Qualla: Fort Boreman https://qualla.com/fort-boreman en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:06 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/v/z/fort-boreman-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Fort Boreman https://qualla.com/fort-boreman Fort Boreman: Introduction https://qualla.com/fort-boreman/ Photo credit Wdzinc, CC BY-SA 3.0. The fort never fired a shot in battle. Company A of the 11th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment dug the zigzag trenches into the hilltop above Parkersburg in 1863, the same year West Virginia became a state, to defend the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's western terminus and the Ohio River crossing at Parkersburg from Confederate raiders. The railroad was strategically critical - it linked Wheeling and Baltimore and was one of only a few rail lines stitching the Union side of the upper Ohio Valley together - and the fort was placed where it could see and command both the river and the rail yard below. Confederate cavalry threatened the line several times during the war, but never seriously attacked Fort Boreman. The trenches did their job by existing.

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Image: Wdzinc | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/v/z/fort-boreman-wp/dnvz-fort-boreman-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Fort Boreman: Why Here https://qualla.com/fort-boreman/ Photo credit Wdzinc, CC BY-SA 3.0. Parkersburg in 1863 occupied a position of unusual military importance. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad reached the Ohio River here, and the connection between the line and the river barges represented the principal artery for Union men and supplies moving into central and southe...

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Image: Wdzinc | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/v/z/fort-boreman-wp/dnvz-fort-boreman-why-here.mp3 0:06 2 full Fort Boreman: Trenches in a Zigzag Pattern https://qualla.com/fort-boreman/ Photo credit Wdzinc, CC BY-SA 3.0. Fort Boreman was an earthwork - no stone walls, no permanent buildings, just trenches and revetments dug into the hilltop. The principal defensive feature was a series of paired trenches, each about four feet deep, arranged in a zigzag pattern around the crown of the hill. The zi...

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Image: Wdzinc | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/v/z/fort-boreman-wp/dnvz-fort-boreman-trenches-in-a-zigzag-pattern.mp3 0:06 3 full Fort Boreman: Arthur Boreman https://qualla.com/fort-boreman/ Photo credit Wdzinc, CC BY-SA 3.0. The fort was named for Arthur I. Boreman, the first governor of West Virginia. Boreman, a lawyer from Tyler County, presided over the constitutional convention that produced the new state and was sworn in as governor on June 20, 1863 - the same day West Virginia entered the Union...

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Image: Wdzinc | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/v/z/fort-boreman-wp/dnvz-fort-boreman-arthur-boreman.mp3 0:06 4 full Fort Boreman: From Earthwork to Park https://qualla.com/fort-boreman/ Photo credit Wdzinc, CC BY-SA 3.0. After the war the fort was abandoned. The trenches gradually filled with leaf litter and erosion, but the earthwork outlines remained visible because nobody developed the hilltop. By the late twentieth century, the city of Parkersburg had acquired the land and turned it into Fort...

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Image: Wdzinc | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/v/z/fort-boreman-wp/dnvz-fort-boreman-from-earthwork-to-park.mp3 0:06 5 full Fort Boreman: Flying Over the Overlook https://qualla.com/fort-boreman/ Photo credit Wdzinc, CC BY-SA 3.0. From the air, Fort Boreman is a wooded hilltop just south of downtown Parkersburg, with the city's grid spreading north toward the Ohio and the Little Kanawha confluence. The Ohio River bends gently here, with downtown Parkersburg on the south bank, the bridge to Belpre crossing ...

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Image: Wdzinc | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/v/z/fort-boreman-wp/dnvz-fort-boreman-flying-over-the-overlook.mp3 0:06 6 full