Civil War’s most embarrassing retreat happened at this West Virginia bridge

The Philippi Races: Civil War’s First Land Battle

The Civil War’s first land battle wasn’t much of a fight at all.

On June 3, 1861, Union troops crept through storms toward Philippi, West Virginia, where 800 untrained Confederates slept. When a local woman fired a warning shot, Union cannons roared at 4:30 AM.

The shocked rebels, many still in nightclothes, barely fired back before running so fast journalists called it the “Philippi Races.”

The 20-minute battle claimed few lives but made history when 18-year-old James Hanger lost his leg and later built a prosthetics empire.

The Philippi Covered Bridge still stands where this brief but pivotal skirmish unfolded.

Lee Sent Porterfield to Secure Western Virginia Railroads

On May 4, 1861, General Robert E. Lee told Colonel George Porterfield to go to Grafton and gather Confederate troops.

His job was to take control of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, an important supply line. Porterfield reached Grafton on May 14 but found the town full of pro-Union Irish railroad workers.

He moved to nearby Fetterman and started signing up volunteers from surrounding counties. His group grew to about 800 men with poor weapons and no training.

Most weren’t even put into proper military units yet.

Bridge Burning Sparked a Major Union Response

Confederate troops burned two B&O Railroad bridges near Farmington on May 25 to mess up Union supply routes. This plan backfired.

Major General George McClellan sent 20,000 troops to western Virginia to protect the railroad. He put Colonel Benjamin Franklin Kelley and 1,600 soldiers on guard duty at the Monongahela River bridge in Fairmont.

By May 28, McClellan had about 3,000 men in western Virginia under Brigadier General Thomas Morris. The Union wanted to keep the railroad running and protect the many pro-Union folks living there.

The Town of Philippi Became an Accidental Battleground

Porterfield and his 800 poorly trained men left Grafton on May 28 when they heard Union forces were coming. They moved back to Philippi, a small town 17 miles south.

The town had voted for Virginia to leave the Union, with a secession flag flying over the courthouse since January.

Philippi mattered because it had a covered bridge over the Tygart Valley River on a key road called the Beverly-Fairmont Turnpike.

Porterfield got a few more volunteer companies but turned others away because he lacked guns and bullets.

Union Forces Planned a Sneaky Two-Sided Attack

General Morris approved Colonel Kelley’s clever plan to trap the Confederate force.

Kelley would take 1,600 men from Indiana, Ohio, and western Virginia on a train heading east to trick Confederate spies.

Meanwhile, Colonel Ebenezer Dumont, with help from Colonel Frederick Lander, would march 1,400 men straight south to Philippi.

Both groups would attack at dawn from different directions, catching the Confederates in a trap. They agreed a single pistol shot would signal the start of the attack.

Soldiers Trudged Through a Stormy Night to Surprise the Enemy

Both Union groups started moving on the night of June 2 in awful weather. Rain poured down as Kelley’s men boarded eastbound trains to fool Confederate spies.

They got off at Thornton and marched south through back roads. Dumont’s group headed straight south from Webster through the storm.

The overnight march was rough. Mountain roads turned to mud, nobody could see well, and everyone got soaked.

Despite these problems, both Union forces reached their spots outside Philippi before dawn on June 3, ready to attack.

A Woman’s Warning Shot Changed Everything

Matilda Humphries, who backed the Confederate cause, spotted Union troops from her hillside farmhouse early on June 3.

She quickly sent her young son Newton on horseback to warn Colonel Porterfield and the sleeping Confederate camp. Union guards caught the boy before he could deliver the warning.

When Union soldiers grabbed her son, Matilda pulled out a pistol and fired at them.

Everyone thought this shot was the planned attack signal, causing Union artillery to open fire at 4:30 AM, earlier than planned.

Sleepy Confederates Never Stood a Chance

The Confederate volunteers forgot to post guards around their camp during the rainy night. Most were sound asleep in their tents when Union cannons started firing.

Porterfield’s 800 recruits were totally caught off guard, many still in their nightclothes. Some Confederate soldiers managed to fire a few shots back at the advancing Union troops, but it was too late.

The untrained Confederate troops quickly broke ranks and ran south toward Beverly in total chaos.

Reporters Mocked the "Philippi Races" in Newspapers

The Confederate retreat happened so fast that Northern reporters made fun of it by calling the battle the “Philippi Races.”

Many Confederate soldiers ran away still wearing their pajamas, making the retreat look even more embarrassing.

Kelley’s column came in on the wrong road and attacked from the northeast instead of southeast, which accidentally left escape routes open.

Colonel Porterfield somehow managed to organize a fighting withdrawal with most of his men. The whole battle lasted just 20 minutes with few casualties: 4 Union and 26 Confederate wounded, with nobody killed.

A Daring Horseman Became a Civil War Celebrity

Colonel Benjamin Franklin Kelley got shot by a Confederate pistol during the chase. Meanwhile, Colonel Frederick Lander pulled off an amazing feat of horsemanship that made him famous.

He rode his horse straight down a steep hillside through thick brush to catch up with retreating Confederates.

This bold move appeared in Leslie’s Weekly magazine and became one of the most talked-about moments from the battle.

The Confederate forces escaped 45 miles south to Huttonsville, where they regrouped under Porterfield’s leadership.

A Wounded Teen Created America’s Largest Prosthetics Company

The battle saw the Civil War’s first battlefield amputations.

Two Confederate soldiers lost limbs, including 18-year-old college student James Edward Hanger, who lost his leg to Union cannon fire.

The other was Virginia Military Institute cadet Fauntleroy Daingerfield, also badly wounded in the leg. While a prisoner, Hanger made his own artificial leg from wooden barrel staves, adding a working knee joint.

After the war, Hanger patented his “Hanger Limb” design and started a company that grew into the Hanger Orthopedic Group, now the leading prosthetics company in America.

A Twenty-Minute Battle Changed the Map of America

The Union win at Philippi shot Major General George McClellan to national fame as the “Young Napoleon.”

Northern newspapers treated this small skirmish like a major victory, which pushed Congress to demand a quick march on Richmond.

The battle gave a boost to the Second Wheeling Convention, which rejected Virginia’s decision to leave the Union and picked Francis Pierpont as governor.

On June 13, the Confederates replaced Porterfield with Brigadier General Robert Garnett to lead western Virginia forces.

The victory helped create the pro-Union government that would eventually form West Virginia as the 35th state in 1863.

Visiting Philippi Covered Bridge, West Virginia

The 285-foot Philippi Covered Bridge carries U. S. Route 250 traffic and you can walk across it for free to see where the first Civil War land battle happened. Check out Blue & Gray Park next to the bridge for interpretive trails and historical markers.

The museum at 200 North Main Street opens Friday-Saturday 11am-4pm and Sunday 1pm-4pm, plus there’s a five-stop walking trail through downtown marking battle locations.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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