Throughout the summer of 1861, Union forces under General Rosecrans had been fighting to gain control of the vital Kanawha Valley along western Virginia's border with Kentucky.

[5] The next day, September 25, the Union forces proceeded 16 miles towards Chapmanville when they encountered Confederate pickets and skirmishers at the Trace Fork Creek.

[6] The skirmishers were driven back towards Chapmanville, joining the main Confederate body, commanded by Col. J. Lucius Davis, in their fortifications and entrenchments in the Kanawha Gap just outside the town.

[7] As the 1st Kentucky defeated the militia in the town, Col. Piatt's men marched towards the fortifications located on the side of a mountain at Kanawha Gap.

The Confederate militia that managed to escape capture by the Kentuckians ran to the fortifications and the whole force opened fire when the Union column was approximately 80 yards from the foot of the mountain.