Qualla: Battle of Fayetteville (1862)

Battle of Fayetteville (1862): Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit W. L. Nicholson modified by TwoScarsUp, Public domain. In September 1862, while Robert E. Lee was marching his army across the Potomac toward Maryland, a quieter Confederate offensive was rolling through the mountains of what was about to become West Virginia. Confederate major general William W. Loring had been ordered to drive Union forces out of the Kanawha Valley, and on September 10, his troops met a small Union garrison at Fayetteville. The fighting was brief by Civil War standards, but the Confederates carried the field, opening a road that allowed them to push north toward Charleston. Loring's men would hold the valley for less than a month before withdrawing - but those few weeks in the autumn of 1862 mattered, and they cost lives on both sides of the ridge.

Image: W. L. Nicholson modified by TwoScarsUp | Public domain

Battle of Fayetteville (1862): A Valley Worth Taking

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit sastafford, CC BY 2.0. The Kanawha Valley had become strategically important by 1862 not just for its rivers and roads but for its salt and its loyalties. The new state of West Virginia, formally admitted to the Union in 1863, was being born out of these very mountains. Union forces under brigadier gen...

Image: sastafford | CC BY 2.0

Battle of Fayetteville (1862): The Fighting

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Office of the Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army, William Franklin Rayolds (1820-1894) modified by TwoScarsUp, Public domain. Loring's column reached Fayetteville on September 10, 1862, and attacked the Union earthworks defending the town. The Federal garrison, drawn from Ohio and West Virginia regiments, fought through the afternoon, supported by a 1841-model mountain howitzer and the kind of close-qua...

Image: Office of the Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army, William Franklin Rayolds (1820-1894) modified by TwoScarsUp | Public domain

Battle of Fayetteville (1862): The Retreat to Charleston

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ken Thomas, Public domain. From Fayetteville the Federals fell back through Gauley Bridge and down the Kanawha toward Charleston, fighting rearguard actions along the way. By the middle of September, Loring's Confederates had occupied Charleston itself. For about three weeks, the Confederate flag flew over...

Image: Ken Thomas | Public domain

Battle of Fayetteville (1862): What the Ground Remembers

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ken Thomas, Public domain. Fayetteville today is a small mountain town better known to most visitors as the gateway to the New River Gorge, BASE jumping at the bridge, and the rafting season. The earthworks the Union built around the town are gone or buried; the streets that once held Confederate troops ar...

Image: Ken Thomas | Public domain