| May 19-21, 2006: We started this trip at the Ohio River and followed the route of the Union Army into the Kanawha River Valley of Western Virginia (now part of the state of West Virginia). Our route: | |
• Point Pleasant, WV • Barboursville • Scary Creek • Gauley Bridge • Chimney Corner |
• Cross Corners • Carnifex Ferry • Hawk's Nest State Park • Kanawha Falls • Sewell Mountain |
We started this Civil War tour at a Revolutionary War Monument at Point Pleasant, WV. Here you could see both the Ohio River and the Kanawha River, which served as the highways for the Union Army to enter the Kanawha Valley. In July 1861, McClellan sent Cox there to secure the resources of the Kanawha Valley and, perhaps more importantly, to cross the valley and the mountains into Lexington and the Shenandoah Valley. This was one of four planned invasion routes into Virginia.
The Kanawha Valley was then part of Virginia but it was more pro-Union than eastern Virginia. The economy there was tied to the Ohio River Valley.
Union forces came on steamboats and headed east toward Charleston. In spite of Confederate resistance, they took the Kanawha Valley. The Confederate Army made two attempts to take it back but failed.
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Photos of the Kanawha Valley Campaign Tour
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Dr. Poland's book The Glories of War provides a thorough examination of the Kanawha Valley Campaign.
Civil War Memoirs of Two Rebel Sisters takes place during this campaign.
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