Senator Peter G. Van Winkle of Parkersburg began as the Northwestern Railroad's secretary in 1852 and served as its president through the American Civil War.
Still, crossing mountains increased costs and caused delays, as did financial panics, and the B&O needed a charter extension in 1847 from the Virginia General Assembly.
As part of the compromise that allowed the B&O to reach Wheeling, the B&O would also lay track to Grafton, where eventually it connected with the Northwestern Virginia Railroad.
McClellan responded by sending B&O freight agent Benjamin F. Kelley, who had moved to Wheeling in 1826 and commanded the local militia, to Grafton to protect the rail lines (as well as repair the bridges, which proved relatively easy because the underlying iron trusses had survived).
Meanwhile, the Union victory secured Grafton and a regiment was stationed at Rowlesburg to protect the crucial Tray Run Viaduct.
[8] The Northwestern Virginia railroad and its rail yard and machine shops at Grafton were also a probable objective of the Jones-Imboden Raid in April 1863.
Raiders destroyed the 3-span bridge across the Monongahela River at Fairmont, West Virginia due north of Grafton (the largest on the line), but the rail yards protected by Mulligan's Brigade, the First and Eighth Maryland and Miner's Indiana battery were not attacked.
[9] Nor was well-defended Rowlesburg, nor Clarksburg, the largest Union supply base in western Virginia, defended by 5000 men in fortified positions.