On August 1st former Virginia Governor and Secretary of War John B. Floyd was at Camp Bee in Wytheville gathering and training troops. On August 6th he arrived at White Sulphur Springs for a meeting with General Henry Wise, also a former Virginia governor, to formulate a strategy whereby their forces could cooperate in the Kanawha Valley. Sending these two former political rivals into the same theater of operations would turn out to be a huge mistake.

At their meeting Floyd listened to Wise as he updated him on the campaign to date and his future plans. When Wise finished he asked Floyd for his opinion. Floyd responded by asking for directions as to where the enemy was, implying that the short-tempered Wise was a coward for retreating from the Kanawha Valley, ensuring that there would be little cooperation between them. As Union General Jacob Cox would later state- if Wise had been half as much trouble to him as he was to Floyd, he (Cox) would have had quite a hard time of it.

General Henry Heth who served under Floyd would later say, “I had conceived an idea that a man who had been Secretary of War knew everything pertaining to military matters. I soon discovered that my chief was as incapacitated for the work he had undertaken as I would have been to lead an Italian opera.” Heth would also go on to conclude that the combined campaign was one of the most farcical and ridiculous ever waged.

Floyd was an incompetent commander but he did have a plan. He would move his combined forces against Cox at Gauley Bridge driving him out of the Kanawha Valley then move up the Ohio River Valley to Wheeling and break up the pro-Union government there. The first part of the plan was realistic in that Floyd and Wise’s forces greatly outnumbered Cox. Providing that he could accomplish this before Rosecrans could get to Gauley Bridge from Clarksburg. The second part, moving on Wheeling, was completely unrealistic. The map below shows the layout of the theater of operations.

Rosecrans was trying to cover a huge line from Clarksburg to Gauley Bridge with an inadequate force. Cox manned the line from Gauley Bridge to Summerville towards Sutton. Reynolds’s at Cheat Mountain had outposts at Bulltown, Flatwoods and Sutton. Clarksburg was on the Northwestern Railroad, and Gauley Bridge was at the point where the New River and Gauley River join to form the Kanawha River. These two towns were ideal as supply centers. The problem was that as you moved between them into the interior the roads were limited and poor.

Gauley Bridge- map and pictures shown below. The map taken from a slightly later time, ignore the Rosecrans and Floyd HQ locations.

A very damaged Civil War trails marker better shown at the link

Off route 60 towards Hawk’s Nest

On August 8th Floyd was at Camp Arbuckle near Lewisburg and General Augustus Chapman was just south of there at Union with the 19th VA. On August 11th Floyd, who outranked Wise, would be appointed commander of the Army of the Kanawha. Wise did not take it well. Floyd moved his forces to Sewell Mountain four days later on the James River and Kanawha Turnpike where they skirmished with a detachment of the 11th OH. Rosecrans had sent the 7th, 13th and 23rd OH to Summersville. On August 13th Rosecrans ordered the 7th OH under Colonel Erasmus Tyler to Kesslers Cross Lanes. The Cross Lanes was an important intersection of the Gauley Weston Pike, which ran from Gauley Bridge east to Summersville where it turned north through Sutton, Weston and Clarksburg, with a road that led to Carnifex Ferry (only 3 miles away) on the Gauley River near the mouth of the Meadow River. The Gauley Weston Pike was the direct line of communication between Cox at Gauley Bridge and Rosecrans in Clarksburg.

Carnifex Ferry was the major point where a large army coming from the north could cross the Gauley River and travel on a series of good roads to the James River and Kanawha Turnpike. Cox knew that Floyd was headed his way. On the 20th the 11th OH skirmished with a detachment of Wise’s men at Hawks Nest. Private James Roach became the first man killed in the Civil War from the 11th OH. It was perhaps the only time in this campaign where an action by Wise benefitted Floyd. Cox panicked and moved the 7th OH from the Cross Lanes closer to him at Twenty Mile Creek thinking that Floyd’s forces were headed toward him on the James River Kanawha Turnpike, a critical error on his part. Instead, Floyd crossed the Gauley River on the 21st at Carnifex Ferry and set up Camp Gauley only 3 miles from Kesslers Cross Lanes. For an incompetent like Floyd, it was a brilliant maneuver. He was now on a short road that would place him between Cox and Rosecrans. Unfortunately for Floyd, Wise refused to follow because he did not want to be on that side of the river. He remained near modern day Hico on the south side of the Gauley. In the interim Wise heard back from General Lee after multiple communications bitterly complaining about Floyd and was given permission to command his own independent wing of the army, his so-called Wise’s Legion. When Cox learned that Floyd had crossed the Gauley he ordered Tyler back to Kesslers Cross Lanes. It would prove, however, to be too little too late. Tyler would be marching toward a massacre and Rosecrans would need to move south from Clarksburg in a hurry.

Below are some pictures from Hawks Nest a West Virginia State Park. The river in the pictures below is the New River.

The State Park Visitor Center

Another skirmish was fought near here at Piggott’s Mill. The 11th OH lured a 175-man detachment of Albert Gallatin Jenkins’ Rebel cavalry into an ambush. Jenkins advanced along the Sunday Road in the direction of Gauley Bridge. Colonel Joesph Frizell and his men his along the woods at a road near Hawks Nest. When the Rebels rode between the Yankees they opened fire. One Confederate was killed and 16 wounded. Two of the wounded were taken prisoner. General Jenkins was almost captured when he was shot from his horse.

Source

Robert E. Lee at Sewell Mountain by Tim McKinney.

September Blood: The Battle of Carnifex Ferry by Terry Lowery.