McClellan Occupies Parkersburg

At the beginning of the Civil War, both sides recognized the strategic importance of Parkersburg. Besides its location on the Ohio River, the Northwestern Virginia Railroad branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the Staunton and Parkersburg Turnpike, and the Northwestern Turnpike all served the city and county.

Union Gen. George B. McClellan, commander of the Department of Ohio, was informed in May 1861 that Confederates were threatening the railroad. McClellan decided to protect the terminus at Parkersburg, and on May 27, he sent the 14th and 18th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, together with the Cleveland Light Artillery, to occupy the city. The units departed Marietta, Ohio, on steamboats and landed in Parkersburg to find the residents were glad to see them.

McClellan arrived with his staff from Cincinnati on June 22. He inspected the facilities here, including the future site of Fort Boreman, before moving east. Before the next month was over, he had fought and won battles at Rich Mountain and Corrick's Ford in western Virginia, defeating troops under Gen. Robert E. Lee's overall command—a trend that would be reversed a year later near Richmond. McClellan's reports to Washington proclaimed, "Our success is complete and secession is killed in this country."

The Union occupation of Parkersburg continued until the end of the war. About 30,000 troops arrived within three months of McClellan's departure, and over the course of the conflict many thousands more passed through. At the end of the war, Parkersburg became a center for transporting troops west for discharge.

(captions)
(upper left) Gen. George B. McClellan Courtesy Library of Congress
(upper right) Union troops landing at Parkersburg, May 27, 1861, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, Aug. 24, 1861 Courtesy Blennerhassett Island Historical State Park

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Escape to Freedom
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