on for three full days or more.) The attacks went in without any coordination, and were beaten off. The hoped-for surprise attack on the summit didn't happen at all. Captured Union soldiers convinced Lee that he was outnumbered two to one, when in fact the ratio was opposite or still higher. By September 15, Lee had had enough, and called off any further attacks. Two days later he retreated his force to Valley Mountain. The Federals had lost a total of 88 casualties comprising 10 killed, 14 wounded, and 64 captured, but remained in full possession of Cheat Mountain. Confederate casualties are unkown but the Union commanders claimed 100 enemy soldiers were killed and twenty were captured. Lee's reputation plummeted after this affair. Though in modern times it is astonishing to read, Southern newspapers at that time were calling him "Granny Lee" and "Evacuating Lee". And the realization began to spread that that part of Virginia was lost to the Confederacy. The Kanawa Valley is wholly traitorous ... You cannot persuade these people that Virginia can or ever will reconquer the northwest. -- Brigadier General Henry A. Wise, telegraph to Richmond, September 1861.
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< Message edited by Capt. Harlock -- 9/12/2011 4:24:17 AM >
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