CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- David Hart's loyalty to the Union cause was put to the test swiftly and soundly 150 years ago Monday, when the 22-year-old civilian was asked to guide a force of nearly 2,000 troops from Indiana and Ohio up a narrow backwoods path and into battle at the summit of Rich Mountain.
The Union force, led by Brig. Gen. William S. Rosencrans, hoped to surprise a Confederate garrison controlling access to the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike at the point the toll road crossed the 3,000-foot peak. The pass is located a few miles east of Beverly, Hart's birthplace, and then the county seat of Randolph County.
The lofty roadblock manned by the Southern troops was located on the Hart family farm, to which the young man had intended to return following a visit with relatives before encountering Union troops on the road home.
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(see Fouts' The Dark Days of the Civil War).
There were more West Virginians in the Confederate troops at Rich & Laurel Mountains than in the Federal troops-the 25th Virginia Infantry, 9th Battalion of Virginia Infantry, the 31st Virginia Infantry, and the Greenbrier Cavalry under Capt. Moorman.
The Wheeling government gained time to create their own state against the wishes of most West Virginians. Wheeling delegate Chapman J. Stuart on Dec. 10, 1861, said "Now, Mr. President...even a majority of the people within the district composed of the thirty-nine counties have never come to the polls and expressed their sentiments in favor of a new State. In a voting population of some 40,000 or 50,000 we see a poll of only 17,627 and even some of them were in the [Union] army."
No one disagreed with him, but merely tried to come up with excuses.