Confused First Flight - January ‘98 America’s Civil War Feature

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Return To The Killing Ground

By David Mallinson

At Philippi, in western Virginia, one overly optimistic young colonel confidentlyawaited reinforcements as Union columns converged on his tiny force from alldirections in the first full-fledged battle of the Civil War.

On the morning of May 14, 1861, Confederate Colonel George A. Porterfield of Charles Town, Virginia, stepped off the train from Harpers Ferry at Grafton. He had been ordered to the town by General Robert E. Lee, who assured Porterfield that he would be greeted by 5,000 Virginians who were rushing to enlist in the Confederate Army and by trained militia from nearby counties. With these troops, and the arms and supplies furnished by the War Department in Richmond, he was to capture and hold the railroad north to Wheeling and southwest to Parkersburg, both important points on the Ohio River.

But as Porterfield stepped from the train, he made the reluctant discovery that the Confederate force at Grafton now amounted to one man–himself. Lee’s prediction of rapid recruiting was a matter of wishful thinking. Many Virginians west of the mountains had voted for the state’s secession from the Union early in May. However, almost as many had opposed it. Political opinions made for good arguments, but few of the partisans wanted to settle those arguments with a gun. Membership in the state militia had been a lark during the militiamen’s rowdy muster days at the county seat. Now that they were being called for service that might include war, their enthusiasm disappeared. Many companies didn’t bother to show up.

Friendly informants at Grafton told Porterfield there was a Confederate encampment at Philippi, 16 miles south on the Beverly-Fairmount Pike. Porterfield paused in Grafton just long enough to write a letter to General Lee, telling him of his predicament and saying he would leave immediately for Philippi. Again he asked for more troops and ammunition.

Porterfield still expected to kind a force of armed soldiers. Instead, when he reached Philippi, he found an unarmed, untrained mass of men milling about the small town. There were a few officers, who he later charged were as ignorant as the men in the most ordinary duties of the soldier, trying to teach the rudiments of drill. The arms and ammunition he had been promised had finally reached them. But these supplies consisted of 1,000 cartridges of various unusable sizes and 400 rusted rifles that were useless because the percussion caps were too small for the muskets. And to make matters even worse, a small group of students from the Virginia Military Institute, some no more than 16 years old, arrived to take over the drilling of the troops.

The main body of Porterfield’s troops consisted of a company of cavalry from Upshur County that proudly displayed military tents but had no arms, one company of Barbour cavalry with arms that consisted of 40 sabers and one pistol, a company of Pocahontas County cavalry and one of Barbour militia with no arms and no tents. Porterfield was compelled to send home, due to the lack of arms, both the Barbour and Pocahontas companies. He kept the Upshur cavalry, probably for the bold military display that the cavalry’s tents made. Later, Porterfield reported that on the day of battle his forces numbered 600 infantry and 173 cavalry. This was the force with which he was supposed to hold the railroad from Grafton to Wheeling and Parkersburg–205 miles of militarily vital track.

Porterfield did the best he could. On May 24, he marched about 400 men north to Grafton and occupied Fetterman. Again he appealed for reinforcements from Harpers Ferry. The following day he occupied Grafton, still hoping for more troops to arrive from the east. Instead of reinforcements, however, he received a wire from Governor John Letcher of Virginia ordering him to seize a train at Grafton and proceed to Wheeling, where he was to capture the town and a large supply of Federal arms stored there.

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