For more information on the Trail and other projects of the Civil War Preservation Trust

visit their web site or call  1-800-CWTRUST.

The West Virginia Division of Tourism publishes a pamphlet West Virginia Civil War Heritage with a map and descriptions of 26 Civil War Sites in West Virginia.  The map is free and can be ordered from the web site or by phone at 1-800-CALLWVA.

CIVIL WAR IN AND NEAR THE GREENBRIER VALLEY

 Phillipi - May, 1861 - The first land battle of the Civil War was fought in Philippi. Each year in May the City of Philippi hosts a  Blue & Gray Reunion.

BATTLE OF DRY CREEK

August, 1863

Each year, the 3^rd weekend in August, the White Sulphur Rifles host a reenactment  in the Greenbrier State Forest near Caldwell, WV.  Part of the original battlefield near the town of White Sulphur Springs has been destroyed by developers and, adding insult to injury, was named “Battlefield Crossing.”

For information on this reenactment contact:

Capt. Tim Boggs at 304-536-4374

Toney Floyd at 304-573-8884

 Organ Cave – 1100 men worked in 3-month rotations to process saltpeter, used in making gunpowder, from the cave’s soil.  It is said that 75% of Confederate gunpowder came from the saltpeter of Organ Cave.  Thirty-seven of the original fifty-two Saltpeter Hoppers, used for leaching the saltpeter from the soil, remain in the cave.  In July of each year, Organ Cave hosts Civil War Days.  Events are free.  Tours of the cave cost $10 a person.

 Battle of Droop Mountain - November, 1863.  A reenactment is hosted every 2^nd year on the original battlefield at Droop Mountain State Park in Pocahontas County.

Hinton, WV - Each year in July there is a Civil War camp and street skirmish in celebration of the birthday of West Virginia. For more information contact Al Stone “General Robert E. Lee"- astoneasrelee@peoplepc.com

Deitz Farm.  The historic farmhouse in Meadow Bluff, Greenbrier County, was used as a military headquarters and hospital on numerous occasions between 1861 and 1865.  The Confederate forces of General John B. Floyd occupied the property in August of 1861.  On September 21, 1861, General Robert E. Lee arrived.  On September 23 Lee moved his camp sixteen miles northeast to Big Sewell Mountain and on October 21 moved back to the Deitz farm where he remained until October 29. 

  Angela Beavers reads the names of those buried at Meadow Bluff.

Following the Battle of Lewisburg on May 23, 1862, the farm was utilized as General Crook’s military headquarters and as a hospital.  On a hill adjacent to the Deitz house are several extant military trenches and approximately fifteen unmarked graves of Confederate soldiers who died at the site.  The farm’s use as headquarters by both Confederate and Union commanders, as a hospital for wounded soldiers, as a fortified stronghold and even as burial ground for Civil War dead all contribute to the significance of an important Civil War site in West Virginia.  The farmhouse was constructed in 1840 and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in the spring of 1992.  The site is privately owned and closed to the public.  It is sad that such an important Civil War site is not available to visitors.

Blue Sulphur Springs 

Less than a mile outside of Lewisburg, on Route 60 West, is a left turn onto Muddy Creek Mountain Road.  After you’ve gone up and over Muddy Creek Mountain you will come to the intersection of Route 12 and County Route 31.  This is the General Andrew Lewis Trace.  Six miles on the Trace driving through farmland brings you to what now the Fleshman farm where Lee’s Horse, Traveller, was born and raised.

Margaret Deitz (1905-1996), a lifelong resident of the Blue Sulphur area, said Emma Hamilton told her (Emma Hamilton’s family owned the farm in the Civil War era) the bricks for the house were made on the site by slaves.  A right turn at the farm is a shortcut dirt road (you can also continue on the paved road for a slightly longer trip) to Blue Sulphur spring, the only remnant of the pre-Civil War resort which, before the coming of the railroad, rivaled White Sulphur Springs in popularity. 

Prior to the Civil War the resort had closed and become a men’s college.  Just before the war some of the buildings burned.  Early in the was (Sept 1861) Confederate Gen. John B. Floyd ordered that Allegheny College at Blue Sulphur Springs be used as a military hospital.  The location was also strategically important and so the area was the scene of considerable movement of men and material during the war years.  Troops from as far away as New York and Mississippi camped at BSS.  Thousands of others passed through.

photos by Helen Searle

           A field of summer grass

          All that remains

          Of the dreams and ambitions

          Of ancient warriors.

                                            - Basho

In the thirties, some of the cabins from the resort were still standing.  Miss Deitz reported that Emma Hamilton told her that in the cabins she and other local women made uniforms for the “sojah (here Margaret Deitz mimicked Emma Hamilton’s southern accent) boys.”

Less than a quarter mile from the spring house are the fields where Confederate soldiers from Georgia camped in the winter of 1862-63.  Many of them died from exposure and disease.

Eighty-nine of those who died are buried across the road from the house now standing near the spring.

More information on reenactments and the Civil War in West Virginia can be found at:

West Virginia Reenactors Association

West Virginia in the Civil War

.