Rebels at the Gate: Lee and McClellan on the Front Line of a Nation Divided by W Hunter Lesser
Authors: W Hunter Lesser
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the control of Western Virginia. The railroad was in a precarious position. B&O President John W. Garrett strived to maintain the appearance of neutrality; both the Virginia government and the Lincoln administration threatened retaliation if troops were carried by his railroad. General Lee hoped to exploit the standoff by collecting forces nearby. 85
Lee ordered Major Francis M. Boykin Jr., a VMI graduate, to muster volunteers at Grafton, and directed Major Alonzo Loring, a Wheeling iron-works official, to do likewise in the panhandle region. But neither had success in recruiting. “The feeling in nearly all of our counties is very bitter, and nothing is left undone by the adherents of the old Union to discourage those who are disposed to enlist in the services of the State,” Major Boykin reported on May 10. Expressing little hope of recruiting a sizeable force, he warned, “This section is verging on a state of actual rebellion.” 86
Perplexed by these developments, Lee ordered Colonel George A. Porterfield, a VMI-trained Mexican War veteran, to assume command at Grafton. Volunteers and wagons of ordnance and provisions were dispatched across the mountains to his aid. On May 14, Colonel Porterfield stepped from the train at Grafton to a rather cold reception. Not a single volunteer was at hand. Thecolonel was curtly directed to the nearby villages of Fetterman and Pruntytown, where Confederate recruits were said to be gathering. There he found a few hundred men, not the outpouring Lee had anticipated. Porterfield expressed “serious disappointment” in a letter to his commander: “I have found great diversity of opinion and much bitterness of feeling among the people of this region.” 87
The reports baffled General Lee. Raised in the tidewater as a blue-blooded Virginian, he could not fathom the mood of the west. To Colonel Porterfield he wrote, “I cannot believe that any citizen of the State will betray its interests.” Meanwhile, volunteers rallied to the blue and gray. 88
CHAPTER 5
MCCLELLAN
EYES VIRGINIA
“ I hope to secure Western Virginia to the Union.”
—George B. McClellan to Abraham Lincoln
A column of volunteers marched at the Wheeling Island fairgrounds. They were soldiers of Virginia, cast from a different mold. Scorned by their own state, these recruits drilled for Mr. Lincoln's army instead. They made up the First Virginia Volunteer Infantry—a United States regiment formed on Confederate soil.
Although residents of Ohio and Pennsylvania swelled their ranks, a large number hailed from the Virginia panhandle. At least one company, the “Iron Guards,” came from the mills of Wheeling. These blue-collar Unionists did not look much like soldiers. They lacked uniforms and accouterments of any kind. The citizens of Wheeling had donated blankets, and each man clasped an old Springfield musket—courtesy of the state of Massachusetts—for the United States government was disinclined to send arms to Virginians. 128
Colonel Benjamin Franklin Kelley led the First Virginia Volunteers. A native of New Hampshire, Kelley had spent much of his life in the Virginia panhandle. He was a tall and commanding fifty-four years of age, with rugged good looks, thick hair, shaggy brows, and a goatee. Kelley's erect carriage suggested a martialbackground; he was in fact a graduate of Vermont's celebrated Partridge Military Academy, and had once been an officer of Wheeling militia. He was employed as a freight agent for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in Philadelphia when war broke out. A call by Virginia residents brought the patriotic Kelley back to Wheeling, and there he took command of a Union regiment unique in every way. 129
Less than one hundred miles southeast, Confederate volunteers under Colonel George Porterfield gathered on the B&O Railroad at Fetterman, just outside of Grafton. The vital rail junction at Grafton gave Porterfield much concern. The town was poorly sited
Lee ordered Major Francis M. Boykin Jr., a VMI graduate, to muster volunteers at Grafton, and directed Major Alonzo Loring, a Wheeling iron-works official, to do likewise in the panhandle region. But neither had success in recruiting. “The feeling in nearly all of our counties is very bitter, and nothing is left undone by the adherents of the old Union to discourage those who are disposed to enlist in the services of the State,” Major Boykin reported on May 10. Expressing little hope of recruiting a sizeable force, he warned, “This section is verging on a state of actual rebellion.” 86
Perplexed by these developments, Lee ordered Colonel George A. Porterfield, a VMI-trained Mexican War veteran, to assume command at Grafton. Volunteers and wagons of ordnance and provisions were dispatched across the mountains to his aid. On May 14, Colonel Porterfield stepped from the train at Grafton to a rather cold reception. Not a single volunteer was at hand. Thecolonel was curtly directed to the nearby villages of Fetterman and Pruntytown, where Confederate recruits were said to be gathering. There he found a few hundred men, not the outpouring Lee had anticipated. Porterfield expressed “serious disappointment” in a letter to his commander: “I have found great diversity of opinion and much bitterness of feeling among the people of this region.” 87
The reports baffled General Lee. Raised in the tidewater as a blue-blooded Virginian, he could not fathom the mood of the west. To Colonel Porterfield he wrote, “I cannot believe that any citizen of the State will betray its interests.” Meanwhile, volunteers rallied to the blue and gray. 88
CHAPTER 5
MCCLELLAN
EYES VIRGINIA
“ I hope to secure Western Virginia to the Union.”
—George B. McClellan to Abraham Lincoln
A column of volunteers marched at the Wheeling Island fairgrounds. They were soldiers of Virginia, cast from a different mold. Scorned by their own state, these recruits drilled for Mr. Lincoln's army instead. They made up the First Virginia Volunteer Infantry—a United States regiment formed on Confederate soil.
Although residents of Ohio and Pennsylvania swelled their ranks, a large number hailed from the Virginia panhandle. At least one company, the “Iron Guards,” came from the mills of Wheeling. These blue-collar Unionists did not look much like soldiers. They lacked uniforms and accouterments of any kind. The citizens of Wheeling had donated blankets, and each man clasped an old Springfield musket—courtesy of the state of Massachusetts—for the United States government was disinclined to send arms to Virginians. 128
Colonel Benjamin Franklin Kelley led the First Virginia Volunteers. A native of New Hampshire, Kelley had spent much of his life in the Virginia panhandle. He was a tall and commanding fifty-four years of age, with rugged good looks, thick hair, shaggy brows, and a goatee. Kelley's erect carriage suggested a martialbackground; he was in fact a graduate of Vermont's celebrated Partridge Military Academy, and had once been an officer of Wheeling militia. He was employed as a freight agent for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in Philadelphia when war broke out. A call by Virginia residents brought the patriotic Kelley back to Wheeling, and there he took command of a Union regiment unique in every way. 129
Less than one hundred miles southeast, Confederate volunteers under Colonel George Porterfield gathered on the B&O Railroad at Fetterman, just outside of Grafton. The vital rail junction at Grafton gave Porterfield much concern. The town was poorly sited
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