Quotes on the Guerrilla War

  According to his [Col. J.C. Paxton, U.S.] representations treason was then, March 12, 1863 "more rampant...in the Kanawha Valley, than at any time since the war began." This he attributed largely to "the arts and blandishments of the women" who, because of "their name, wealth," and "so called positions in society" had so far "monopolized the time, care, brains and hair of all the staff officers that have ever been in the Valley that they get whatever they ask." Charles H. Ambler, "Francis H. Pierpont", pg. 188,1937

    As a result it had become next to impossible for Union men to travel in West Virginia "without being shot down or carried off to Richmond," while Confederates and their sympathizers in the guise of State rights men, came and went at pleasure, with direful effects upon Union soldiers. Charles H. Ambler, "Francis H. Pierpont", pg. 188

    "After you get a short distance below the Panhandle...it is not safe for a

loyal man to go into the interior out of sight of the Ohio River." Arthur I. Boreman, Feb. 27, 1863. Charles H. Ambler, "Francis H. Pierpont", pg. 188

    "Here there are nearly as many Secessionists as Union men; the women avow it openly because they are safe in doing so, but the men are merely sour and suspicious and silent..." Rutherford B. Hayes, Weston, WV, July 30, 1861

   "The Rebel guerillas are all mounted, and it is utterly useless for us to follow or try to catch them on foot. We have now over 40,000 men in the service of the U.S. in Western Virginia...[But] our large armies are useless here. They cannot catch guerillas in the mountains any more than a cow can catch fleas. We must inaugurate a system of Union guerillas to put down the rebel guerillas."

Brig. Gen. R.H. Milroy to Francis Pierpont, Oct. 27, 1862

    "...there is not now a Union soldier between this place {Parkersburg] and South Carolina--The whole country South and East of us is abandoned to the Southern Confederacy--Men are here from the counties above named [Wirt, Roane,

Jackson, &c &c]--and indeed from Clay, Nicholas &c &c--who have been run off from their homes--Indeed the Ohio border is lined with refugees from Western Va. We are in a worse condition than we were a year ago--These people come to me every day and say they can't stay at home--their persons are unsafe--They must either have protection or abandon the country entirely--Some of the best men of Wirt & Roane tell me they have now left their homes for good unless protection is afforded them, & that soon--...If something is not done & that speedily there will be nothing left in those counties worth protecting--The secessionists remain at home & are safe, & now claim that they are in the Southern Confederacy--which is practically the fact--for there are now more Southern troops visiting these counties--than there are of the Union army--Scouts sent over to Ripley in Jackson Co. a day or two since returned this morning and report the fact that two men from Gen. Lorings army...have actually opened a recruiting office in Riply [sic] & that the people there have declared for the Confederate government." Arthur I. Boreman to Francis Pierpont, Sept. 22, 1862

    "Recently robberies have been committed on a large scale in many parts of the State, and some of the best citizens murdered by these outlaws in the counties of Harrison and Marion...One feature of this condition of things is that many of the disloyal in our midst who have remained at home, feed and harbor these marauders, knowing their purposes." Gov. Boreman in his annual message to the Legislature, Jan. 17, 1865

   "Twice has the war in Western Virginia been declared by newspaper correspondents in the confidence of headquarters as virtually at an end...But though no rebel army may appear again this side of the mountains-and one is not likely to-the war in Western Virginia is far from being at an end. There is not a county in all this part of the Old Dominion that does not contain a greater or lesser number of Secessionists, who have degenerated into assassins...They pillage, burn, destroy, and kill, in strong Union neighborhoods, and even here [Parkersburg], where Secessionists are not plenty, and a guard of troops is constant, they have the aucdacity to perpetrate their outrages..."

Newspaper clipping, wired from Parkersburg Sept. 18, 1861 to the Cincinnati Times

   "From the following article it will be seen that the 'Permit system' has been abolished in West Virginia. This will prove highly gratifying to the rebels on Kanawha, and their sympathizing friends in Ohio. With the commanding General of the Department and his Quarter Master, in Libby Prison, captured by rebels within 35 miles of Gallipolis-a government steamer burned at the same time, it might seem to an unpracticed eye, that the State of West Virginia was not so intensely loyal as some persons wish it to be considered. The fact is that region of country is just as well stocked with rebels both armed and unarmed as any other portion of the South. It will hardly be alleged that unlimited free trade will lessen the liability to still more frequent raids on Kanawha." Gallipolis Journal (Ohio), Feb. 18, 1864