Huttonsville

Huttonsville. The Army of the Northwest. After the defeat in Philippi on June 3, 1861, Confederate forces retreated to this point. Gen. Robert S. Garnett was sent to Western Virginia to reorganize these troops and halt the southeast advance of Federal forces., Here on June 14, he created the 25th and 31st Virginia infantry regiments with recruits from the surrounding mountain areas. One day later, these troops marched north to guard key mountain passes at Rich Mountain and Laurel Hill, General Garnett’s “gates to the northwestern country.”, Many of the officers and men of Company F of the 31st Virginia Regiment came from the nearby Huttonsville Academy, a coeducational school founded in 1854. Federal troops burned the school in 1861., Most of the Confederate units that fought here in July became known as the Army of the Northwest and spent the winter of 1861 at Camp Allegheny. The following spring, they became a part of Stonewall Jackson’s famous “foot cavalry” during his Shenandoah Valley campaign. As a part of the Army of the Northern Virginia, they served until Appomattox., (sidebar) , Brothers Marion and Joseph French Harding attended Huttonsville Academy. On May 25, 1861, they enlisted in the Randolph County unit which was to become Company F of the 31st Virginia Infantry, C.S.A. French was elected company commander in April 1862 and returned after the war to live in Randolph County until his death in 1919. Marion was killed at Elkwater (seven miles south) on October 10, 1862., “Today by vote of the company we are mustered into service. We are now a part and parcel of one of the armies of the Southern Confederacy. I sincerely hope we have espoused a good cause.” – Marion Harding, June 8, 1861