The First Campaign - Wheeling, West Virginia - Civil War Discovery Trail Sites on Waymarking.com

Text of marker

The First Campaign
Civil War Begins in the Mountains of (West) Virginia

West Virginia, born of a nation divided, was the setting for the first campaign of America's Civil War. Although still part of Virginia in 1861, many citizens of the west remained loyal to the Union, rather than the Confederacy.  By late May, Union General George B. McClellan, commanding the Department of the Ohio, launched the firs campaign, ordering troops to cross the Ohio River and secure "Western" Virginia for the Union.

Here, during June-July 1861, McClellan's army won the inaugural Union victories of the Civil War.  Hailed as the North's first battle field hero, McClellan was summoned to Washington on July 22, following a stunning Union debacle at Manassas, Virginia.  Federal troops now occupied Western Virginia, as loyal delegates met in Wheeling to form the "Restored Government of Virginia," a Union government to oppose the Confederate one in Richmond.

By August 1861, Southern forces again threatened.  Confederate General Robert E. Lee attempted to reclaim Western Virginia, but failed miserably.  Troops of both armies remained to guard the mountain passes during that terrible winter.  By 1862, conflicted had shifted east.  The first campaign proved to be decisive; the western counties under Union control became the new state of West Virginia in 1863.  The arduous conflict in these mountains forged armies and leaders--notably McClellan, Lee, and Stonewall Jackson--who shaped the course of the Civil War.