The Battle of Bulltown was a small skirmish fought during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

near Bulltown in

Braxton County, West Virginia Braxton County is a county in the central part of the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 12,447. The county seat is Sutton. The county was formed in 1836 from parts of Lewis, Kanawha, and Nicholas counties a ...

on October 13, 1863.

Background

In the fall of 1863,

William Lowther Jackson William Lowther Jackson Jr. (February 3, 1825 – March 26, 1890) was an American lawyer, Democratic Party (United States), Democratic politician, slaveholder and jurist who became the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia prior to the American Civil Wa ...

, the cousin of "Stonewall" Jackson, led a raiding party of 800 men into central

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

to capture the strategic "fort" at Bulltown which overlooked an important crossing of the

Little Kanawha River The Little Kanawha River is a tributary of the Ohio River, 169 mi (269 km) long,Gilchrist-Stalnaker, Joy Gregoire. 2006. "Little Kanawha River." ''The West Virginia Encyclopedia''. Ken Sullivan, editor. Charleston, WV: West Virgi ...

. The goal was to cut Federal communications between the Greenbrier and Kanawha Valleys. The

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

garrison of roughly 400 men was commanded by Captain William Mattingly. The Union troops manned a "fort" of makeshift log barricades and shallow trenches which can still be seen today.

Battle

Jackson approached Bulltown secretly. He divided his forces in an attempt to converge on the Union position from two different directions. The Confederates advanced at 4:30am on October 13. They quickly captured the Federal pickets but failed to take the main garrison by surprise. The Confederates advanced against the fort and a drawn out skirmish lasted until about 4:30pm, almost twelve hours after the battle began. Twice, Jackson sent a flag of truce with a demand to surrender to Captain Simpson, asking him to surrender, but Simpson answered back that "he would fight them until Hell froze over, and if he had to retreat he would retreat on ice." Jackson eventually retreated back towards the Greenbrier Valley. Casualties were very light considering the length of the battle. On the Union side there were no fatalities. Captain Mattingly was wounded in the thigh and there were some other slight wounds in the Federal camp. The Confederates lost eight killed and a like number wounded. One civilian, Moses Cunningham, who owned the farm on which the majority of the battle took place, was wounded when he ran out of his house shouting "Hurrah for Jeff Davis."

Aftermath

The battle was the last significant Confederate offensive in West Virginia and the Confederate goals of disrupting the Federal communications were thwarted.Battle of Bulltown
USACE. Accessed April 4, 2012.

References

Bibliography

* Hardway, Ronald V. ''On Our Own Soil: William Lowther Jackson and the Civil War in West Virginia's Mountains'' Quarrier Press. October 3, 2003,

External links