The following army units were involved in the Battle of Droop Mountain on November 6, 1863, near Hillsboro, West Virginia, in the American Civil War. Hillsboro, spelled "Hillsborough" on some maps from that century, is located in the mountainous terrain of Pocahontas County, West Virginia. A Union brigade commanded by Brigadier General William W. Averell defeated a smaller Confederate force commanded by Brigadier General John Echols and Colonel William L. "Mudwall" Jackson. A second Union force commanded by Brigadier General Alfred N. Duffié, tried to prevent the Confederate retreat, but did not engage at Droop Mountain. Aware of Duffié's troops, Confederate forces escaped before he arrived.
The Union Army units, and their commanders, are listed first. The Confederate Army units, and their commanders, follow. Many of the men on both sides were from West Virginia. In one case, Confederate Captain James McNeil of the 22nd Virginia Infantry Regiment was captured by the 3rd West Virginia Mounted Infantry—the regiment of McNeil's half brother, Private Alfred McKeever. Not shown is the Confederate force commanded by Brigadier General John D. Imboden, which did not arrive at Droop Mountain in time for the battle and unsuccessfully pursued Averell in the days after the battle.
Lt Jacob H. Mork, Acting Assistant Adjutant General
Lt John Rodgers Meigs, Engineer and Acting Aide-de-Camp
== Confederate Department of Western Virginia and Tennessee ==
Echols' Brigade numbered about 1,558 only seven days before the Battle of Droop Mountain, and he claimed he had no more than 1,700 men directly under his command.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
This page covers Action at Hillsboro (Pocahontas Co.). A full Aubrey report for the area pulls together this battle alongside historic sites, land records, and everything else the record holds within a few miles:
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