The Jones–Imboden Raid was a Confederate military action conducted in western Virginia (now the state of West Virginia) in April and May 1863 during the American Civil War. The raid, led by Brig. Gens. William E. Jones and John D. Imboden, was aimed at disrupting traffic on the vital Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and reasserting Confederate authority in transmountain Virginia in an effort to derail the growing statehood movement in the region, since voters had in March approved a new Constitution and statehood only awaited Congressional and Presidential approval, which took place before the raid began. President Lincoln issued the statehood proclamation on April 20, 1863.
Raiders claimed success from a military vantage, since they severely damaged several railroad bridges (though not the two most critical), as well as an oil field and other critical Union resources. Raiders also captured valuable supplies and gained recruits. From a political standpoint, however, the raid failed, for it had little effect on pro-statehood sentiment, and West Virginia was admitted as the 35th state of the Union in June.
The raid was first proposed by John Hanson McNeill of McNeill's Rangers. He planned to destroy at least one important bridge of the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad, which was vital to the Union supply lines through western Virginia. McNeill's idea was expanded into a two-prong attack. While Gen. William E. "Grumble" Jones attacked the B&O between Grafton (West) Virginia and Oakland, Maryland, Gen. John D. Imboden would attack Union garrisons at Beverly, Philippi, and Buckhannon. Raiders wanted to secure supplies, disrupt the B&O Railroad, raise recruits and, if possible, cripple the Unionist government in Wheeling—which was a growing industrial city because of the B&O, and as a major Ohio River port where the Wheeling Suspension Bridge carried the National Road across the Ohio River.
General William E. Jones, whose nickname "Grumble" reflected his irascible temper and profanity-laced tirades, commanded the 6th, 7th, 11th, and 12th Virginia Cavalry, the 1st Maryland Cavalry Battalion , the 35th Battalion of Virginia Cavalry, and McNeill's Rangers. He left Rockingham County with 3,500 men on April 21, 1863, and moved into (West) Virginia. His primary targets were two bridges in Preston County near Rowlesburg. Passing through Greenland Gap on April 25, 1863, he encountered a fortified troop detachment of the 23rd Illinois and was delayed four hours in capturing their position (Battle of Greenland Gap). Jones' Confederates continued west, riding to the summit of Backbone Mountain and on to Red House the same day (Red House is located at the intersection of US 219 and US 50). Here he encamped briefly.
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.
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