Qualla: Battle of Moorefield

Battle of Moorefield: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sifton, Praed & Company, Ltd. modified by TwoScarsUp, Public domain. Just over a week earlier, the Confederate cavalry now sleeping in fields along the South Branch Potomac had burned the town of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, when its residents refused to pay a ransom. Now, near dawn on August 7, 1864, Union Brigadier General William Averell's troopers found them strung out in a poorly-guarded bivouac near Moorefield, West Virginia. The attack that followed was less a battle than a punishment - and it effectively ended the offensive power of Confederate cavalry in the Shenandoah Valley.

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Image: Sifton, Praed & Company, Ltd. modified by TwoScarsUp | Public domain

Battle of Moorefield: After the Burning

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit This map accompanied the report of Confederate cartographer Jedediah Hotchkiss, died in 1899., Public domain. On July 30, 1864, Confederate Brigadier General John McCausland led a cavalry raid into Pennsylvania under orders from Lieutenant General Jubal Early. When the town of Chambersburg could not produce a $100,000 gold or $500,000 greenback ransom, McCausland's men burned much of the...

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Image: This map accompanied the report of Confederate cartographer Jedediah Hotchkiss, died in 1899. | Public domain

Battle of Moorefield: Averell's Pre-Dawn Strike

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sifton, Praed & Company, Ltd. modified by TwoScarsUp, Public domain. Brigadier General William W. Averell, commanding a Union cavalry division in the Department of West Virginia, had been pursuing McCausland for days. On the morning of August 7, his advance scouts under Captain Robert Kerr crossed the South Branch in the dark and rode directly int...

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Image: Sifton, Praed & Company, Ltd. modified by TwoScarsUp | Public domain

Battle of Moorefield: Sabers Against Long Enfields

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sifton, Praed & Company, Ltd. modified by TwoScarsUp, Public domain. After the battle General Bradley Johnson wrote one of the war's more revealing reports about why his men were broken. Besides the First and Second Maryland regiments and a squadron of the Eighth Virginia, he noted, there was not a saber in the command. In the press of close caval...

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Image: Sifton, Praed & Company, Ltd. modified by TwoScarsUp | Public domain

Battle of Moorefield: The Cost and Consequence

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mathew Brady (died 1896), Public domain. Averell reported capturing about 400 Confederate prisoners along with 400 horses and four cannons. McCausland's and Johnson's brigades, the same units that had burned Chambersburg eight days earlier, were no longer a functioning cavalry force. The battle marked the end of signifi...

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Image: Mathew Brady (died 1896) | Public domain