PARKERSBURG The Parkersburg & Wood County Public Library with the West Virginia University at Parkersburg Foundation on June 12 will begin its annual Wood C
Mar 4, 2021
BEVERLY The history of the Underground Railroad in West Virginia is still something of a mystery even after all these years. A series of safe points from the Deep South leading into Canada, spirituals such as “Follow the Gourd” were integral to guiding enslaved men, women, and children to a life of freedom up north. While certain routes along the Underground Railroad are well-known in the Northern and Eastern Panhandles and along the Ohio River, the heart of the Mountain State has not been examined in great detail.
On Feb. 20, Dr. Christopher Mielke, the Executive Director of the Beverly Heritage Center in Randolph County, presented a digital lecture on the topic. The focus of his talk was the role of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike, an east-west route from the Shenandoah Valley to the Ohio River finished in 1845.
SUMMARY
Staunton, Virginia, the seat of Augusta County, was a key target in two major campaigns during the American Civil War (1861–1865), and remained strategically important throughout the entire war. With a population of about 4,000 in 1860, Staunton was situated at a vital transportation crossroads in the Shenandoah Valley, and the Confederacy sought to utilize and protect its infrastructure and wealth from the recurrent threat of destruction by Union forces. Various Confederate leaders, including the generals Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson and Richard S. Ewell, used the town as their headquarters, and it served almost continuously as an army depot, quartermaster and commissary post, and training camp. Union troops targeted Staunton for more than two years before they were able to break the Confederates’ protective hold and lay waste to much of the town and miles of nearby railroad track.