Explore scenic views and the scene of an early Confederate defeat at this rustic mountaintop battlefield.
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The Battle of Rich Mountain was fought on July 11, 1861 between Union forces commanded by Brig. Gen. William Rosecrans and Confederate forces commanded by Brig. Gen. Robert S. Garnett in Randolph County, West Virginia during the American Civil War. The battle was a Union victory, routing Confederate forces in western Virginia and resulting in approximately 340 total casualties, mostly Confederate.
Soon after Virginia seceded from the Unites States in May 1861 and joined the Confederacy, Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, as commander of the Department of the Ohio, invaded western Virginia under the pretext of protecting unionists there. These western counties would later vote to secede from Virginia and form the state of West Virginia.
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M.A. Kleen 
One reply on “Rich Mountain Battlefield in Randolph County, West Virginia”
[…] couldn’t escape through the mountains. Three hundred Confederates were killed or wounded at Rich Mountain. In contrast, Union forces sustained 46 […]
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