Droop Mountain

Background and plans

Virginia's break with the Union began on April 17, 1861, when delegates gathered at the Virginia Secession Convention and adopted an Ordinance of Secession severing the state from the United States. Voters ratified this ordinance in a referendum on May 23, after which Virginia formally joined the Confederacy. Not everyone in the state's northwestern counties supported this course, however, and in June representatives from that region gathered at the Second Wheeling Convention. There, on June 19, they agreed to form a rival state government loyal to the Union and based in Wheeling. Statehood for this loyal faction won approval on October 24, 1861, though West Virginia would not officially enter the Union until June 20, 1863.

Even after West Virginia's founding, Confederate regulars continued operating inside its borders. Not everyone living there backed the Union cause, and bushwhackers and partisan rangers kept the state unsettled through guerrilla activity. Historians believe the state contributed somewhere between 20,000 and 22,000 men to each side during the war. One community that leaned Confederate was Lewisburg, situated close to Virginia's border, which saw five separate skirmishes over the course of the conflict, a small-scale battle in 1862, and a brief Confederate occupation followed by capture in 1863.

Geography worked against the new state: rough terrain, scarce roads, sparse settlement, and widespread poverty defined much of West Virginia. For Union forces, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad running through the northern counties proved a vital asset, though Confederate raiders and their sympathizers frequently targeted it, forcing the Army to devote resources to guarding the line. Commanders generally viewed West Virginia's garrison as defensive in nature, tasked with repelling Confederate incursions and suppressing guerrilla activity, and consequently spread their troops thin across numerous small posts.

Railroads shaped much of the conflict in this region. Just as Union forces depended on the B&O line to the north, the Confederacy relied on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, running through Virginia near West Virginia's southern edge. This line carried Confederate troops and supplies between the two states and linked with additional rail connections at Lynchburg, Virginia, and Bristol, Tennessee. Telegraph lines ran alongside the tracks, and the route passed near valuable salt and lead deposits close to Wytheville, Virginia, the lead mine alone supplying roughly one third of all lead used by Confederate armies for ammunition. Union forces launched several raids against this railroad from bases in West Virginia. One such effort, mounted in mid-July 1863 by Union cavalry and mounted infantry and remembered as the Wytheville Raid or Toland's Raid, caused no lasting harm to the line and never came near the mines. Then in August 1863, Confederate commanders grew anxious that an operation aimed at Lewisburg actually targeted the railroad; this expedition, led by Brigadier General William W. Averell, ended in what was called a "handsome repulse" at the hands of a brigade under Colonel George S. Patton during the Battle of White Sulphur Springs.

Command of the Union's Department of West Virginia fell to Brigadier General Benjamin Franklin Kelley, who answered to General-in-Chief Henry Halleck. Acting through his ch

Retreat and pursuit

Among the final Confederate officers still on Droop Mountain was Major Robert Augustus Bailey of the 22nd Virginia Infantry, who suffered a mortal wound while attempting to rally his men. His regiment had entered the fight with 550 soldiers and suffered 113 casualties, along with three wounded captains (two of them seriously hurt) and a lieutenant who was mortally wounded. By the moment Bailey fell, the road leading to Lewisburg had become choked with artillery pieces, caissons, wagons, and horses. The withdrawal grew increasingly frantic, with soldiers discarding their weapons as they fled. According to one account, an officer told his company simply to get out and save themselves, and numerous Confederates scattered into the surrounding woods. Colonel Patton could not bring his command back into order until reaching Frankford, some 19 miles (31 km) south of where the fighting had occurred. Colonel Cochran and Lieutenant Colonel Thompson were both believed at first to have been taken prisoner or killed, though neither was harmed, and both eventually made their way back to their units. Meanwhile the 26th Virginia Infantry Battalion, stationed along a separate road before the engagement began, found itself severed from Echols' Brigade.

Moor's infantry led the chase after the retreating Confederates, opening fire on them from the spot where the Confederate guns had originally stood. Moor recounted a landscape littered with dead and dying horses, describing the fleeing enemy as a mass that dissolved as it scattered into the woods south of the road. His infantry followed for roughly six miles (9.7 km) before halting to camp once darkness fell. Gibson's Independent Cavalry Battalion and Ewing's Battery also joined the pursuit, pushing forward about seven miles (11 km) before pulling back a mile (1.6 km) once night arrived. Schoonmaker noted that his men settled into camp at eight in the evening.

On November 6, Duffié clashed briefly with enemy pickets atop Little Sewell Mountain before continuing to Meadow Bluff, a point roughly 15 miles (24 km) from Lewisburg. In the early hours of November 7, at two in the morning, his advance guard came under a short attack, and by three o'clock his force was already advancing toward Lewisburg. The command reached Lewisburg by nine that morning just as the Confederate rear guard was pulling out, though the bulk of the Confederate force had already passed through two hours before. That rear guard consisted of the 16th Virginia Cavalry Regiment, which had spent the battle guarding the western approach to Lewisburg and had therefore avoided the fighting at Droop Mountain. Duffié sent the 2nd West Virginia Cavalry ahead to continue the pursuit, but he turned back toward Lewisburg once he encountered blockades and discovered that the bridge over the Greenbrier River had been burned. Along the way, the 2nd West Virginia Cavalry seized 110 head of cattle and took a handful of prisoners. Union forces also captured knapsacks, tents belonging to the 22nd Virginia Infantry, and additional supplies at Lewisburg. Averell placed Schoonmaker's cavalry at the front of his advance on the morning of November 7, and when Schoonmaker's men arrived at Lewisburg they discovered looting underway, which the provost marshal quickly halted. Duffié later noted that Averell did not reach Lewisburg until roughly 4:30 in the afternoon. By nightfall, Echols had reached Salt Sulphur in Monroe County, close to the Virginia line.

The chase after Echols came to a halt on November 8, with Averell and Duffié each seeming to point to the other as responsible for stopping it. Averell explained that he had resumed the pursuit that morning but called it off after running into what he termed a formidable blockade, while also citing the burden of prisoners and captured property along with the poor condition of Duffié's infantry for further campaigning. Duffié's account stated that he pushed forward that same morning with his cavalry and mounted infantry, only to receive orders from Averell to turn back

Aftermath

Averell described his triumph at Droop Mountain in the strongest terms, insisting that the enemy's withdrawal turned into a complete rout. Duffié saw things differently, arguing that a lighter engagement, one that simply held the Confederates in place until his own force arrived at Lewisburg, might have allowed the two Union commands to capture nearly the whole rebel force. The Confederates themselves recognized their peril: had they kept their position on the mountain, they would have been squeezed between Duffié's approach and Averell's advance, and had they lingered rather than pulling back when they did, the infantry wings under Moor and Oley would have closed around them. Looking back on the campaign,