5 local sites part of Civil War Trails program

PARKERSBURG - Five sites in Wood and Wirt counties are among the 150 planned in West Virginia in the Civil War Trails program.

Among the locations under consideration are Fort Boreman, Burning Springs, the confluence of the Ohio and Little Kanawha rivers, the Oil and Gas Museum and at Belleville where Confederate raider Gen. John Hunt Morgan staged a raid.

Another site under consideration is the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike, which today is W.Va. 47, said Steve Nicely, director of the Parkersburg Wood County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Nicely and Dave McKain, director of the Oil and Gas Museum in Parkersburg and Henderson Hall south of Williamstown, are among members of the Civil War Task Force advising the West Virginia Division of Tourism about where the signs should be located. The goal is to have all the signs erected by next year before the 150th anniversary of the war in 2011, said Justin Gaull with the Division of Tourism.

The signs will denote significant events, locations and personalities in the war, Gaull said.

The task force is an advisory group to the tourism division whose members represent historical interests, tourism and attractions.

"The signs are one part of an effort undertaking to highlight the Civil War heritage in the area," Nicely said.

Also planned are a Civil War symposium, a Civil War documentary about Wood County and the region, maps and informative brochures and an interactive display about the war, Nicely said. Residents may be asked to share their Civil War artifacts for an exhibit, he said.

One of the first "hostile invasions" in the war occurred on May, 27, 1861, in Parkersburg when Union troops came to capture the town for its strategic importance, McKain said. The Union soldiers feared the troops were sympathetic to the South and had their swords drawn when they met, but they were loyal to the Union, he said.

It was not a hostile invasion when Union soldiers crossed the Potomac on May 26, 1861, into Alexandria because Alexandria was already part of the District of Columbia or when they crossed the river into Wheeling because hostility was not anticipated, he said.

"So it was not an invasion," McKain said.

Parkersburg was strategic because of the railroad, McKain said. Officers leading Confederate troops would have attacked Parkersburg had they been able to get here, he said.

"That's one of the reasons why troops were stationed in Parkersburg throughout the entire war," he said.

Wirt County was a hotbed of guerilla activity, he said. So was Calhoun County, McKain said.

"Wirt County was the worst," he said.