From Stop 4, retrace your route back along the Pierson Hollow Trail for approximately 0.2 miles or 5 minutes. Turn to face to your left and you are in the position of the Union line on the evening of September 10. The Confederate line is approximately 800 feet ahead of you. 

After scouting the Confederate right flank and pushing the 45th Virginia back, Colonel Smith of the 13th Ohio returned to Rosecrans behind the lines to report what his troops found. Smith and Rosecrans knew that the Confederate right flank was a weak point that could be exploited. Smith proposed a plan to attack the Confederate flank while other parts of Rosecrans’ force attacked the center of the Confederate line. Rosecrans approved of Smith’s proposal and gave him the 28th Ohio (commanded by Colonel Augustus Moor), part of the 12th Ohio (under Lieutenant Colonel Carr B. White), and the four companies of the 23rd under Hayes, in addition to his own 13th Ohio to attack the flank.

To assist the flanking maneuver, Rosecrans planned for parts of the 10th Ohio (under Lieutenant Colonel Herman J. Korff) and 12th Ohio (under Captain James D. Wallace) to attack through the Patterson cornfield towards the center and left of the Confederate line. At the same time, the 9th Ohio would attack towards the center and the 47th Ohio was to focus on the central artillery redoubt. The Third Brigade was to come up and focus on the Confederate left.

Smith’s plan hinged on getting all of the troops in place before dusk and starting the assault before darkness fell. It took the next hour or so to start getting units into position in the quickly darkening woods. At 7:00pm Rosecrans ordered the attack to begin, even though not all the troops were in place, because darkness was falling. Colonels Moor and Smith started their attack up the ravine of Pierson Hollow towards the Confederate flank. With the assault already underway, Moor received word that some of their reinforcements would not be able to get into position until hours later. At that Moor and Smith, and Lieutenant Colonel Charles Sondershoff of the 9th Ohio, decided to halt the attack as it was getting too dark. Rosecrans agreed and decided to regroup for an attack the next morning.

Rosecrans called for his force to withdraw back to the location of the former 50th Virginia camp to rest and plan for the morning. Smith began to lead his 13th Ohio and Hayes’ companies of the 23rd Ohio out of Pierson Hollow, creating a “U” in the Union line (or two parallel lines of Union troops). In the darkness and wooded terrain the two lines mistook each other for the enemy and the 13th Ohio and 23rd Ohio fired into the 28th Ohio causing several casualties. In addition, both Colonel Moor and Lieutenant Colonel Becker were injured when they fell off a steep cliff in the dark, and Captain Maurice Weselowski led the 28th Ohio back to the main force.

Rosecrans used the 9th Ohio Infantry and his artillery near the ferry road to cover the retreat of his troops from Pierson Hollow and the woods to the Union right. He withdrew back towards Cross Lanes about a mile, had his regiments remain in battle order, and his men rested on their arms until morning. The 30th Ohio took their positions as pickets for the night. Rosecrans checked on his supply train and prepared to renew the attack on Floyd’s line in the morning. The Union wounded were brought to the Thomas Fitzwater and Isaac Miller homes (the Henry Patterson house would also be used as a hospital once the battle was over), and there are also claims that wounded men were housed in homes at Cross Lanes as well. 

Lesser, W. Hunter. Rebels At the Gate: Lee and McClellan on the Front Line of a Nation Divided. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, Inc., 2004.

Lowry, Terry. September Blood: The Battle of Carnifex Ferry. Charleston, WV: Quarrier Press, 2011.

Shaffer, Dallas B. “The Battle at Carnifex Ferry.” State of West Virginia. Produced by the Department of Natural Resources, Division of Parks and Recreation. C. 1963.

Snell, Mark A. West Virginia and the Civil War: Mountaineers Are Always Free. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2011.

Stutler, Boyd B. West Virginia in the Civil War. Charleston, WV: Education Foundation, Inc, 1966.