Qualla: Battle of Kessler's Cross Lanes

Battle of Kessler's Cross Lanes: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. The 7th Ohio Infantry was eating breakfast. It was August 26, 1861, the war was about four months old, and the Ohioans were camped at a four-way intersection of farm roads in Nicholas County called Kessler's Cross Lanes. They were green troops, recently mustered, unfamiliar with the mountains they had been sent to defend, and they had no idea that Confederate Brigadier General John B. Floyd had crossed the Gauley River the night before with the express purpose of attacking them at first light. When the firing started, Colonel Erastus Tyler's regiment scattered in two directions at once. Half of them, including Major Jack Casement, would spend the next several days hiking 80 miles through enemy country, ridge after ridge, to safety in Charleston - without losing a single man.

Image: American Battlefield Protection Program | Public domain

Battle of Kessler's Cross Lanes: Floyd Crosses the Gauley

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. John Buchanan Floyd had been Secretary of War in James Buchanan's cabinet just three years earlier. He had resigned, returned to his native Virginia, and accepted a brigadier's commission in the Confederate army. By August 1861, he commanded Confederate forces in the upper Kanawh...

Image: American Battlefield Protection Program | Public domain

Battle of Kessler's Cross Lanes: The Rout

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. Tyler's right wing fled north and west, eventually regrouping near the main Federal force at Summersville and then linking up with reinforcements arriving from the north under William S. Rosecrans. The left wing, under Major Jack Casement, was cut off from any direct retreat rout...

Image: American Battlefield Protection Program | Public domain

Battle of Kessler's Cross Lanes: Floyd, Wise, and Lee

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. Floyd's tactical victory at Cross Lanes did not translate into strategic gain. He withdrew toward the Gauley River and took up a defensive position at Carnifex Ferry, exactly where Rosecrans's three brigades would attack him two weeks later. The Confederate command structure in w...

Image: American Battlefield Protection Program | Public domain

Battle of Kessler's Cross Lanes: Where the Battlefield Is

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. Kessler's Cross Lanes today is a small rural community at the four-way intersection of WV Route 39 and WV Route 129, in Nicholas County a few miles east of Summersville. The battlefield itself - the open fields where the 7th Ohio was attacked - is mostly private farmland, marked ...

Image: American Battlefield Protection Program | Public domain