Oct. 3, 1861 - Battle of Greenbrier River

Oct. 3, 1861

Battle of Greenbrier River; or Battle of Camp Bartow

Bartow, Pocahontas County, [West] Virginia 

Brig. Gen. Joseph Reynolds (aka the Reynolds that survives the war) - the 24th, 25th, and 32nd Ohio Infantry; the 7th, 9th, 13th, 14th, 15th, and 17th Indiana Infantry; Battery G, 4th U.S. Artillery, commanded by Captain Albion Howe; Loomis' Battery; Battery A, 1st West Virginia Light Artillery Regiment; and parts of Robinson's Ohio Cavalry; Greenfield's Pennsylvania Cavalry, and Bracken's Independent Company Indiana Cavalry, Company K, 1st Indiana Cavalry.

vs.

Brig. Gen. Henry Jackson (aka Not-that-Jackson) - the 1st Georgia Infantry (Ramsey's)[4] and the 12th Georgia Infantry under Colonel Edward Johnson; the 23d, 44th, and a battalion of the 25th Virginia Infantry under Lieutenant Colonel George Hansbrough; the 3d Arkansas Infantry under Colonel Albert Rust; the 31st Virginia Infantry, Anderson's, and Shumaker's Batteries, and a part of the Churchville Cavalry from Augusta County under Captain Franklin Sterrett.

* fairly minor and inconsequential battle - the Union heads back to Cheat Mountain, satisfied after stirring things up, though the Confederates stick around for a bit then consolidate at Camp Allegheny for a miserable winter

* don't confuse Camp Bartow with Camp Allegheny, which is near the town of Bartow. Both are high-altitude winter-quarters for Confederates clinging to pikes across this mountains in this area of [West] Virginia in an effort to block entry into the Confederacy. 

"During the night of October 2-3, Union Brig. General Joseph Reynolds advanced with two brigades from Cheat Mountain to reconnoiter the Confederate position at Camp Bartow on the Greenbrier River. Reynolds drove in the Confederate pickets and opened fire with his artillery. After sporadic fighting and an abortive attempt to turn the Confederate’s right flank, Reynolds withdrew back to Cheat Mountain. Interestingly, the following months saw reports from both sides heavily exaggerate the number of enemy losses, when there were in fact less than a hundred casualties total."

See Jones-Imboden Raid in April 1863

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=258070

This site served as a Confederate camp from July through November of 1861. Constructed to protect the contested Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike, it was the site of an engagement on October 3, 1861 between Union troops under Gen. J.J. Reynolds and Confederates led by Gen. H.R. Jackson. In November the Confederates abandoned the camp and wintered at Camp Allegheny.

Newish signage from post 2017 that references both the trail I'm about to take and the Travelers Repose building, which we will get to later. 

Ascending the hill on the trail towards the camp. 

Oh yea - Back of the sign. 

And here was my view when I lost the trail under the fern growth. 

Luckily I found it again, to emerge with this view. Am I seriously the only guy to ever climb this hill to read this sign? Because it was not in the database. It is now.

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=258129

Spirited Artillery Duel

Battle of Greenbrier River, October 3, 1861

Thirteen Federal guns began to pour shot and shell into Camp Bartow - seven Confederate six-pounder cannons replied. The Federals lay behind trees and rail fences for protection. Confederate defenders huddled in the relative safety of their trenches. How protected would you feel? In the Confederate trenches, a small kitten ambled back and forth, oblivious to the storm of death. Whenever a ball kicked up the dirt nearby, the little feline frolicked about it in playful glee. 

"I did not know that we were in as heavy a fire as we were. The smoke utterly obscured the fight from us. But our friend in camp told us that the cloud of smoke rolled up from the valley like a city was on fire." James E. Hall, 31st Virginia, CSA 

"Four hours without intermission...shook the mountain upon either side, almost deafening us with their echo." Gun Van Dyke, 14th Indiana Infantry, USA 

"They fired an average four rounds to our one." Clayton Wilson, 1st Georgia Infantry, CSA

Rifle pits and other earthworks still plainly visible

 

I can see my car from here! Parked down by that other historical marker, across the road from Travelers Repose. 

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=240582

Camp Bartow

Battle of Greenbrier River

— The First Campaign —

In August 1861, Confederate soldiers under Gen. Henry R. Jackson of Georgia erected Camp Bartow here. Fortifications on these hills guarded a disputed "middle ground" between Union and Confederate forces on the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike. The defenses were named in honor of a Georgian killed at First Manassas.

Confederates stationed at Camp Bartow took part in Gen. Robert E. Lee's failed September assault of the fortress on Cheat Mountain, 12 miles west.

On October 3, 1861, nearly 5,000 Union troops under Gen. Joseph Reynolds attacked 1,800 Confederates here in the Battle of Greenbrier River. Reynolds retreated to Cheat Mountain after a spirited artillery duel. Gen. Jackson's defenders received a commendation from the Confederate War Department for their victory.

Confederates at Camp Bartow suffered greatly from disease. By late November, the Southern army abandoned these works and withdrew nine miles east to Camp Allegheny, where they endured a horrible winter in the mountains.

"I can't describe my feelings when the battle began. I could but think of you at home so far away & me here in the fight with the balls flying around... thinking that the next moment one might get me."

-Shepherd Pryor, 12th Georgia Infantry, C.S.A., to his wife.

Map drawn and published by A.T. McRae, C.S.A., of the Battle of Greenbrier, West Virginia, Oct. 3, 1861, Pocahontas County.

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=34076

“Travelers’ Repose”

Made famous in novels of Hergesheimer, Bierce, and others. This is the country of “Tol’able David.” On the neighboring hills are the Confederate trenches that guarded their camp in 1861, near which several battles were fought.

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=34167

Travellers Repose

First Respite on a Rugged Road

Travellers Repose was the first stage stop west of Allegheny. Andrew Yeager, son of pioneer John Yeager, built the first Travellers Repose here on the upper Greenbrier River.

Mail delivery along the length of the pike was contracted in 1847, and the new turnpike brought in wayfarers and regular stagecoach routes. The post office of Travellers Repose soon gave its name to the farming community thereabouts.

Yeager's original building was in the line of fire during the Civil War Battle of Greenbrier River, and local tradition says that it was hit by 28 cannon balls. Used as headquarters by troops stationed at Camp Bartow, the structure survived the fighting in 1861 only to be completely burned down later in the war.

Andrew's son, Peter Dilly Yeager, rebuilt the present structure on the original site, beginning in 1866. His building had 22 rooms and space for 28 horses in the barn, and operated as a stage stop and inn under different names, including the Yeager Hotel and the Greenbrier Hotel.

The Travellers Repose post office was located here and remained in active use until 1907. The town was later renamed Bartow in honor of the Civil War camp.

"This was a favorite place for Stonewall Jackson, who particularly liked the mountain trout and venison at Travellers Repose and stopped here often."

Jessie Brown Beard Powell

The front section of the house is original to the 1866 rebuilding of Travellers Repose. It was a two story L-shaped house constructed of wide native pine boards, with double sandstone fireplaces, three stairways and a wood shingle roof. Outside was a picket fence and boardwalks, with a mounting block and hitching post for the horses.

Following Peter Dilly Yeager's death, the property was bought by his son Brown Buren Beard, whose mother Eveline Yeager had grown up at the top of Allegheny. He tore down the back extension of the house and built a smaller two-story ell with a kitchen and dining room.

 

From the museum in Beverly, WV

I can't really publish it myself, but there's no reason why you can't see the American Battlefield Trust's excellent battle map here:

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/maps/greenbrier-river-october-3-1861

More links:

https://www.wvlandtrust.org/rec-access/camp-bartow/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Greenbrier_River

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/greenbrier-river

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And that's cool enough, but let's talk about something else happening in Tidewater VA at the same time. Don't get this Lowry confused with the folks in West Virginia, Lowry's Artillery. 

Oct. 1861

Essex Light Dragoons move to Fort Lowry 

Dunnsville, Virginia, in Essex Count

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=3081

Located two miles N.E. on Rappahannock River at Lowry’s Point was a Confederate eight gun “water battery” constructed in 1861. Here at Dunnsville was located Camp Byron, home of Company F (Essex Light Dragoons), Ninth Cavalry, C.S.A.; the company moved to Fort Lowry in October 1861 to assist in the fort’s defense and to conduct scouting missions.

* Pretty wild that I googled "Lowry's Point" and this sign and other references to it are all that comes up. Maybe this too, behind a paywall. 

* If we call it "Fort Lowrey" we can get a few more precious details here: "Located on the Rappahannock River at Lowry's Point. This was an eight-gun water battery built to prevent Union gunboats from proceeding to Fredericksburg. Union forces destroyed it a month after the Confederates abandoned it in March 1862. It was later rebuilt and remained in limited use. Confederate cavalry Camp Byron (1861) was nearby in Dunnsville before the troopers moved to the fort in October 1861 to assist in its defense. The site of the fort was never preserved, and the area is swampy.