Markers At Visitor's Center
Wardensville, WV
Between the two historical markers in Wardensville is a new sign telling about Wardensville's role in the Civil War, including incidents involving Confederate guerrillas.Wardensville
Crossroads of War
During the Civil War, most of Wardensville's two hundred residents supported the Confederacy. Southern guerrillas found friends here. On May 7, 1862, Union Col. Stephen W. Downey arrived here with a mixed force of infantry and cavalry, searching for guerrilla leader Capt. Umbaugh. He was found and killed.
On May 30-31, 1862, the largest number of troops who entered Wardensville during the war — almost 20,000 men under Gen. John C. Frémont — marched by in a steady rain. Frémont and his men were returning to the Shenandoah Valley, from which Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson had driven them earlier in the month, to face him again (and again suffer defeat) at Cross Keys and Port Republic on June 8-9.
Confederate Gen. John D. Imboden's men unsuccessfully attacked a Union supply train moving through here on December 22, 1862, on its way to Winchester with provisions for Gen. Gustave P. Cluseret. Federal forces had recently destroyed Imboden's camp near Moorefield, and he was gathering provisions for the winter.
On August 5, 1863, Union Gen. William W. Averell led a column of cavalry and artillery through town. He was beginning a raid to destroy gunpowder and salt works in Pocahontas and Greenbrier Counties. Several times during the war, Confederate Capt. John Hansen McNeill led his Rangers through Wardensville to attack union forces in the Shenandoah Valley to the east.
Across the road from you is the Wardensville Cemetery. At least twenty-eight Confederate soldiers and one Union soldier are buried here.
"The citizens of Wardensville were warned that they would be held strictly accountable for any future demonstrations of guerrilla warfare, and plainly informed that they only way in which they could save their houses from conflagration was for them to defend their territory against incursions of all lawless bands of guerrillas."
— Col. Stephen W. Downey, 3rd Maryland Infantry, US.
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| Above: Illustrations from the Marker | |
| Capt. John H. McNeill | Confederate attack on Union wagon train |
 | The above interpretative marker stands between two roadside markers: Wardensville (see in HMDB.org) and Population Center (also in HMDB). Left: Roses in Wardensville Cemetery |
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