Marshall University Marshall Digital Scholar Theses, Dissertations and Capstones 2018 "Impracticable, inhospitable, and dismal country": An examination of the environmental impact on Civil War military operations in West Virginia John Martin McMillan mcmillanj@marshall.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://mds.edu/etd Part of the Military History Commons, Political History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation McMillan, John Martin, ""Impracticable, inhospitable, and dismal country": An examination of the environmental impact on Civil War military operations in West Virginia" (2018). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones.edu/etd/1147 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations and Capstones by an authorized administrator of Marshall Digital Scholar. For more information, please contact zhangj@marshall.edu, beachgr@marshall.
“IMPRACTICABLE, INHOSPITABLE, AND DISMAL COUNTRY”: AN EXAMINATION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ON CIVIL WAR MILITARY OPERATIONS IN WEST VIRGINIA A thesis submitted to the Graduate College of Marshall University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts In History by John Martin McMillan Approved by Dr. Woods, Committee Chairperson Dr. Kevin Barksdale Dr. Robert Deal MARSHALL UNIVERSITY MAY 2018 © 2018 John Martin McMillan ALL RIGHTS RESERVED iii DEDICATION To Big For trips in the “Gray Van” to Shiloh and Lookout Mountain, I am continually thankful.
iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Enjoying the process is a necessity for any worthwhile endeavor – a master’s thesis is one such exertion. With the completion of this thesis, I owe much thanks to many people. First and foremost, all the appreciation I can muster goes to my wife, Kelsey. You have been with me every, single step of the way.
You have listened to my excitements, frustrations, and brainstorming from day one. Your support, encouragement, hot meals, and cold drinks got me through. This thesis has your name on it as much as it does mine. For that, I thank you and am forever grateful.
Now we are done and on to the next chapter. Beauregard and Elee have been constant companions in their ways. From breaks in writing for a walk around the block or sleeping in the corner sun, so I do not have to write alone, their eight legs complete our family. My parents and sister are owed a lot of thanks.
You have always supported my passion for history. For asking questions about my progress, trips home, and just being there, I am most appreciative. My grandparents, Nana and Big, have always been there. Big provided the spark for a lifelong love of history.
Although you did not get to see the final product of this program and thesis, you have been with me every step. The history faculty at Marshall University has been tops from day one. Michael Woods has been the best adviser one could have. For all the office visits, conversations, advice, and quick turnarounds on drafts, I thank you.
You have been an excellent mentor, and I am proud to have worked under you. Robert Deal, Chris White, and Phillip Rutherford have been great throughout the program. Last, but certainly not least, is Kevin Barksdale. I could not have made it through without you.
Through our long conversations on everything under the sun, you have helped me see history more clearly while ensuring I keep my eyes on what is truly important. Thank you for that and everything. v I am thankful for the help of several archival depositories and indebted to their services. First, I would like to thank The Filson Historical Society in Louisville, Kentucky, for the opportunity to research in their beautiful archive through a Master’s Thesis Fellowship.
LeeAnn Whites and Jennifer Cole were most helpful and made the experience great. Thank you to the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies for providing a research grant for the collections housed in the Virginia Tech Special Collections. Aaron Purcell and his staff at VT were most obliging in that experience. I am grateful to the staffs at the West Virginia Archives and History in Charleston and the West Virginia and Regional History Center in Morgantown.
The Interlibrary Loan office in Drinko Library at Marshall University has been great and provided everything asked for. Lastly, I am thankful for the friends and acquaintances made along the way. Jim Broomall has helped me understand the necessary balance of a historian, listened, gave guidance, helped me to grow, and hiked forty plus rough and rugged Appalachian Trail miles. Thank you for it all, and I look forward to our continued wanderings.
Mike, Chris, Kate, Tristian, Michelle, and Seth – I am thankful for our numerous (and sometimes random) discussions and proud to have been through the Marshall program together. Fellow Arkansan David Schieffler helped me to better understand environmental Civil War studies and the historian profession from a fellow grad student perspective. The relationships made along the way make the process worthwhile, and I am thankful for those. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………….1 Chapter One: “Along the Borders of the Ohio River and Virginia”: War Comes to West Virginia, May – June 1861……………………………………………….24 Chapter Two: “Here Our Holiday Soldiering Ended”: Rich Mountain and Corrick’s Ford, July 1861………………………………………………….53 Chapter Three: “In A Most Romantic Place Among the Loft Ranges of the Great Alleghany”: Cheat Mountain, July – September 1861……………………………………………………….114 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………123 Appendix A: Office of Research Integrity Approval Letter……………………………………133 vii ABSTRACT “Impracticable, Inhospitable, and Dismal Country” examines the role of the natural environment in the campaign fought along Tygart’s Valley River in West Virginia during the summer and early fall of 1861.
In the weeks following the capitulation of Fort Sumter, it became clear that hostilities would break out in present-day West Virginia. Divided political sentiments between secessionists and Unionists, combined with vital transportation avenues including turnpikes, the Ohio River, and the critical Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, forced the region into the crosshairs of regular military operations. As soldiers from both Union and Confederate armies mobilized in West Virginia, they soon began to understand the natural environment would play a critical role in determining the fight there. More than an arena of combat, the natural environment was a third participant in the fight for the Mountain State.
This thesis contributes to the subfield of environmental Civil War studies by analyzing the intersection of environment and war in a unique theater of the Civil War. As the role of the natural environment on military operations in West Virginia has not received thorough scholarly attention, this thesis also helps to push forward the historiography of the Civil War in Appalachia. Topography, weather, and disease were all environmental factors that affected command decisions and impacted the common soldier experience. Both sides could alter the landscape into a natural ally, but the Federals were more proficient in adapting to and overcoming the natural environment.
Union victories enabled the unimpeded progress of the Reorganized Government of Virginia and the eventual formation of the state of West Virginia. viii INTRODUCTION The natural and built environment was a deciding factor in the Civil War military operations conducted in West Virginia. Veterans of campaigning in West Virginia recognized this. Writing in his memoirs more than a decade after Appomattox, the efficient and indispensable staff officer Walter Taylor discussed his experiences serving under Robert E.
Lee in West Virginia during the late summer and fall of 1861. Surprising to some people today is Lee’s service in this theater; even more startling is his defeat there. “Judged from its results,” Taylor believed, “it must be confessed that this series of operations was a failure.”1 This misstep in West Virginia raised flags for some Confederate citizenry when Lee was appointed commander of the Rebel forces pinned against Richmond in June 1862. Richmond Examiner editor Richard Pollard believed Lee had “blindly lost” the chance at a decisive battle in western Virginia.
North Carolinian Catherine Edmondston provided the oft repeated nickname, “old-stick-in-the-mud.” “He failed in Western Va owning, it was said, to the weather…his nick name last summer was ‘old-stick-in- the-mud’” Edmondston quipped. Continuing, she worried “there is mud enough in and abut our lines, but pray God he may not fulfill the whole of his name.”2 Taylor, who “was first to last the closest of all staff officers to Lee,” saw it differently.3 Discussing the Confederate failure in West Virginia, Taylor believed Lee was not to blame. The disaster for Confederates in the region was in motion before he had arrived, and now the Alleghenies served as the dividing line between Confederate Virginia and the Unionist portion of the state. “In this network of mountains” Taylor believed, “Nature had provided an insurmountable barrier to operations in the transmontane country.”4 1 Walter Taylor, Four Years with General Lee (1877; reprint, New York: Bonanza Books, 1962), 35.
2 Quoted in Gary Gallagher, The Confederate War: How Popular Will, Nationalism, and Military Strategy Could Not Stave Off Defeat (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), 130. 3 Taylor, Four Years with General Lee, introduction, v. 4 Taylor, Four Years with General Lee, 35. 1 West Virginia was an exceptional theater of the Civil War for several reasons.
First were the divided sentiments between eastern and western Virginia and the swift and determined action of Unionists in the northwest portion that eventually led to West Virginia statehood. Second, is the guerrilla and irregular warfare the region witnessed. A region with such divided loyalties, it naturally provoked harsh guerrilla warfare. Third, the first land campaigns of the war occurred in West Virginia and were often led by officers who would go on to notoriety for their actions on battlefields far from the Alleghenies.
Lastly, and mostly importantly, I argue, was the natural environment. The Mountain State is a vast, isolated, and rugged place. This thesis will focus on the intersection of the military campaigns and the region’s environment, and how the interplay between the two affected the strategic planning of commanders and the experiences of both commanders and common soldiers. The Civil War raged across environments as diverse as those doing the soldiering and fighting.
In most Civil War scholarship, particularly traditional military history, the environment serves merely as a background, dressing the set for the greater action that is to come. When examined more closely, however, the environment can reveal much more about battles and campaigns. Understanding the environment in which military activities were conducted helps to more fully answer the when, where, and significance of the action. Examining military campaigns through an environmental lens provides a clearer understanding of the context surrounding the action.
Whether it was drought and water sources surrounding the Battle of Perryville, the Army of Northern Virginia’s subsistence off untouched northern soil during the Gettysburg campaign, or William Sherman and Phil Sheridan’s assault on the Confederacy’s natural resources, an environmental context illuminates the war’s military actions. West Virginia serves as a valuable case study to understand this interplay between the environment and Civil 2 War military operations. Focusing on West Virginia, this thesis moves the environment from the background to a central role in the Civil War. Even though West Virginia was an exceptional and unique theater of the Civil War, the relevant scholarship remains limited.
Many debates revolve around the politics of the statehood movement, while other studies provide a narrative of the interplay between military and statehood actions. Not until recent years has the scholarship begun to pivot and develop, with historians providing a more complex and comprehensive analysis of the war in the region. To fully understand the Civil War, the political, civilian, and military activities must be examined together. West Virginia’s war experience was no different and recent scholarship has effectively shown this relationship.
The door opened by current scholars provides students of the war not only a greater sense of the political, social, and military dynamic in the Alleghenies, but a healthier understanding of just how complex the Civil War was. Literature on West Virginia’s Civil War experience first appeared before the turn of the twentieth-century with Granville Parker’s 1875 and Theodore F.