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The Battle of Summit Point

Prior to the battle of Summit Point in Jefferson County, West Virginia, in 1864 the Civil War had been going on for three years. Before the battle of Summit Point the unionist and confederates fought it out in the Battle of Lovejoy’s Station and the Second Battle of Memphis. In both battles the confederates won and made it seem like the unionists were losing the war, even though we all know that was not the end result of the Civil War. The battle of Lovejoy’s Station took place in Lovejoy, Georgia (now Clayton County) on August 20, 1864. H. William T. Sherman, H. Judson Kilpatrick, Robert H. G. Minty, and Eli Long commanded the unionists, while William H. Jackson and Patrick Cleburne commanded the confederates. The mission of the unionist cavalry was to destroy the railroads in the south part of Atlanta, Georgia. This battle went on throughout most of the night and the unionists were forced to retreat. Part of the battlefield is along the McDonough-Jonesboro Road, which is east of highway forty-one. The unionists and confederates decided to come to a stalemate, or an agreement, that the union would half-encircle Atlanta, while the confederates stay fighting behind their fortifications, which proved itself to be a better strategy than the unionist. The unionists lost around two hundred thirty-seven people, while the confederates lost about two hundred forty people. The Second Battle of Memphis, which was directly before the battle of Summit Point, occurred on August twenty-first around four a.m. in 1864. On the way to the battle the soldiers under H. Judson Kilpatrick stole supplies from the Macon and Western railroad in Macon, Georgia. The battle took place in Memphis, Tennessee, specifically Shelby County. Cadwallader C. Washburn led the unionists, while the confederates were commanded by Nathan Bedford Forrest. The confederate made a brave raid on the unionist; however, this was not an attempt to capture the city. The battlefield was occupied with around six thousand unionist troops. A street in Memphis, Tennessee was actually named “General Washburn’s Escape Alley” to commemorate the battle. This influenced the union forces to leave Mississippi to go to Memphis in order to provide protection of their land and people. The unionists lost four hundred eighty people, while the confederates lost a mere sixty-two people in the fight. Even though the battle was inconclusive, I feel like the confederates should have won due to their loss of people vs. the unionists’ soldiers during the battle of Summit Point; however, the confederates ended up being forced to withdraw and retreat from the battle. The confederates took about five hundred unionist prisoners. He also cut telegraph wires, stole horses, and raided the unionists for a large number of supplies. Unionist General Hurlbut ended up saying after the battle that, "There it goes again! They superseded me with Washburn because I could not keep Forrest out of West Tennessee, and Washburn cannot keep him out of his own bedroom! "These battles set up the battle of Summit Point.

The Campaigns that occurred in the Shenandoah Valley would be initially be divided into three separate campaigns by historians but all three yielded great wealth regarding the outcome of the war. The battle followed the first failed campaign of Lieutenant General US Grant planned invasion of Sigel which resulted in the fall of an important railroad center that was stationed in Lynchburg, Virginia. Sigel was mainly intercepted by the Confederate forces under the command of Major General John C. Brenchenridge who was later defeated. The loss causes the forces to later retreat further back from Virginia into Strasburg and was later told to give up command to Major General David Hunter. General Robert E Lee was quite concerned about the advancement of the Union in the Valley during 1864, which threatened very important railroad systems that provided connections for the Confederate forces that were stationed in Virginia. Because of the threat, General Robert E Lee sent Jubal Early's Second Corps while renaming it Army of the Valley in to attempt to sweep the Union forces from the Shenandoah Valley. In an attempt to try to burn Washington, DC and try and make the unionist become hopeless and give up the long driven out fight of the Civil War and to cause Grant to weaken his forces against General Lee in Virginia. Grant responded by placing Major General Philip Sheridan in command over the Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Sheridan's army was concentrated near Charles Town and Lieutenant General Jubal Early and Major Gen Richard Anderson planned and attacked the Northern army with the tactic of converging columns. Meaning that opposing forces create walls around the target in hopes of suffocating them. Anderson and company attacked from the North against the Union forces at Summit Point. The federals held their ground and effectively delayed any actions, then proceeded to retreat to nearby Haltown the next day. Sheridan was later ordered to place himself South of the enemy and troll him to the death. Just two months later the members of the Union and Sheridans army, delivered many blows to waste away any Confederate control that they had over the reign. This would further weaken any other opportunities to sustain and hold any other Confederate offensive operations. Although a small and more forgotten campaign between the North and South it is definitely considered of the most important and impactful. Sheridans operations that occurred in the Valley would cause a lot of military and political impacts that would rise back up in the future. Even in the end the battle was still considered indecisive.

The battle of Summit Point resulted in at least 1,000 casualties. After finishing the job of neutralizing Early as well as suppressing the Valley's military-related economy and supplies. Sheridan returned to assist Grant and his group during the Siege of Petersburg. Most of the troops of Early's corps rejoined Lee at Petersburg in later at the end of the year, while Early remained to command a skeleton force. His final job was as commander at the defeat of the Battle of Waynesboro on March 2nd of 1865. After the loss, Lee removed him from his command, because the Confederate command had lost confidence in him. He was also losing support from his troops and the people of the Confederacy. This was a bad start to Sheridan’s Valley Campaign. By mid-September of the same year, a victory over Early at the battle of Winchester would start to turn the tide in the Shenandoah. Sporadic fighting in the Shenandoah would continue until the end of the war. The Shenandoah Valley, running north to south between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains. The Confederacy would use its transportation advantages during the conflicts until the area would be known as “the valley of humiliation” for the Union. The Shenandoah was used by the Confederate army throughout the war to move armies northward toward Washington, D.C. When a Confederate army could cross the Potomac where it met the Shenandoah River, it could cut across the Baltimore and Ohio Railroads and be only about sixty miles from Washington. Therefore, when a Confederate army arrived in the Shenandoah Valley, it was enough reason to pull Union troops from other areas or campaigns to provide security for Washington. Late in the war, the Union army took complete control of the Shenandoah region. A month after General George Custer defeated General Jubal Early’s troops at Waynesboro on March 2, 1865, the Confederacy would collapse, and Confederate General Robert E. Lee would surrender to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia on April 9, 1865.Today, a lot of work has been done to preserve the Summit Point battleground for current and future generations to see. Summit Point is one of four battlegrounds in Jefferson County, West Virginia, to be designated by the American Battleground Protection Program as a significant resource. Several sites that were part of the battleground are still intact but are vulnerable to development. In February 2019, it was announced that 280 acres of the battlefield would be acquired through a grant from the American Battlefield Protection Program. Consideration for battlefield acquisition grants is given to battlefields listed in the National Park Service’s 1993 “Report on the Nation’s Civil War Battlefields” and the 2007 “Report to Congress on the Historic Preservation of Revolutionary War and War of 1812 Sites in the United States.” Currently, the Summit Point Battle Friends Group interprets the battle for visitors. The Richwood Hall mansion, built around 1825, still stands at the place where Confederate battle lines formed in 1864. A marker stands to commemorate the John and Lucy Packette House on Locust Hill which marked the position of the Union lines.