Though West Virginia was founded for the purpose of remaining loyal to the Union, severing ties with Virginia, home of the capital of the Confederacy, would prove difficult. West Virginia’s fate would be tested on its battlegrounds. In August 1863, Union general William Woods Averell led a six-hundred-mile raid culminating in the Battle of White Sulphur Springs in Greenbrier County. Colonel George S. Patton, grandfather of the legendary World War II general, met Averell with a dedicated Confederate force. After a fierce two-day battle, Patton defeated Averell, forcing him to retreat. Civil War historian Eric J. Wittenberg presents a fascinating in-depth analysis of the proceedings in the first book-length study of this important battle.
Eric J. Wittenberg is an award-winning Civil War historian. Originally from southeastern Pennsylvania, he was educated at Dickinson College and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He is an attorney in private practice. He is also the author of more than fifteen published books on the Civil War and serves as a member of the Governor of Ohio’s Commission on the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War and as vice-president of the Buffington Island Battlefield Preservation Foundation.
