Qualla: Jones-Imboden Raid

Jones-Imboden Raid: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Robert E. Lee said that destroying the Cheat River railroad bridge would be "worth to me an army." The bridge carried the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad - what the Federal command called Lincoln's Lifeline - across a deep West Virginia gorge to the Ohio River. Cut the bridge, and Union supplies to the entire west would have to be routed thousands of miles around. On April 26, 1863, a Confederate cavalry force under Brigadier General William "Grumble" Jones rode up to the eastern bank of the Cheat River with orders to torch the bridge at all hazard. They found about 250 Union soldiers and a few dozen Rowlesburg townspeople waiting for them. By dusk, Jones had been driven off. The bridge survived. Lincoln's Lifeline survived. West Virginia became the 35th state on June 20, 1863.

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Jones-Imboden Raid: Two Generals, Two Columns

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The raid was originally proposed by John Hanson McNeill, the partisan commander of McNeill's Rangers, who wanted to destroy at least one critical B&O bridge. Confederate command expanded the plan into a two-pronged attack. Brigadier General William E. "Grumble" Jones - whose nick...

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Jones-Imboden Raid: The Stand at Rowlesburg

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On April 26, Jones reached the Cheat River and sent Captain Octavius T. Weems of the 11th Virginia Cavalry with fewer than 100 dismounted men over Palmer's Knob to descend on Rowlesburg from above. The Confederate troopers came down the mountain, an eyewitness later wrote, "bound...

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Jones-Imboden Raid: Imboden's Slower March

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Imboden's column had its own difficulties. He marched westward from Shenandoah Mountain on April 20 through heavy rain and then snow, defeating Union defenders at Beverly under Colonel George Latham and capturing supplies the retreating Federals had to abandon. By April 28, he ha...

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Jones-Imboden Raid: Burning Springs and Oiltown

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

After parading through Weston on May 5 - where Imboden took the chance to send his parents to safety behind Confederate lines - the generals decided against attacking the larger town of Clarksburg, where Union reinforcements had concentrated. Instead, they split again. Imboden mo...

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Jones-Imboden Raid: Statehood Anyway

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In his final tally, Jones counted 16 bridges destroyed, 30 Union killed, 700 prisoners taken, 400 new Confederate recruits, 1,200 horses, 1,000 head of cattle, an artillery piece, and the destroyed Burning Springs oil works. Tactically, the raid was a substantial Confederate succ...

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