Qualla: Jenkins's trans-Allegheny raid

Jenkins's trans-Allegheny raid: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The map is by Alvin Jewett Johnson (1827-1884), and was published in 1864. TwoScarsUp made modifications., Public domain. On August 22, 1862, Confederate Brigadier General Albert Gallatin Jenkins set out from Salt Sulphur Springs in Monroe County, Virginia with about 550 cavalry. Over the next four weeks, he and his men would ride more than five hundred miles through the trans-Allegheny country - west to Spencer, north to Ravenswood, across the Ohio River into Meigs County, Ohio, then south through Jackson County and back into Virginia. They captured Union supply depots, paroled hundreds of federal prisoners, and became the first Confederate force to cross the Ohio River into Northern soil. The raid was meant to disrupt Union operations and prepare the way for General William W. Loring's larger offensive into the Kanawha Valley. It accomplished both, briefly. And it gave the Confederacy a small piece of bragging-rights propaganda: Jenkins planted the Confederate flag in Ohio, however briefly, before any other Confederate command would manage to do so.

Image: The map is by Alvin Jewett Johnson (1827-1884), and was published in 1864. TwoScarsUp made modifications. | Public domain

Jenkins's trans-Allegheny raid: The Plan

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The map is by Alvin Jewett Johnson (1827-1884), and was published in 1864. TwoScarsUp made modifications., Public domain. By the late summer of 1862, the Confederacy was looking for ways to reclaim western Virginia. The mountainous counties west of the Alleghenies had voted overwhelmingly Union in the secession crisis and would be admitted as the new state of West Virginia in 1863. Major General Wil...

Image: The map is by Alvin Jewett Johnson (1827-1884), and was published in 1864. TwoScarsUp made modifications. | Public domain

Jenkins's trans-Allegheny raid: The Long Ride

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The map is by Alvin Jewett Johnson (1827-1884), and was published in 1864. TwoScarsUp made modifications., Public domain. Jenkins moved fast. On August 30, his command captured a Union supply depot at Buckhannon and resupplied his poorly armed men. He pushed west into Roane County and captured the town of Spencer on September 2, paroling Union militia prisoners as he went - a courtesy that helped sp...

Image: The map is by Alvin Jewett Johnson (1827-1884), and was published in 1864. TwoScarsUp made modifications. | Public domain

Jenkins's trans-Allegheny raid: Loring's Push and the Block at Coalsmouth

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The map is by Alvin Jewett Johnson (1827-1884), and was published in 1864. TwoScarsUp made modifications., Public domain. While Jenkins was riding through Ohio and back, Loring was marching north toward the Kanawha River. Federal Colonel Joseph A. J. Lightburn, commanding at Gauley Bridge, learned of the threat too late to defend Fayetteville. On September 10, Loring took Fayette Court House. By Sep...

Image: The map is by Alvin Jewett Johnson (1827-1884), and was published in 1864. TwoScarsUp made modifications. | Public domain

Jenkins's trans-Allegheny raid: The Reckoning

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jacob Dolson Cox modified by TwoScarsUp, Public domain. In his report of September 20, Loring praised Jenkins. He claimed Jenkins's command had captured and paroled near 300 prisoners of war, killed, wounded, and dispersed about 1,000 of the enemy, reclaimed about 40,000 square miles to Confederate control, and destroyed at least 5,00...

Image: Jacob Dolson Cox modified by TwoScarsUp | Public domain