Gauley Bridge - A Town in Between

When the war began, most residents of this part of present-day West Virginia were Confederate in their sympathies. Both Confederate and Union forces considered the wooden covered bridge here strategically important because the James River and Kanawha Turnpike linked the Ohio River with the James River. The original bridge piers are in the river to the right of the railroad bridge.

In the summer of 1861, Confederate Gen. Henry A. Wise, the former governor of Virginia, and his troops controlled the Kanawha River valley. When Union Gen. Jacob D. Cox led his command to the valley in July, Wise retreated. Passing through the community of Gauley Bridge on July 26, he ordered the bridge burned to impede Cox. The Federals established a position near the village and remained there until mid-August, when Cox and his forces left temporarily. After Cox returned, Confederate Gen. John B. Floyd posted guns atop a nearby mountain and shelled the Federals for a week beginning November 1. The artillery fire was ineffective, and Union forces soon maneuvered Floyd into retreating.

Cox’s men constructed a new wire suspension bridge across the river early in 1862. In the spring, Cox launched an offensive from Gauley Bridge and did not return, although Federal forces continued to occupy the area. In September, Confederate Gen. William W. Loring campaigned in the Kanawha River Valley and drove out the Union garrison, which destroyed the second bridge on September 11. The Confederates soon abandoned the valley, however, and it remained in Union hands until the war ended.

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The first bridge on the James River and Kanawha Turnpike here was begun in 1823 and completed in April 1825. During construction, four acres of a local family’s land at one end of the bridge was condemned for abutments and a tollhouse. Angered by the loss of the property, the head of the family and one of his sons burned the bridge in July 1826. They were tried, convicted, and imprisoned for the crime. In October 1830, another son applied to the turnpike superintendent for a contract to maintain parts of the road on either side of Gauley Bridge. Because the superintendent suspected that he had been in collusion with his father and brother to burn the first bridge, he did not get the job.

Marker is at the intersection of Midland Trail (U.S. 60) and Taylor Hill Road, on the right when traveling west on Midland Trail.

Courtesy hmdb.org

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