Battle of Carnifex Ferry

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Patterson House

Date	September 10, 1861
Location	Nicholas County, West Virginia
Result	Union victory

Belligerents

United States (Union)

CSA (Confederacy)

Commanders

William S. Rosecrans

John B. Floyd

Casualties and losses

250 total (US and CS)

v • d • e Operations in Western Virginia

Philippi – Rich Mountain – Corrick's Ford – Kessler's Cross Lanes – Carnifex Ferry – Cheat Mountain – Greenbrier River – Camp Allegheny

The Battle of Carnifex Ferry took place on September 10, 1861, in Nicholas County, Virginia (now West Virginia), as part of the Operations in Western Virginia Campaign during the American Civil War. The battle resulted in a Union victory that contributed to the eventual Confederate withdrawal from western Virginia. The campaign helped pave the way for the subsequent creation of the separate state of West Virginia.

In early September 1861, Confederate forces under Brig. Gen. John B. Floyd crossed the Gauley River and surprised the 7th Ohio Infantry under Col. Erastus Tyler at Kessler’s Cross Lanes. Outnumbered, Tyler's inexperienced men routed, and Floyd camped near Carnifex Ferry. The Confederates began throwing up entrenchments on the Henry Patterson farm (located on the rim of the Gauley River Canyon near Summersville).

Concerned about Floyd's drive to reclaim the Kanawha Valley, Union Brig. Gen. William S. Rosecrans led three brigades of infantry southward from Clarksburg to support Tyler's regrouped regiment. Moving into position on the afternoon of September 10, Rosecrans advanced against Floyd's campsite and attacked. Fighting raged for several hours until darkness finally halted the bloodshed. The strength of Rosecrans's artillery proved to be problematic, and Floyd decided to retreat that night across the ferry to the south side of the Gauley River. He subsequently moved eastward to Meadow Bluff near Lewisburg.

Floyd, seeking to deflect the blame, placed the responsibility for the defeat on his co-commander Brig. Gen. Henry A. Wise, furthering the dissension that marked the Confederate high command in western Virginia.