Laurel Mountain (West Virginia)
Laurel Mountain, also called Laurel Hill, is a long ridge in north-central West Virginia, US. Along with Rich Mountain to the south, it is considered to be the westernmost ridge of the Allegheny Mountains and the boundary between the Alleghenies and the Allegheny Plateau.
Geography
Running northeast to southwest through Preston, Tucker, Barbour, and Randolph Counties, the ridge forms portions of the borders between them. It stretches for about from the Cheat River in the north to the Tygart Valley River in the south. It achieves its highest elevation at the Eliot Benchmark about north of Pleasure Valley.The mountain is formed by the same structural fold in the Earth's crust which continues north from Laurel as Briery Mountains and south as Rich Mountain. Although it is a long-folded ridge like Backbone Mountain, running northeast–southwest, similar to the parallel Appalachan Ridge and Valley Section further east, it is not part of the Ridge and Valley Area. Like Backbone Mountain, it is part of the Allegheny Mountain region to the west of the Ridge-and-Valley area. There is a short break, then north of the Pennsylvania state line, it continues northeast as Laurel Hill.
History
Laurel Mountain's name was derived from the prolific "great laurel" which the earliest pioneers found there in profusion the late 1700s.After the June 3, 1861 [Battle of Philippi, West Virginia|Philippi Races|Battle of Philippi], the Confederate forces, having been routed by the Union Army in Philippi, retreated south. Confederate General Robert S. Garnett moved about 3,500 troops to Laurel Mountain. The Confederates made camp at the foot of the mountain near the Laurel Mountain Road. On July 6, General George B. McClellan ordered General Thomas A. Morris to advance from Philippi to Belington with about 5,000 Union troops. Skirmishing began on July 7 and lasted for five days, with the Union routing the Confederate troops. Upon hearing of the simultaneous defeat of forces at Rich Mountain, General Garnett retreated with his troops to Corrick's Ford near Parsons where he soon became the first general officer to be killed in the war.
Later that summer, General Robert E. Lee maneuvered against Brig. Gen. Joseph J. Reynolds at Cheat Mountain and in the Tygart Valley. He called off the attack and eventually withdrew to Valley Head on September 17. In October, he renewed operations against Laurel Mountain with the troops of Floyd and Loring, but operations were called off owing to communication and logistical difficulties. Lee was recalled to Richmond on October 30 after achieving little in western Virginia and with his reputation diminished.
In recent years, production of a "Battle of Laurel Hill Reenactment" has been undertaken at the site of the Laurel Hill Battlefield on its anniversary dates. In 2004, the City of Belington assumed ownership of of the old camp and battlefield.