Qualla: Battle of Droop Mountain

Battle of Droop Mountain: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit G.W. & C.B. Colton published in 1876, modifications by TwoScarsUp in 2020, Public domain. By the time the cannon smoke cleared on the afternoon of November 6, 1863, the Confederacy had effectively lost West Virginia. Droop Mountain rises 3,100 feet above the Greenbrier Valley in Pocahontas County, a long whaleback of sandstone with a view that lets you see, on a clear day, the next ridge and the one after that. For one cold afternoon in the autumn after Gettysburg, this mountain hosted the largest battle ever fought within the borders of the brand-new state of West Virginia. The fight was over by sundown. The strategic consequence lasted to the end of the war.

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Image: G.W. & C.B. Colton published in 1876, modifications by TwoScarsUp in 2020 | Public domain

Battle of Droop Mountain: Why Here, Why Then

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alvin Jewett Johnson (1827-1884) and TwoScarsUp, Public domain. West Virginia had been a state for less than five months. The Confederates still considered it Virginia and still believed they might reclaim it. Brigadier General William W. Averell, leading a Union mixed force of cavalry and mounted infantry out of the Kanawha Valley, was pushi...

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Image: Alvin Jewett Johnson (1827-1884) and TwoScarsUp | Public domain

Battle of Droop Mountain: The Numbers

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit United States War Department (much of the work was done by Robert N. Scott, Joseph W. Kirkley, and Fred C. Ainsworth., Public domain. On the morning of the battle, Jackson had about 750 men on the summit. Echols arrived with reinforcements around 9 a.m., bringing the total Confederate force to roughly 1,700 - mostly dismounted cavalry, plus the 22nd Virginia Infantry and a battalion that history would remember ...

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Image: United States War Department (much of the work was done by Robert N. Scott, Joseph W. Kirkley, and Fred C. Ainsworth. | Public domain

Battle of Droop Mountain: The Flanking March

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit lith of Ritchie & Dunnavant, 1856, Public domain. Averell had been a soldier long enough to know that uphill frontal assaults against entrenched infantry end one way. He sent Colonel Augustus Moor and 1,175 men - the 10th West Virginia Infantry, the 28th Ohio Infantry, and supporting cavalry - on a long circuitous march around t...

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Image: lith of Ritchie & Dunnavant, 1856 | Public domain

Battle of Droop Mountain: The Breastworks

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit G.W. & C.B. Colton with modifications by TwoScarsUp, Public domain. The Confederate center was held by dismounted cavalry behind log and stone breastworks - the 14th Virginia under Colonel Cochran, the 20th Virginia under Colonel Arnett. When the Union regiments reached the top of the mountain, the fight became hand-to-hand. Confederate soldiers,...

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Image: G.W. & C.B. Colton with modifications by TwoScarsUp | Public domain

Battle of Droop Mountain: What It Meant

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit TwoScarsUp, CC0. Droop Mountain was the largest Civil War engagement fought entirely within West Virginia, but in the national memory of the war it is barely a footnote. It came four months after Gettysburg, two weeks before Lincoln would travel to Gettysburg to dedicate the cemetery, in a state ...

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Image: TwoScarsUp | CC0