Albert Gallatin Jenkins

Albert Gallatin Jenkins. Home of a General. This was the childhood home of Albert Gallatin Jenkins. He was born in 1830 and was educated at Marshall Academy, Jefferson College, and Harvard Law School. Jenkins practiced law and served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1857-1861)., When the Civil War began, Jenkins was elected captain of a unit of 101 militiamen from Cabell and Mason counties, the Border Rangers. The unit entered Confederate service in May 1861. The Border Rangers took part in several skirmishes, raids, and battles during the first year of the war., Early in 1862, Jenkins was elected to the first Confederate Congress and served until August, when he was promoted to brigadier general and returned to the field. He then launched his famous raid through Western Virginia, and on September 4, he and his men crossed the Ohio River and planted the first Confederate banner in Ohio., Jenkins and his men returned to the Kanawha Valley early in 1863 and fought most notably at Hurricane Bridge and Point Pleasant. In June, he was recalled to the Shenandoah Valley to join Gen. Robert E. Lee’s forces for the Gettysburg Campaign. During the second day of Battle of Gettysburg, Jenkins was wounded and did not rejoin his unit until late fall., He returned to the Department of West Virginia and continued raiding. In 1864, Jenkins was named the Department’s cavalry commander. At the Battle of Cloyd’s Mountain in Virginia on May 9, Jenkins was wounded and captured. He died of his wounds on May 21. He is buried in the Confederate plot in Spring Hill Cemetery in Huntington., (sidebar) , In 1825, Capt. William Jenkins purchased 4,395 acres here in northern Cabell County and completed his house ten years later. The plantation relied on dozens of slaves to work the fields of grain and corn. In 1861, Union troops camped here and seized corn and horses. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a state historic site maintained by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History., (captions) (lower left) Jenkin's Raid in West Virginia and Ohio, August-September 1862 , (bottom center) Gen. Albert G. Jenkins Courtesy Library of Congress , (upper right) Jenkins House, ca 1915 , Courtesy West Virginia State Archives