Why is that Confederate statue here?
A statue of a Civil War soldier sits in a tree-shaded park beside a country road in southern Randolph County. Why is it there? The inscription at the base gives a clue: “To the memory of the Confederate soldiers of Randolph County and vicinity. This includes all soldiers who died on Valley Mountain in 1861 while Gen. Lee was encamped there. Camp Pegram No. 1602 UCV Valley Head, West Virginia.”
Just like the nation, Randolph County, Virginia, now West Virginia, was divided by the Civil War. The northern part was strongly Union, while the southern part was almost totally Confederate. This set the stage for some of the earliest fighting of the war.
The Confederate Army suffered a disastrous defeat at Rich Mountain in July 1861. Then, under the command of Gen. William Loring, they set up bases in Randolph and Pocahontas counties, Virginia, to seize and protect the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike and serve as bases to capture the vital B&O Railroad. This would prevent the Union Army from bringing troops from Ohio and other western states into Virginia. One of those bases was at Valley Mountain on the Pocahontas-Randolph county border. Loring had thousands of troops at Valley Mountain and immediately south. The unremitting rain of that summer of 1861 prevented troop movement, and the rain and cold combined caused severe sicknesses to spread widely throughout the camps. Many soldiers sickened and numerous died.
In early August, Gen. Robert E. Lee arrived at Valley Mountain to force action against a growing Union Army presence in central Randolph County. The rain abated in September, and Lee and Loring launched a three-pronged movement against Federal bases at Elkwater, Cheat Pass and Cheat Mountain. The offensive was doomed to failure by the impossibility of maintaining communication between the three wings of the southern army and by a stout defense in the Union lines. Over several days of scattered battle, the Confederate troops were forced back to their bases.
Union troops soon advanced to Marshall’s Store in Mingo, about three miles from the Valley Mountain camp. This store was owned by Jacob Marshall, a prosperous businessman and farmer. Marshall was a strong Confederate supporter. His store and mill were looted and burned by the Union soldiers. (His adjacent home would be burned two years later.) A steep 300-foot rise in elevation on the Marshall farm, covered by a laurel thicket, proved to be an effective barrier from which the Confederate troops were able to halt further progress by the attacking army. Winter brought an end to major conflicts in the immediate area.
Marshall served as a scout for the Confederates in the early part of the war. Later, he formed Company I of the 19th Virginia Cavalry from local southern Randolph County — northern Pocahontas County residents. This company fought in numerous actions, including the Battle of Droop Mountain in November 1863. Here, near their homes, they fought against friends and neighbors in the 10th West Virginia Infantry; the 2nd, 3rd and 8th West Virginia Mounted Infantry; and the 1st West Virginia Light Artillery. There were almost 400 casualties, most of them Confederate. After fighting the remainder of the war, Marshall and the survivors of his Company of soldiers returned to their families and farms.
Unlike our present armed forces, where a Randolph County man will serve beside a comrade from Idaho, another from Missouri and another from Georgia, Marshall’s soldiers marched and fought beside (and sometimes against) brother, uncle, cousin, friend and neighbor. They fought together, they died together, and some of them came home together. The war was a shared experience. For most of them, it was the defining experience of their lives. Besides shared experiences, they had the daily reminders of a neighbor with a missing leg, a cousin with a missing arm and a brother who was missing from the breakfast table every day. So they talked and shared memories.
Their children heard the stories. As the soldiers aged and started dying off, their children determined that they would build a monument to keep the memories alive for future generations. With the aid of a few surviving Civil War participants, they erected a statue. Fittingly, the statue was placed on the farm formerly owned by Marshall, beside the road used by both Confederate and Union troops in their struggle for control of western Virginia. Soldiers, both blue and gray, are buried beside that road in marked and unmarked graves. The statue was dedicated on July 23, 1913, 52 years after the first Confederate soldiers occupied the farm. Captain George Washington Painter, a veteran of the 19th Virginia Cavalry, shared his war experiences with a large crowd.
Today, the statue still stands. It is a tribute to our ancestors who lived and fought the Civil War on this soil. But it is much more. It is America’s history. Our story. It is a reminder of that bitter time when we let our divisions overcome our unity. When we were willing to fight and kill neighbor and friend because of our differences. When we were willing to die to uphold those differences. It is a reminder that the same can happen in any generation. It is a reminder that we must stand together and say, “Never again.”
Every Memorial Day, local residents gather at the statue to commemorate those who have paid the supreme sacrifice for our country. We pray, sing and share experiences we or family members have had in the U.S. military. We tell stories, not of the Civil War, but of the wars of our generations, of Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Panama, Grenada, Vietnam, Korea, and World War II. They are stories of courage and sacrifice — sacrifice for a country once divided, then reunited, now indivisible. In time, memories of these conflicts will fade into the past, to be replaced with newer ones. But none will be forgotten. It is America’s history. It is our story.