William E. Jones and John D. Imboden, was aimed at disrupting traffic on the vital Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and reasserting Confederate authority in transmountain Virginia in an effort to derail the growing statehood movement in the region, since voters had in March approved a new Constitution and statehood only awaited Congressional and Presidential approval, which took place before the raid began.

From a political standpoint, however, the raid failed, for it had little effect on pro-statehood sentiment, and West Virginia was admitted as the 35th state of the Union in June.

[1] He planned to destroy at least one important bridge of the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad, which was vital to the Union supply lines through western Virginia.

Early on the morning of April 26, 1863, Jones and his cavalry rode from Red House, Maryland to the foot of Cheat Mountain on the old Northwestern Turnpike, now US 50.

Jones ordered his field officer, Captain Octavius T. Weems of the 11th Virginia Cavalry, to torch the Cheat River railroad bridge "at all hazard."

Weems' Company K formed on Palmer's Knob, across the river east of town, while church services were underway.

The Confederates took up attack positions about two-thirds the way down the mountain on a "bench" where they formed a line and moved forward.

According to an eyewitness account, at around two-thirty, the troopers "came bounding and bellowing down the mountain, yelling like fiends just up from the pit" (Workman, 2006).

Fragments of artillery shells have been found on the hillside around Palmer's Knob and below where the Confederates grouped for their charge toward the bridge.

Meanwhile, with the remainder of his forces, Jones had moved two miles (3 km) west to Macomber where the River Road (now WV 72) connected Rowlesburg to the Northwestern Turnpike.

He sent Col. John S. Green and his 6th Virginia Cavalry to drive in pickets and attack any perimeter defenses—creating in effect a pincer move against Rowlesburg.

At two o'clock shots were heard in town from the direction of the River Road where Green's forces were driving the pickets back to the Union lines.

Col. Green next ordered troops armed with carbines to dismount and move forward along the road and engage McDonald's force.

Analogous to the Persians at Thermopylae, Jones was defeated by geography and a stubborn enemy willing to sacrifice all in his first major battle of the campaign.

Both Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia General Robert E. Lee considered Rowlesburg a principal target of the raid.

His subordinate officers included Col. George S. Patton of the 22nd, and Col. William Lowther Jackson of the 19th Virginia Cavalry (later promoted to brigadier general).

Imboden proceeded towards Buckhannon, but reports of Union reinforcements at Philippi and no news of Jones's position caused him to return to Beverly.

Although they had contemplated attacking Clarksburg, the two generals decided that they did not have enough men, detachments having been sent east with the cattle and sick and injured troops remained in Beverly and Buckhannon.

Bad weather returned for Imboden on his march south, the last three days before reaching Summersville covering only 14 miles (23 km).

Union troops that attempted to stop his return to the Shenandoah Valley were met by another Confederate force under Col. John McCausland, who defeated them at Fayetteville, 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Summersville.

However, raiders also failed to destroy a suspension bridge across the Monongahela River, and important politicians of the Restored Government of Virginia who were auxiliary targets escaped.

Senator Waitman Willey took a fast buggy across the Ohio River, and raiders could only burn the library of Gov.

Just a few weeks after their raid, those homes would be formally recognized by the governments in Wheeling and Washington as being located in the newest state of the Union, West Virginia, which officially achieved statehood on June 20, 1863.