Battle of Charleston (1862)

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The Battle of Charleston was an engagement on September 13, 1862, near Charleston, Virginia (now West Virginia) during the American Civil War. It should not be confused with the Battle of Charleston (1861), which occurred a year earlier in Missouri.

During the summer of 1862, General William W. Loring’s Department of Southwest Virginia (Confederate States of America) made plans to move into the Kanawha Valley of western Virginia and take the city of Charleston. On September 6, 1862, General Loring, with 5,000 men, left Rocky Gap, Virginia and began a march toward Charleston. The Confederate troops first encountered Union forces near Fayetteville on September 10, driving the Federals back toward Charleston. The pursuit continued all day on the September 11, with the Federals splitting their forces near Gauley's Bridge on both sides of the Kanawha River, and the CSA doing the same in hot pursuit. By late afternoon on September 13, the Battle for Charleston had begun and was over by 7:30 p.m. when Loring's troops broke off the engagement at the Elk River. The Union forces withdrew across the Ohio River over night, leaving Charleston to be occupied by Confederate forces.

The occupation of Charleston by the Confederates lasted a scant six weeks, until October 28, 1862, when Loring's troops begin withdrawing under the threat of 12,000 Union forces approaching from the northeast.