Qualla: Battle of Charleston (1862)

Battle of Charleston (1862): Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The map is by Alvin Jewett Johnson (1827-1884), and was published in 1864. TwoScarsUp made modifications., Public domain. Just before 9:30 on the morning of September 13, 1862, Union pickets east of a small Virginia town began falling back through the cornfields above the Kanawha River. The Confederates were closer than expected. By 1:30 that afternoon, with both sides hammering each other with artillery, the Union commander gave the order to burn the government supply houses he could not haul away. By 2:00, the Union infantry was streaming across the wire-suspension bridge over the Elk River, setting it on fire as they crossed. By nightfall, Charleston was Confederate. The Union army was retreating toward the Ohio River in what would become known as Lightburn's Retreat - an eighty-mile fighting withdrawal that ended six days later at Point Pleasant.

Image: The map is by Alvin Jewett Johnson (1827-1884), and was published in 1864. TwoScarsUp made modifications. | Public domain

Battle of Charleston (1862): The Approach

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit William Wing Loring (1818-1886)., Public domain. By the late summer of 1862, the Kanawha Valley was a strategic prize. The river led west to the Ohio, and the salt works upriver supplied much of the eastern Confederacy. Confederate Major General William W. Loring, commanding the Department of Southwestern Virginia, brought abou...

Image: William Wing Loring (1818-1886). | Public domain

Battle of Charleston (1862): Fayetteville

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jacob Dolson Cox (1828-1900) with highlighting added by TwoScars, Public domain. On September 10, Loring's force attacked the Union garrison at Fayette Court House, today's Fayetteville. Federal Colonel Edward Siber commanded the post. The fighting lasted all day - artillery exchanges, infantry assaults on the entrenchments, a stiff back-and-forth in the brok...

Image: Jacob Dolson Cox (1828-1900) with highlighting added by TwoScars | Public domain

Battle of Charleston (1862): The Battle in the Town

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The map is by Alvin Jewett Johnson (1827-1884), and was published in 1864. TwoScarsUp made modifications., Public domain. Charleston in 1862 was a town of about 1,500 people on the north bank of the Kanawha River, with the Elk River entering from the north on the downstream side. The James River and Kanawha Turnpike crossed the Elk on a single suspension bridge. The geography forced the fight. Light...

Image: The map is by Alvin Jewett Johnson (1827-1884), and was published in 1864. TwoScarsUp made modifications. | Public domain

Battle of Charleston (1862): Lightburn's Retreat

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit TwoScarsUp, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cutting the Elk River bridge bought Lightburn time but did not end the battle - the artillery exchange continued until ten o'clock that night. Around three in the afternoon, the Union wagon train had jammed because overloaded wagons and a panicky quartermaster had stopped the col...

Image: TwoScarsUp | CC BY-SA 4.0