This Week in the Civil War

Apologies
for the delay in these posts, we we spent the week traveling.

This
week, in West Virginia McClellan launched attacks on the Confederate
positions on Laurel Hill and Rich Mountain. Skirmishing continued at
Laurel Hill for five days. At Rich Mountain the Confederates were
defeated after two hours of fighting, and hearing news of these
defeat the Confederates retreated from Laurel Hill as well. The
Unions pursued, and General Robert Garnett, the
Confederate commander, was killed in the Battle of Corrick’s Ford.
This was the first general to be killed in the Civil War. This
further victories over the Confederates made George McClellan, the
Federal Commander, an even greater hero in the North.

In Virginia, the two
pronged attack on Richmond advanced. McDowell move out with the main
part of the army from Washington DC, and Patterson remained in the
Shenandoah Valley, moving very slowly after his skirmishes with
Johnson. With McDowell’s advance on July 16^th, the first
large scale campaign of the Civil War began.