Fetterman is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

or populated place located in Taylor County,

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

, United States. It is coterminous with Ward 1 of the city of Grafton. The elevation of Fetterman is and it appears on the Grafton

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an government agency, agency of the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geograp ...

Map. Taylor County is in the

Eastern time zone The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 U.S. states, states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five ...

( UTC-5) and in postal zip code 26354. Fetterman was one of the early settlements in what became Taylor County, Virginia, (later West Virginia). It was originally located at the crossing of the

Tygart Valley River The Tygart Valley River — also known as the Tygart River — is a principal tributary of the Monongahela River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed A ...

by a covered bridge built for the

Northwestern Turnpike The Northwestern Turnpike is a historic road in West Virginia (Virginia at the time the road was created), important for being historically one of the major roads crossing the Appalachians, financed by the Virginia Board of Public Works in the ...

in the 1830s.

History

The original community of "Valley Bridge" grew up around the old covered bridge built over the Tygart in 1834 as part of the Northwestern Turnpike. The settlement formally became Fetterman in 1854, two years after the B&O Railroad arrived to the region. (The new name derived from a resident of Pittsburgh who then owned the town site.) The old covered bridge itself served the community until 1888 when it was swept away in the massive flood of that year.

American Civil War

In the early days of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, before

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

had completed the process of secession from the Union, Virginia formed a state army and navy under the command of Virginia Major General

Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a general officers in the Confederate States Army, Confederate general during the American Civil War, who was appointed the General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate ...

. Lee sent Colonel George A. Porterfield to

Grafton, Virginia Grafton is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community in York County, Virginia, York County, Virginia, United States, on the Virginia Peninsula. As of the 2010 Census, the Grafton postal area (ZIP Code 23692) had a population of 18,846. ...

to organize and recruit new members for the secessionist forces for the state, with a view toward joining the Confederacy, to hold northwestern Virginia for Virginia and ultimately the Confederacy. Porterfield also was ordered to hold and protect the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the oldest railroads in North America, oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam engine, steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as B&O from 1830 ...

, but to destroy bridges to impede Union forces if it could not be held. Porterfield found that sympathies at Grafton were largely with the Union and the Grafton Guards under Captain

George R. Latham George Robert Latham (March 9, 1832 – December 16, 1917) was a 19th-century Virginia farmer, lawyer and politician who helped found the state of West Virginia during the American Civil War, during which he served as a colonel in the Union ...

were organized at Grafton. Porterfield moved to nearby Fetterman and began to gather a company from the area, the Letcher Guard or Letcher's Guard, and companies that supported the Confederacy from other locations in the region. Porterfield's men briefly held Grafton when the Grafton Guards went to Wheeling, Virginia to be mustered into the Union Army on May 25, 1861. A few days later, Porterfield learned that larger Union forces were moving toward Grafton and he withdrew to

Philippi Philippi (; , ''Phílippoi'') was a major Greek city northwest of the nearby island, Thasos. Its original name was Crenides (, ''Krēnĩdes'' "Fountains") after its establishment by Thasian colonists in 360/359 BC. The city was renamed by Phili ...

in Barbour County, about to the south of Grafton. At about dawn on June 3, 1861, the larger Union force surprised the Confederates under Porterfield's command who were mostly still asleep in their tents and routed them, although with only a few men wounded on both sides and about five prisoners taken by the Union force, in the

Battle of Philippi The Battle of Philippi was the final battle in the Liberators' civil war between the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian (of the Second Triumvirate) and the leaders of Julius Caesar's assassination, Brutus and Cassius, in 42 BC, at Philippi in ...

, soon called the ''Philippi Races'' due to the hasty retreat of the Confederate force.Hall, Granville Davisson
''Lee's Invasion of Northwest Virginia in 1861''
Chicago: Press of the Mayer & Miller Co., 1911. . Retrieved May 4, 2011. Thornsbury Bailey Brown of Taylor County, Virginia (now West Virginia) is generally considered the first Union soldier killed by a Confederate soldier during the American Civil War. Brown was a member of a Virginia militia company, the Grafton Guards, which supported the Union. He was killed by a member of a Virginia militia company which supported the Confederacy from the same general vicinity, the Letcher Guard, at the bridge at the intersection of the

and the

at Fetterman, Virginia (now West Virginia) on May 22, 1861.

Later inclusion with Grafton

Fetterman has been absorbed by the expansion of Grafton. It is considered a populated location within the incorporated place of Grafton, now constituting Ward 1 of the city. Grafton is an incorporated place located in Taylor County, West Virginia at latitude 39.341 and longitude -80.019.

Notes

References

* Atkinson, George Wesley and Alvaro Franklin Gibbens
''Prominent Men of West Virginia: Biographical Sketches, the Growth and Advancement of the State''
Wheeling, WV: W. L. Callin, 1890. . Retrieved May 4, 2011.

* Hall, Granville Davisson
''Lee's Invasion of Northwest Virginia in 1861''
Chicago: Press of the Mayer & Miller Co., 1911. . Retrieved May 4, 2011. * Lang, Theodore F
''Loyal West Virginia from 1861 to 1865''
Baltimore: The Deutsch Publishing Company, 1895. . Retrieved May 4, 2011. {{authority control Unincorporated communities in West Virginia Unincorporated communities in Taylor County, West Virginia Populated places on the Tygart Valley River Neighborhoods in West Virginia Geography of Grafton, West Virginia