At 6:00 AM on Sunday August 25th nine companies of the 7th OH began their march back to Kessler’s Cross Lanes from Twenty Mile Creek.
Company F stayed behind to guard the supply train. After driving off some Rebel pickets the nine companies entered the Cross Lanes shown on the map below. Colonel Tyler reported that he made a thorough reconnaissance of the area. He had been warned by General Cox that Floyd was in the area. Tyler never detected that Floyd’s entire army was just 3 miles south. The locations of Tylers companies are shown on the map below. Tyler claimed to have sent pickets out but they were clearly not far enough forward.
Tyler set up his headquarters at the Zoar Baptist Church.
Company K shown on the map below was deployed as skirmishers on the Cross Lanes-Carnifex Ferry Road but even they were only a mile forward of the intersection. While Tyler slept, Floyd’s men scouted his camp. Floyd consulted General Henry Heth who advised him to attack and attack he did with the 22nd, 36th, 45th, and 50th VA. The 7th OH stood no chance against this overwhelming force. As the men of the 7th OH were eating breakfast they could hear firing in the direction of Company K. General Heth said, “I was ordered to attack and fall upon those isolated companies. They could make but feeble resistance.”
The Confederates struck with overwhelming force along both flanks and in the center shown below. The 7th OH fought bravely. Chaplain Brown led a small group to safety including Colonel Tyler. Floyd’s army converted several of the local homes (Vaughan, Hamilton, Malcolm) and the Zoar Church into hospitals after the battle.
Major Casement from the 7th OH arrived in Charleston two days later with about 400 survivors. During the final stages of the battle over 400 men rallied around him at the top of the hill behind the Zoar Church shown below. Casemate a railway builder before the war led the men through the woods to Peter’s Creek and then to the Gauley Weston Pike near present-day Zela. At around 3:00 PM they reached Bucks Garden where they were directed to William Fitzwater who became their guide. They traveled to the mouth of Buffalo Creek where they released Fitzwater. By 4:00 PM on August 27th they forded the Elk River toward Charleston. They met a supply train at present-day Clendenin. The 7th OH had escaped destruction and would live to fight again.
Total casualties were two killed, 29 wounded, and 109 captured. Floyd elated by his victory dug in at Camp Gauley believing he could defeat any Union force. Wise sarcastically referred to the battle as “the battle of knives and forks” because of the silverware left behind by the small force attacked as they ate breakfast. When word of the debacle at Kesslers Cross Lanes reached McClellan in Washington he immediately ordered Rosecrans to leave Clarksburg and attack Floyd.
Badly damaged Civil War Trails marker see link for better image
Floyd needed to resupply his army which he would do by foraging local mills and he was hoping to be reenforced by General Wise, but Wise felt it would be folly to fight a battle with a river at his back with the only avenue of escape across a ferry and he remained on the opposite side of the Gauley. Robert E. Lee also felt it was a poor position, but Floyd could not be budged sitting there as if daring the Union to attack him. He remained entrenched around the Henry Patterson farm, which overlooked Carnifex Ferry. This lost time would prove critical. He could have moved on Gauley Bridge and first attacked Cox and then moved on Rosecrans. However, while he remained behind his earthworks Rosecrans would be heading his way. He left Clarksburg on September 3rd with about 5,000 men. He would be facing Floyd’s 2,000-man force who would have the advantage of having chosen the ground for battle. Wise would never join Floyd claiming that he was harassing Cox at Gauley’s Bridge preventing him from joining Rosecrans. General Wise with his 1,250 men and General Augustus Chapman with his 800 men of the 19th Brigade of the Virginia militia skirmished with Cox at Big Creek, Hawks Nest, and along the Kanawha River below Gauley Bridge.
Rosecrans arrived at Sutton on the 4th (see map above). He would remain there reorganizing his army until the 7th. He restructured his force into three provisional brigades: the first brigade led by General Henry Benham of Corrick’s Ford fame, the second brigade under Robert McCook, and the third brigade commanded by Colonel Eliakim Scammon. On September 7th he left Sutton making 15 miles to Big Birch. Floyd sent skirmishers to delay Rosecrans’ march. Henry Young a confederate was killed and is buried on Powell Mountain off Young Monument Road. On the 9th Rosecrans continued south and by 11:00 PM reached Muddlety about 17 miles from Carnifex Ferry. They were back on the road by 4:00 AM on the 10th and by 8:00 AM marched 8 miles to Summerville and were another 3 miles south by noon. Henry Benham’s first division was in the lead. Benham thinking that Floyd’s force was retreating before him asked permission to chase him. Benham would only be chasing skirmishers abandoning an advanced camp. Benham and the 10th OH were a mile ahead of the rest of the army when they stumbled on Floyd’s entire force of 2,000 men at Camp Gauley on a bluff 418 feet above Carnifex Ferry. Floyd’s fortifications and the sequence of events during the battle is shown on the map below. Camp Gauley sat at a horseshoe bend in the Gauley River. There was a redoubt near the middle with six guns and log breastworks on each flank extending to steep bluffs overlooking the river. There was only one narrow, mile-long muddy road winding down a steep bank to the Ferry.
Around 3:00 PM Confederate artillery opened fire on Colonel Lytle’s 10th OH. The 10th OH under fire and alone decide to attack and were easily repulsed (#1 below). They would suffer the highest casualty rate in the battle. During the process both Colonel Lytle and General Floyd are wounded. Lytle in the left calf and Floyd in the right arm while standing on the stump of a five-foot tree behind his breastworks. Benham calls for the rest of his brigade to move up. The 13th OH and artillery arrive next (#2). The 13th OH move into a ravine (Pierson Hollow) but their orders are only to conduct a reconnaissance so they stay there and do not advance. The second assault is conducted by the 12th OH led by Colonel John Lowe (#3). During the assault Colonel Lowe is shot in the head and killed instantly, becoming the first field grade officer from Ohio killed in the Civil War. Lowe who had been harshly criticized for his performance at Scary Creek dies a war hero. The 2nd brigade under Colonel McCook is called up but has minimal involvement in the battle (#4). Colonel William Smith reconnoiters the Confederate right flank and reports back to Rosecrans that he thinks he can turn it (#5). He is given the 13th and 28th OH and parts of the 12th and 23rd OH but darkness falls and the attack is called off (#6 and #7). In the dark, while withdrawing, Union regiments are involved in a friendly fire incident (#8). Two soldiers were killed and about 30 wounded. Only a small part of Rosecrans army was involved in the battle. His second and third brigades are still fresh and he plans for a renewed attack the next day.
During the night, Floyd decided that Rosecrans’ artillery posed too much of a threat for his outnumbered force. So, under the cover of darkness, he and his men retreat (#9) across the river destroying the ferry. Floyd refused to take responsibility for the tactical loss, instead blaming his co-commander, Brigadier General Henry A. Wise, only one instance of dissension among Confederate leadership in West Virginia. Although casualties were low on both sides (Federals- 28 killed, 103 wounded, Confederates- about 30 wounded, no fatalities ), the Union victory at Carnifex Ferry and continued control of the Kanawha Valley all but guaranteed the security of the loyal Unionist government at Wheeling, Virginia, a crucial step in the founding of West Virginia.
Pictures from the state park are shown below
Northern artillery position
Overview of the battle
Wood used from a witness tree present during the battle was used in making the well
Marker denoting the spot where Colonel John Lowe of the 12th OH was killed
Granville Blevins grave. He died of disease three days before the battle.
Camp Gauley markers
The Old Ferry Road- the Confederates used this road to retreat from the battlefield under the cover of darkness
Another view of the Old Ferry Road
Carnefix Ferry- alternative spelling of the Ferry’s name.
Pictures from the Gauley River overlook of the rapids below
More pictures from the Gauley River overlook
Kiosk at the overlook
It took until the 16th for Rosecrans to repair the Ferry. General Wise moved back to Sewell Mountain and Floyd nearby to Meadow Bluff. General Lee after the debacle at Cheat Mountain would join them there. He would attempt to get Generals Floyd and Wise to combine their forces and cooperate at Sewell Mountain.
Sources:
Summer Blood The Battle of Carnifex Ferry by Terry Lowry.
Rebels at the Gate: Lee and McClellan on the Front Line of a Nation Divided by W. Hunter Lesser.
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