This Week in the Civil War

Battle of Rich Mountain

Apologies for the delay in these posts, we we spent the week traveling.

This week, in West Virginia McClellan launched attacks on the Confederate positions on Laurel Hill and Rich Mountain. Skirmishing continued at Laurel Hill for five days. At Rich Mountain the Confederates were defeated after two hours of fighting, and hearing news of these defeat the Confederates retreated from Laurel Hill as well. The Unions pursued, and General Robert Garnett, the Confederate commander, was killed in the Battle of Corrick’s Ford. This was the first general to be killed in the Civil War. This further victories over the Confederates made George McClellan, the Federal Commander, an even greater hero in the North.

Garnett

In Virginia, the two pronged attack on Richmond advanced. McDowell move out with the main part of the army from Washington DC, and Patterson remained in the Shenandoah Valley, moving very slowly after his skirmishes with Johnson. With McDowell's advance on July 16^th, the first large scale campaign of the Civil War began.