Battle of Summit Point

Thomas' Legion
American Civil War HOMEPAGE
American Civil War
Causes of the Civil War : What Caused the Civil War
Organization of Union and Confederate Armies: Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery
Civil War Navy: Union Navy and Confederate Navy
American Civil War: The Soldier's Life
Civil War Turning Points
American Civil War: Casualties, Battles and Battlefields
Civil War Casualties, Fatalities & Statistics
Civil War Generals
American Civil War Desertion and Deserters: Union and Confederate
Civil War Prisoner of War: Union and Confederate Prison History
Civil War Reconstruction Era and Aftermath
American Civil War Genealogy and Research
Civil War
American Civil War Pictures - Photographs
African Americans and American Civil War History
American Civil War Store
American Civil War Polls
NORTH CAROLINA HISTORY
North Carolina Civil War History
North Carolina American Civil War Statistics, Battles, History
North Carolina Civil War History and Battles
North Carolina Civil War Regiments and Battles
North Carolina Coast: American Civil War
HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
Western North Carolina and the American Civil War
Western North Carolina: Civil War Troops, Regiments, Units
North Carolina: American Civil War Photos
Cherokee Chief William Holland Thomas
HISTORY OF THE CHEROKEE INDIANS
Cherokee Indian Heritage, History, Culture, Customs, Ceremonies, and Religion
Cherokee Indians: American Civil War
History of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian Nation
Cherokee War Rituals, Culture, Festivals, Government, and Beliefs
Researching your Cherokee Heritage
Civil War Diary, Memoirs, Letters, and Newspapers

Battle of Summit Point

Other Names: Flowing Springs, Cameron's Depot

Location: Jefferson County, West Virginia

Campaign: Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley Campaign (August-October 1864)

Date(s): August 21, 1864

Principal Commanders: Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan [US]; Lt. Gen. Jubal Early [CS]

Forces Engaged: Divisions

Estimated Casualties: 1,000 total

Result(s): Inconclusive

Description: As Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan concentrated his army near Charles Town, Lt. Gen. Jubal Early and Maj. Gen. Richard Anderson attacked the Federals with converging columns on August 21. Early moved east via Smithfield against the Union VI Corps. Anderson struck north against Wilson's Union cavalry at Summit Point. There was cavalry fighting near Berryville. The Federals fought effective delaying actions, withdrawing to near Halltown on the following day.

Battle of Summit Point Map
Battle of Summit Point Map.gif
Civil War Summit Point Battlefield Map

Setting the Stage: West Virginia became a state, breaking away from Virginia during the Civil War, on June 20, 1863. The Battle of Summit Point was one of several battles fought during Sheridan's Valley Campaign (August – October 1864). Sheridan's Valley Campaign, part of the Shenandoah Valley Campaigns of 1864, was the last of three principal campaigns fought throughout the valley region.

Sheridan's Valley Campaign [August-October 1864] witnessed the following battles: Guard Hill – Summit Point – Smithfield CrossingBerryville3rd Winchester – Fisher's Hill – Tom's Brook – Cedar Creek.

West Virginia Civil War History Map
West Virginia Civil War Battlefield Map.jpg
West Virginia Civil War Battlefield Map

Grant finally lost patience with Early, particularly his burning of Chambersburg, and knew that Washington remained vulnerable if Early was still on the loose. He found a new commander aggressive enough to defeat Early: Philip Sheridan, the cavalry commander of the Army of the Potomac, who was given command of all forces in the area, calling them the Army of the Shenandoah. Sheridan initially started slowly, primarily because the impending presidential election of 1864 demanded a cautious approach, avoiding any disaster that might lead to the defeat of Abraham Lincoln.

Battle of Summit Point Map
Battle of Summit Point Map.jpg
Civil War Battle of Summit Point, West Virginia, Map

Battle: The Battle of Summit Point, also known as Flowing Springs or Cameron's Depot, was an inconclusive battle of the American Civil War fought on August 21, 1864, near Summit Point, West Virginia.
 
The battle was part of Union Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley Campaign, which took place between August and December 1864. While Sheridan concentrated his army near Charles Town, Confederate Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early and Maj. Gen. Richard H. Anderson attacked the Union forces with converging columns on August 21. Anderson struck north against the Union cavalry at Summit Point. The Union forces fought effective delaying actions, withdrawing to near Halltown on the following day. The battle resulted in approximately 1,000 casualties.

Civil War Richwood Hall
Battle of Summit Point, WV.jpg
Battle of Summit Point, WV

Civil War Battle of Cameron's Depot
West Virginia Civil War History.jpg
West Virginia Civil War History

George Washington and the Battle of Summit Point: During the battle of Cameron’s Depot, Aug. 21, 1864, Confederate General Jubal A. Early placed his cannon near the house and formed his battle lines north and south of this point.
 
The original brick house was built on land owned by Lawrence Augustine Washington, the son of Samuel Washington, George’s brother. The present mansion-house, in an excellent state of preservation, was built about 1825.

Aftermath: Completing his missions of neutralizing Early and suppressing the Valley's military-related economy, Sheridan returned to assist Grant during the Siege of Petersburg. Most of the men of Early's corps rejoined Lee at Petersburg in December, while Early remained to command a skeleton force. His final action was defeat at the Battle of Waynesboro on March 2, 1865, after which Lee removed him from his command because the Confederate government and people had lost confidence in him. (Shenandoah Valley and the American Civil War and American Civil War in the Shenandoah Valley.)

Sheridan's Valley Campaign Map
Civil War West Virginia Map.jpg
Civil War West Virginia Map

History of Summit Point and Jefferson County

Summit Point History: Summit Point is an unincorporated community in Jefferson County, West Virginia. It lies along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at the intersection of West Virginia Secondary Route 1 and Summit Point Pike. According to the 2000 census, the Summit Point community has a population of 1,026. It is home to the Summit Point Motorsports Park. The current mayor is the Hon. Donald C. Owens.
 
White House Farm, located along the Summit Point-Charles Town Road, is perhaps the oldest house in the Summit Point area. The property was deeded to Dr. John McCormick, an Irish physician, in 1740. An early plantation in the vicinity of Summit Point was the Bullskin Plantation, purchased by eighteen-year-old George Washington in 1750. He bought 453 acres (1.83 km2) along the North Fork of the Bullskin Run from Robert Rutherford. Over the next several years, George Washington added another 1,558 acres (6.31 km2) to the plantation. By 1755, he built a small stone building where he stayed during his brief visits to the plantation. This portion of the property was later called Rockhall. In 1769, he divided the remainder of the property into 200-acre (0.81 km2) tracts, which he leased to tenant farmers. Washington owned the vast Bullskin Plantation tract until his death in 1799.
 
Summit Point was the scene of the Battle of Summit Point during the American Civil War on August 21, 1864. This inconclusive battle occurred during Major General Philip Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley Campaign which took place between August and December 1864. As Maj. Gen. Sheridan concentrated his army near Charles Town, Lt. Gen. Jubal Early and Maj. Gen. Richard H. Anderson attacked the Federals with converging columns on August 21. Anderson struck north against the Union cavalry at Summit Point. The Federals fought effective delaying actions, withdrawing to near Halltown on the following day. The battle resulted in approximately 1,000 casualties.
 
In the 1960s, Summit Point began to grow. New housing developments and other construction continue to date, creating a widespread community around the periphery of this historic town. See also: Shenandoah Valley Campaigns: The Civil Battles and West Virginia Civil War History.

Jefferson County, WV.
Jefferson County, West Virginia.gif
Battle of Summit Point Map

Jefferson County History: Jefferson County was formed from Berkeley County in 1801 and named for Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States. Virginia previously had a Jefferson County, which was lost to form the new state of Kentucky. Accordingly, in the State records of Virginia, there will be listings for Jefferson County from 1780-1792 and Jefferson County from 1801-1863. Neither is still located in Virginia and despite naming a county after him twice, Virginia no longer has a county named for its hero Thomas Jefferson.

John Brown Rebellion: The county's courthouse was the site of the trial for the abolitionist John Brown after his October 1859 raid on the federal armory in Harpers Ferry. Some 90 U.S. Marines serving under then Army Colonel Robert E. Lee and Lieutenants J.E.B. Stuart and Israel Green put down the rebellion.
 
Brown was sentenced to death for murder, treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia, and conspiring with slaves to rebel. On December 2, 1859, John Brown was taken from the Charles Town jail a short distance to an open field and hanged. Among those attending the Brown execution was a contingent of 1500 cadets from Virginia Military Institute sent by the Governor of Virginia Henry A. Wise under the supervision of Major William Gilham and Major Thomas J. Jackson. In the ranks of a Richmond militia company stood John Wilkes Booth.
 
Jefferson County and the Civil War: The county was a frequent site of conflict during the civil war, as Union and Confederate lines moved back and forth along the Shenandoah valley. Some towns in the county changed hands between the Union and Confederacy over a dozen times.
 
Jefferson County is the only part of modern-day West Virginia not exempted from the effects of the Emancipation Proclamation (as Berkeley County and the 48 counties designated as West Virginia had been). Slaves in the county were legally free as of January 1, 1863.
 
Joining West Virginia: Both Berkeley and Jefferson counties had voted for secession in the vote taken on May 23, 1861. However, these counties lying on the Potomac River east of the mountains, with the consent of the Reorganized Government of Virginia supposedly voted in favor of annexation to West Virginia in 1863 in a dubious election supervised by the occupying Union Army. Virginia tried to nullify this after the American Civil War, but the counties remained part of West Virginia.
 
The question of the constitutionality of the formation of the new state was brought before the Supreme Court of the United States in the following manner: Berkeley and Jefferson County, West Virginia, counties lying on the Potomac east of the mountains, in 1863, with the consent of the Reorganized Government of Virginia, had supposedly voted in favor of annexation to West Virginia. However, many voters were absent in the Confederate Army when the vote was taken and they refused to accept the transfer upon their return. The Virginia General Assembly repealed the Act of Secession and in 1866 brought suit against West Virginia, asking the Supreme Court to declare the counties still part of Virginia. Congress, on March 10, 1866, passed a joint resolution recognizing the transfer. In 1871, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Virginia v. West Virginia, upholding the secession of West Virginia, including Berkeley and Jefferson counties, from Virginia.

(Sources listed below.)

Site search Web search

Advance to:
 

Sources: National Park Service; Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; Gallagher, Gary W., ed. Struggle for the Shenandoah: Essays on the 1864 Valley Campaign. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1991. ISBN 0-87338-429-6; Patchan, Scott C. Shenandoah Summer: The 1864 Valley Campaign. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-8032-3754-4; Cooling, Benjamin Franklin. Jubal Early's Raid on Washington, 1864. Baltimore: Nautical & Aviation Publishing Company of America, 1989. ISBN 0-933852-86-X; Early, Jubal A., "General Jubal A. Early tells his story of his advance upon Washington, D.C.". Washington National Republican, 1864; Early, Jubal A. A Memoir of the Last Year of the War for Independence in the Confederate States of America. Edited by Gary W. Gallagher. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2001. ISBN 1-57003-450-8; Gallagher, Gary W., ed. The Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864. Military Campaigns of the Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-8078-3005-5; Lewis, Thomas A., and the Editors of Time-Life Books. The Shenandoah in Flames: The Valley Campaign of 1864. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1987. ISBN 0-8094-4784-3.

Return to American Civil War Homepage

Best viewed with Internet Explorer or Google Chrome

google.com, pub-2111954512596717, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0