Laurel Hill

“Advance of General Rosecrans’s division through the forests of Laurel Hill to attack the Confederate intrenchments at Rich Mountain. General McClellan’s plan for attacking the Confederates under General Garnett in Western Virginia and driving them beyond the Alleghanies involved the surprise of a large body strongly intrenched at Rich Mountain, in a position commanding the turnpike over Laurel Hill. He detailed General Rosecrans to surprise them. This in turn involved a circuitous march through the dense forests of Laurel Hill, over a wild nd broken country. General Rosecrans’s column of 1,600 men was guided by a woddsman named David L. Hart, who described the march as follows: “We started at daylight, and I led, accompanied by Colonel Lander, through a pathless wood, obstructed by bushes, laurels, fallen timber and rocks, followed by the whole division in perfect silence. It ended in the utter rout and final capture of the Confederates under Colonel Pegram, with a loss of 150 killed and 300 wounded.” — Frank Leslie, 1896

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