By Stephen Smoot
The British military historian John Keegan, perhaps one of the last great academic military historians the world will see until higher education regains its sanity, included in his work “Intelligence In War: Knowledge of the Enemy From Napoleon to Al Qaeda,” a full chapter on Major General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s famous Valley Campaign.
Keegan called it “a model of an active intelligence victory” and quoted Jackson’s “catchphase,” which was “always mystify and mislead.” In short, Jackson intimately knew the landscape of the Shenandoah and South Branch valleys. How? He had the only reliable maps of the area, its ridges, valleys, passes, little settlements, and the roadways, especially the bridges, that connected all.
Jackson had the task of occupying the Federal forces operating in the Shenandoah and South Branch valleys. General George McClellan landed the Army of the Potomac in spring of 1862 in Hampton Roads to threaten the Confederate States capital from the southeast. Jackson worked to keep those he faced from moving to attack Richmond from the west.
On May 8, Brigadier John Imboden received word from Jackson that “Providence blessed our arms with victory at McDowell yesterday.” After “the severe and bloody conflict,” as Imboden described, Federal commanders “Schenk and Milroy fled precipitately toward Franklin to unite with Fremont,” in command of United States forces in the region.
“The route lay along a narrow valley hedged up by high mountains perfectly protecting the flanks of the retreating (Federal) army from Ashby’s pursuing cavalry, led by Captain Sheetz,” recalled Imboden, who also called the Captain “an intrepid leader.”
Jackson made his way to the South Branch Valley upstream of Franklin, where Imboden stated that General John C. Fremont “remained in blissful ignorance that Jackson had left McDowell.”
Judge H. M. Calhoun’s definitive masterpiece on Pendleton County in the Civil War, “’Twixt North and South,” provides much more detail. Even if Fremont in Franklin remained unaware of Jackson’s intentions, on May 8 “the people of Franklin could hear the roar of the Battle of McDowell” with “many men from the town and county . . . known to be engaged.”
The road from Monterey to Franklin brought forth the first inkling of the Federal defeat with supply wagons “pouring into town,” as Calhoun described. Jackson’s forces “were in reach of the rear guard of the retiring army and almost constant skirmishing between them was kept up.” At Forks of the Water, Federal forces tried to relieve their exhaustion and care for wounded.
Federal forces sparked massive fires in the dry late spring timber between there and Trout Rock, using the ancient element in desperation to slow the advancing Confederates. Irregular bands supporting the Federals deployed to the narrow confines of Trout Rock to help to aid in the escape.
To the likely delight of most of the residents of Franklin, the Federal forces wore the visage of defeat. They feared Confederate States forces coming down the South Branch, but also across North Fork Mountain from Circleville. When on May 13 Fremont brought reinforcements to the Pendleton County seat, illness had reduced their ranks from 10,000 to 6,000.
Desperate Federals urged residents to leave town for safety, then pillaged the place like Vikings. According to Calhoun, every cow in the vicinity, save a curiously blue colored individual, was killed and eaten by the occupiers. A single piece of artillery guarded the future path of US 220, around where High Street intersects the highway. From the home of William McCoy, now Historic McCoy House, Federal forces ran telegraph communications along lines that paralleled the roadway.
Ten miles south along the road running between his target south to Monterey, Jackson stayed in the home of Henry Simmons Sr. As Calhoun wrote, “This strange, silent man used to go out into the yard and stand with his hands folded behind him, his face turned in the direction of Franklin.”
Jackson endeavored to bypass the Federal forces in Franklin by moving west of them along Entry Mountain and Smith Creek Run to surprise their enemy in what was then north of town, but currently is the approximate location of the AGK Italian Restaurant and T&K Markets. The “mighty warrior who was at the same time a simple man of God” called first for most of his army to join “Divine Service” at 10 a.m. on May 17.
Both sides spent the next week feeling each other out, one preparing for attack, the other possibly yet another retreat. Confederate States forces helpfully worked to keep their opposites from getting bored in town as skirmishers regularly harassed forces in Franklin. Meanwhile, Jackson plugged gaps providing easy escape for the Federals back to the Shenandoah Valley, forcing them to move north to Moorefield as they followed orders issued from President Abraham Lincoln and escaped encirclement by the Confederates.
As Shenandoah Valley historian Julia Davis wrote, “McDowell reported from the Rappahannock that Jackson was in front of him. Schenk in the Alleghenies said that Jackson was in his rear. Fremont, from West Virginia, reported that Jackson was going west. Banks felt comfortably sure that he was still in Harrisonburg. Lincoln dryly remarked that when a force got that badly strung out, it should be possible to hit it somewhere in the middle and cut it in two.”
The current route of US 220 as it moves north through Upper Tract toward Petersburg crossed from areas of Confederate States sympathy in Pendleton County, through Union supporters in Petersburg (not yet Grant County) then back through Southern leaning Moorefield on its way north through Hampshire County.
After its role in Jackson’s Valley Campaign, the road saw another example of Confederate States military prowess. This came not in the high tide of Confederate fortunes, but when most of the aspirant nation had disintegrated into chaos and all awaited its now inevitable defeat.
As the road extended north, moving repeatedly through different Federal and Confederate dominated areas, it served as a highway for spies, guerillas, brigands, and military raiders.
Next month marks McNeil’s Rangers famous raid on Cumberland, Maryland. An officially recognized assemblage under the 1862 Partisan Ranger Act, McNeil’s Rangers performed the vital service of gathering and sending vital horses and cattle from (mostly) Union supporting farms in the Potomac Highlands to the Army of Northern Virginia.
By 1865 the South Branch watershed lay denuded. Irregular guerilla forces commissioned by governments, bushwhackers who murdered mainly for their own enjoyment, and gangs of thieves operated freely in the Potomac Highlands as law and order faded to nothing.
On a bitterly cold February night, McNeil’s Rangers moved north in secret. Their mission lay in capturing three Federal generals, Benjamin Kelley, George Crook, and Rutherford B. Hayes. Following George Washington’s example at Valley Forge, the future president remained in his tent as per usual. Following the example of every other United States officer at Valley Forge, Crook and Kelley went for warmer quarters when the night temperatures fell to around zero.
It was there, in a lightly guarded hotel, that the Rangers captured and, without violence, neutralized the guard. They captured two of their three targets and removed them to Richmond as prisoners of war.
Crook, still considered the most outstanding irregular warfare general in the history of the United States Army (partly because he ignored rules of engagement) called Lieutenant Jesse McNeil and his Rangers success “the most brilliant exploit of the war.”
During the Civil War, the Republican Congress labored to build a foundation for what they hoped could be a national economy that could compete with Britain and the industrializing German states. Even before the conflict, railroads had shown themselves more efficient in moving people and goods. Federal support during and after the war boosted an already burgeoning industry.
West Virginia first saw construction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad that moved roughly along the Northwestern Turnpike, now US 50. To the south, the Chesapeake and Ohio mirrored that of the James and Kanawha Turnpike, later US 60.
As rail drew more commercial and residential traffic, it remained a priority. In West Virginia, railroads increasingly branched off the main trunk lines. Some connected economic centers with the main lines while others extended into timber rich wilderness areas to help extract first that commodity, later coal.
Industrial, timber, and mining areas attracted the most development while those centered on agriculture fell behind this transportation revolution. Even in the Potomac Highlands, the South Branch Valley Railroad starting in 1884 conveniently followed the river valley upstream to Petersburg. Keyser grew up due to its position on the B and O while the much older Romney also enjoyed the benefit of both connections. Upstream, Moorefield and Petersburg flourished/
Roads served primarily local travel with rail an inexpensive and faster alternative for longer excursions.
Upstream from Petersburg, the rail did not extend. Those living in Pendleton County still needed the old road system that had borne armies in the Civil War, but became increasingly ill maintained. Horses and carts still carried goods from place to place, making the trek to Petersburg and back, for instance, a difficult day-long journey at least.
A railroad free existence meant that the Industrial Revolution passed Pendleton County by until the next century. As national travel and transport moved to rail, the effect isolated the area from economic and social changes. Traditions brought from Europe in the 1700s persisted into the 20th century. Pendleton County remained stubbornly agrarian and better connected via roads to the Shenandoah Valley than anywhere of significance in West Virginia.
Though the roads continued to exist and be used, the relative isolation of the region upstream from Petersburg contributed to a distinct, different, and, let’s face it, sometimes ornery culture that many would call over the decades “The Free State of Pendleton County.”
Then came the innovation that changed everything when enterprising inventors attached an engine to a carriage, enabling it to run on fuel instead of animal power.
Once again, Americans, West Virginians, and residents of the Potomac Highlands thought more about the road system and how to bring it up to conditions favorable for automobile travel. In the Mountain State, this led to the “Good Roads Movement.” In the United States, this ushered in the US highway system.
