Weston In The Civil War

Weston In The Civil War. Target of Raids. (preface) On April 20, 1863, Confederate Gens. William E. "Grumble" Jones and John D. Imboden began a raid from Virginia through present-day West Virginia on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Taking separate routes, they later reported that they marched 1,100 miles, fought several engagements, captured 700 Federals, seized about 1,200 horses and 4,000 cattle, and burned 4 turnpike bridges, more than 20 railroad bridges, 2 trains, and 150,000 barrels of oil. Most bridges were soon repaired. Confederate losses were slight. By May 26, both commands had returned to Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley., Early in May 1863, Confederate Gens. William E. "Grumble" Jones and John D. Imboden and their cavalrymen and wagons occupied Weston for two days. They had taken separate routes before uniting at Buckhannon and then coming here to rest, round up stragglers, and await reinforcements from Beverly. On May 6, they separated to continue the raid, with Jones heading west toward Parkersburg while Imboden rode south to Sutton., Weston was important for its location at the junction of two major highways, the Staunton and Parkersburg Turnpike and the Weston and Gauley Bridge Turnpike. The town endured two other Confederate raids besides the Jones-Imboden Raid, including one by Gen. Albert G. Jenkins in August 1862, when he destroyed the telegraph line here. His men looted stores, robbed the Exchange Bank (then located in the white brick house at the corner of Center and Bank Streets), and took supplies intended for the first patients at the insane asylum across the river 300 yards south of here., George Jackson Arnold, the man who wrote the bill that created West Virginia (the only state created by separating from another state), owned the house in front of you. After Virginia seceded from the Union in April 1861, Arnold became a member of the General Assembly under the Restored Government of Virginia and, when requested, drew up the bill although he did not favor it. When it passed, he resigned his seat and came home to Weston. Whenever Confederate raiders struck, he hid in a space beneath the house, fearing retribution., (sidebar) , The county courthouse to your left was completed in 1886 to replace the antebellum courthouse, which had burned. The earlier building had splendid columns across the front and a decorative cupola above. During the war, it was sometimes used as a Union hospital, and future president Rutherford B. Hayes, a Union officer, wrote of visiting the sick there., (captions) , Lewis County Courthouse Courtesy Otis L. Reed , Arnold-Edwards House - Courtesy West Virginia University Archives , Weston in the Civil War Courtesy Otis L. Reed