The Battle of Lewisburg occurred in Greenbrier County, Virginia (now part of West Virginia), on May 23, 1862, during the American Civil War. A Union brigade commanded by Colonel George Crook soundly defeated a larger Confederate force commanded by Brigadier General Henry Heth. Panicked Confederate forces escaped by crossing and burning a bridge across the Greenbrier River.
Prior to the battle, George Crook's Union force occupied Lewisburg, where almost all of the residents were Confederate sympathizers. A larger Confederate force led by Heth attacked early in the morning, believing it would have an easy victory. Crook sent two companies forward as skirmishers to meet Heth's attackers, and those two companies engaged and retreated. Believing the entire Union force was retreating, Heth sent his whole force forward, including his artillery. Crook had placed infantry regiments on both sides of town, and soon the outflanked Confederates were fleeing.
Heth lost at least four pieces of artillery in the battle, and more pieces were lost near the Greenbrier River Bridge. Many of his men discarded their weapons and provisions in the retreat while they were pursued by cavalry and infantry. The unexpected victory by Crook resulted in a promotion to brigadier general. Heth and a battalion of new recruits were blamed for the loss.
The Commonwealth of Virginia ratified an Ordinance of Secession that declared secession from the United States on May 23, 1861, and later joined other southern states in the Confederate States of America. Many people in the western portion of Virginia preferred to remain loyal to the United States, and they declared their own statehood on October 24, 1861—officially becoming the state of West Virginia on June 20, 1863. In the southern half of western Virginia, many of the people from the mountains were pro-Union, while the majority in the large valleys were pro-Confederate. Bushwhackers and partisan rangers practiced guerrilla warfare tactics to gain control of the region.
Within this area of mixed loyalties, Lewisburg has been the Greenbrier County seat since 1778. The town supported the Confederacy, and bushwhackers used it as a base of operations in Greenbrier and adjacent counties. The town is located in a small valley, with ridges on its east and west sides. It had a population of about 700 in 1862, and had a strategic location because of the intersection of two turnpikes. Washington Street, which was the Lewisburg portion of the James River and Kanawha Turnpike (today's U.S. Route 60), ran roughly east–west. Eastward, the road led to the Shenandoah Valley and the Virginia Central Railroad at Covington, Virginia. To the west, the road led to the Kanawha River Valley and Charleston. The Huntersville Turnpike (present day U.S. Route 219) ran roughly north–south. Three counties to the south of Lewisburg was the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad. This railroad and the Virginia Central Railroad were important to the Confederacy for transporting soldiers and supplies.
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 Battle of Lewisburg (First). 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:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Content adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Wikipedia source.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in the US, drawing on NRHP records, battlefield archives, census history and geological data to tell the full story of a place.