Jenkins's trans-Allegheny raid was a Confederate cavalry expedition conducted in Western Virginia (now West Virginia) and Ohio during August and September 1862. The raid served as a preliminary step in Confederate Major General William W. Loring's broader military strategy, specifically the Kanawha Valley Campaign of 1862, which aimed to drive the Union Army out of the Kanawha River Valley. The raid's strategic purpose was to position Confederate forces behind Union Army outposts near the beginning of the Kanawha River and cut off their primary route of retreat toward the safety of Ohio.
Brigadier General Albert G. Jenkins led the expedition, which began on August 22, 1862. During the raid, Jenkins successfully captured several towns and seized valuable supplies and weaponry. Most significantly, he crossed the Ohio River into Ohio, making him the first Confederate force to invade the state. After moving back into Virginia, Jenkins reached Buffalo, Virginia, on September 5. By establishing a position along the Kanawha River between the Union Army and Ohio, he successfully completed his assigned objective of blocking the Union Army's most direct route of retreat.
The raid represented a bold Confederate incursion into Union territory and demonstrated the reach of Confederate military operations in the Western Theater. By securing a blocking position along the Kanawha River, Jenkins's forces threatened to trap the Union Army and force them into a disadvantageous military situation. This maneuver was designed to support the larger Kanawha Valley Campaign, which would follow immediately after the raid's completion in September 1862.
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.
Confederate: Col. Albert Gallatin Jenkins (~500)
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