2006 Civil War Institute

Mayhem in the Mountains

The 2006 tour of West Virginia battlefields, June 9-12, 2006, co-sponsored by the Rich Mountain Battlefield Foundation and the Shenandoah Civil War Associates, was rated by the participants as an outstanding success. The program, based in Elkins West Virginia, studied and toured the major battlefields of "The First Campaign" in 1861. Led by historians Hunter Lesser, author of Rebels at the Gate: Lee and McClellan at the Front Line of a Nation Divided, Jeff Wert and John Heatwole, the group visited Philippi, Laurel Hill, Rich Mountain, Cheat Fort, Camp Bartow, Camp Allegheny, and Corricks Ford. Although the 1861 campaigns in West Virginia were an important series of victories for Union forces under General George B. McClellan, these battles often do not receive the attention they deserve from students of the Civil War. Hunter Lesser's brilliantly conducted tours served to educate all those who attended this program that covered the major clashes of Union and Confederate armies at the outbreak of the Civil War.

2006 Pictures