Jenkins in Buckhannon
The Raiders Strike
(Preface): Confederate Gen. Albert G. Jenkins led 550 cavalrymen on a 500-mile raid from Salt Sulphur Springs, Aug. 22-Sept. 12, 1862, attacking Federal forces and destroying military stores. He captured and paroled 300 Union soldiers, killed or wounded 1,000 others, destroyed about 5,000 small arms, and seized funds from a U.S. paymaster. At Ravenswood, he forded the Ohio River and raised the Confederate flag in Ohio on Sept. 4. He captured Racine, recrossed the river, and ended the raid at Red House on the Kanawha River.
Confederate Gen. Albert G. Jenkins and his cavalry halted a few miles east of Buckhannon on the Staunton and Parkersburg Turnpike on August 30, 1862. He knew that an immense quantity of Union supplies and several thousand small arms were stockpiled there. “After a few hours for rest and food, “Jenkins reported, “we proceeded down French Creek toward the town of Buckhannon. The population along this creek is among the most disloyal in all western Virginia.”
The day before, the Federal garrison in Buckhannon had learned of Jenkins’s approach. Units were called quickly into service, including Co. E, 10th West Virginia Infantry; the Upshur Battery and Battery E, West Virginia Light Artillery; and the Home Militia. The Home Militia was not regularly equipped---the members brought their personal shotguns, muskets and rifles.
When the defenders marched to Battle Hill (present-day Water Tank Hill, in front of you) to entrench on August 30, they were surprised to find the Confederates already there. The Federals quickly threw up breastworks of rails, logs, and straw stacks nearby, including across the junction of Marion and Kanawha Street below the hill and near this triangle park. Jenkins attacked. The defenders fought until the Confederate fire got too hot for them and beat a hasty retreat and scattered in every direction.
Jenkins’s men gathered all of the arms and supplies they could carry away, burned the rest, and then headed for Weston. They also took all of the surgical instruments and left only a handsaw to treat wounded Federals.
Marker is at the intersection of Marion Street and Barbour Street, on the right when traveling west on Marion Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
