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History books are filled with thrilling accounts of the daring expedition of General John Hunt Morgan's Raiders in what is often believed to be the first and only invasion of Ohio by the Confederate Army. On the contrary however, "Border Rangers" of Albert Gallatin Jenkins, Brigadier General, C.S.A., have a whole different story to tell. Nearly a year before the July, 1863 raids by Morgan, several companies of the 8th Virginia Cavalry became the first to fly the "Stars and Bars" of the Confederacy over the ground of the Buckeye State.
The Summer of 1862 found General George McClellan and his Army of the Potomac still inactive but optimistic about their attempts to capture the confederate capital and an early victory in the war. In an attempt to draw attention away from Richmond, Robert E. Lee sent General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson to the Shenandoah Valley forcing McClellan to divide his army to defend Washington. It was during Jackson's 1862 Valley Campaign that most of the Regiments from southwest Virginia were ordered into the upper Kanawha and Shenandoah Valley to defend it from a series of attacks that immortalized Jackson, and placed his name with Lee as one of the South's greatest generals. This left the Ohio border virtually unprotected except for scattered companies of provost guards and local Home Guards. With the absence of capable defending Union forces in the Kanawha and Ohio Valley, locally raised Confederate Units enjoyed nearly uncontested control of the country side.
One of these local Confederate regiments was the famous 8th Virginia Calvary consisting of Company "E" or the Border Rangers as they often referred to themselves.
Like Morgan's Raiders, the 8th Virginia became famous for it guerrilla warfare tactics. The Regiment was organized in August, 1861 and consisted of the Border Rangers - Company E, Sandy Rangers - Company K, Kanawha Rangers - Company I, Smyth Dragons - Company A, The Nelson Rangers - Company B, and a few other calvary companies.
The most famous of these was the Border Rangers and its captain, Albert G. Jenkins, who was elected Colonel of the regiment September 24, 1861. The company was organized at Guyandotte, West Virginia "for the purpose of protecting a Virginia flag which had been hoisted on a flag pole on the banks of the Ohio River." It was Jenkins who led the 8th Virginia in their surprise attack on Guyandotte on November 10, 1861, which nearly destroyed the Ninth West Virginia Infantry, and later became known in the north as the Guyandotte Massacre. The battle was one of the early victories for Jenkins and helped launch his military career. Ironically, it was the Ninth West Virginia that led the federal attack against Jenkins at the Battle of Cloyd's Mountain, on May 9, 1864, where Jenkins was mortally wounded.
Albert Gallatin Jenkins was born on November 10, 1830, to William and Jeanette Grigsby McNutt Jenkins. He was reared on his father's plantation at Green Bottom, in northern Cabell County, Virginia (later West Virginia). At the age of fifteen he attended Marshall Academy, the forerunner of Marshall University. After graduating from Marshall Academy, Jenkins enrolled in Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. He graduated June 14, 1848, and enrolled in Harvard Law School in September. After graduating from law school, Jenkins spent several years practicing law in Charleston. In 1856, he served as delegate to the Democratic National Convention held in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was elected to the 35th Congress in 1857 and re-elected in 1859. Before the end of his second term, however, seven states had seceded from the Union. With Civil War all but certain, Jenkins declined a third term to Congress, writing "I shall carry with me an undying devotion to those principles of States Rights Democracy, whose success I have ever believed to be necessary to preserve the rights and liberties of the people."
Jenkins began his military career in 1861 as captain of the newly organized Border Rangers from Cabell, County. In May of the year, he was elected captain of the regiment that was formed by the Border Rangers and other previously mentioned units. Jenkins was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on September 24, 1861. After several successful raids throughout Western Virginia and Kentucky during 1861 and the early months of 1862, Colonel Jenkins resigned his commission to accept a seat in the first Confederate Congress, representing the 14th Virginia Congressional District. 4. In September he was commissioned Brigadier General of calvary and again took command of the 8th and 14th Virginia Calvary. Jenkins resigned his congressional seat that would end his political career. Jenkins rejoined his regiment at Salt Sulphur Springs, in Monroe County, and was placed under Major General W.W. Loring's Division.
Jenkins was ordered to take a calvary force into the Kanawha and Ohio Valley. The force totalling about 550 men, left Salt Sulphur Springs on August 20, 1862. Jenkins's mission was to destroy the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad around the Cheat Valley and "fall upon the rear of the enemy in the Kanawha Valley." After a brief encounter with the enemy at Huntsville, where six union scouts were captured, Jenkins and his men marched to Buckhannon where several thousand small arms were located. After capturing the town, "Jenkins now cast aside his shotguns, armed his men with handsome new rifles, and otherwise supplied himself." They arrived in Weston on August 31, where they destroyed all the Public property and the telegraph office. Jenkins captured Glenville on September 1 and moved on to Spencer about 4pm on September 2. There Jenkins' men captured the federal garrison along with the entire 11th West Virginia Infantry, commanded by Col. John C. Rathmore. The next day they arrived in Ripley where they captured the only Federal there, a Union Army Paymaster and $5,525 in U.S. funds. Jenkins moved on to Ravenswood the next day and after a day long skirmish, the Confederate Calvary prepared to cross the river into Ohio.
At Ravenswood, Jenkins divided his force and sent half down the West Virginia side of the river to rejoin him at Pt. Pleasant. The number of men who crossed the river with Jenkins is unsure, but fell somewhere between 150 and 200 troopers. For the first time in the war, the Rebel forces were about to invade the shores of Ohio. Jenkins later wrote of the account, "The excitement of the command as we approached the Ohio shore was intense, and in the anxiety to be the first of their respective companies to reach the soil of those who had invaded us, all order was lost, and it became almost a universal race as we came into shoal water. In short time all were over, and in a few minutes the command was formed on the crest of a gentle eminence and the banners of the Southern Confederacy floated over the soil of invaders. As our flag was unfurled in the splendors of an evening sun, cheers upon cheers arose from the men, and their enthusiasm was excited to the highest pitch." After reforming, Jenkins and his men rode toward Racine. The inhabitants along the route begged for their homes to be spared form the horrors of warfare. Jenkins, however, assured "the people that though many of his soldiers were homeless and their families in exile because of such warfare in Virginia, he did not epresent barbarians, but a civilized people struggling for their liberties." Jenkins was amazed at the scattered support he received form the local residents for Jefferson Davis and the Southern Cause. The Rangers arrived in Racine and by 9 o'clock in the evening had captured the town, along with arms, supplies and a few Federals and Home Guards. The only reported casualties inflicted by Jenkins' men were that "they shot a deaf and a dumb man who could not hear the order to halt, and it is said wounded one or two others." After taking about twenty five horses, the Rebels attempted to recross the river at Wolf's Bar below Racine. It is said that a "Union sympathesizer attempted to drown the Confederates by leading them into deep water." Jenkins escaped the plot and crossed the river by steamboat. After crossing the river, the Rangers rejoined the remainder of the regiment near Point Pleasant, ending the day long raid through Ohio. Almost ten months later, Morgan would lead the second and final Confederate invasion of Ohio.
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