The Battle of Smithfield Crossing was a small battle during the American Civil War fought August 25 through August 29, 1864, in Jefferson and Berkeley counties in West Virginia.
On August 29, two Confederate infantry divisions under Lieutenant General Jubal Early crossed Opequon Creek at Smithfield Crossing and forced back Wesley Merritt's Union cavalry division. However, a counterattack from Ricketts' infantry division stopped the Confederate advance. Rebel troops were never ordered to attempt another advance, and ultimately the results were inconclusive. It was the last engagement of the war to take place in West Virginia.
The battle ranks in the top 3 percent of the more than 16,000 recorded armed encounters in the Civil War. The Middleway Conservancy Organization commemorated the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Smithfield Crossing in August 2014. To expand the community's knowledge and interest in this battle, the Conservancy hosts a living history event and reenactment of the battle.
American Battlefield Protection Program description
A brief description of the Confederacy pushing back Union troops is found in the commanding officer of the Fifth Louisiana Regiment's diary entry on August 29, 1864.
CWSAC Report Update and Resurvey: Individual Battlefield Profiles
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 Engagement at Smithfield Crossing (Opequon). 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.