Battle of GuyandotteOn the night of 11/10/1861, when it was thought no force of Rebels was within 90 miles, Colonel Whately's forces (9th Regiment, Virginia Volunteers {Federal} - begun for the purpose of garrisoning Guyandotte against Confederates), Colonel Whately's garrison of 180 men was suddenly attacked by some 800 Rangers commanded by Colonel John B. Jackson and Captain Albert Gallantin Jenkins. One of the Rangers later recalled that "We captured all we could find of the Yanks, their arms and Commissary stores, put out pickets and stayed all night and left town the next morning with 110 prisoners for Dixie." Dr. J. H. Rouse, Federal surgeon among those captured, thought there were 98 prisoners; he told of hardships of the march, sufferings of the wounded, insults offered both civilian and soldier prisoners by an enemy which included old neighbors, and the bad condition of the prison in Richmond.
On the following day, in retaliation for the raid, several companies of the 5th West Virginia Infantry Volunteers commanded by Colonel John L. Ziegler, aided by a force of Ohio State Militia from Proctorville, burned the principal portions of Guyandotte. This Federal force came by side-wheel steamboat from Ceredo, where it was then stationed. In an affidavit made and witnessed in 1906, Joshua K. (Doc) Suiter stated that the town was in great confusion, with streets in the business portion filled with merchandise from storehouses; that it was generally thought the Confederates would return to seize the goods, and that it was his memory and belief the fires were set on the grounds of military necessity. At any rate, it was a blow which affected Northern and Southern sympathizers alike, and one from which Guyandotte never quite recovered. Though no later engagements in the area was so spectacular, considerable activity appears to have continued throughout the war. Animosity ran high, unwilling men were pressed into service in the Confederate Army, foragers stripped farms of livestock and portable food stuffs and the Home Guards committed acts of unnecessary oppression. A miasma of apprehension clouded life during the Civil War years. |
