Philippi, West Virginia: The First Land Battle of the Civil War

Another podcast/video from the Stories of Appalachia YouTube page.

Over the summer, I made a trip to West Virginia to visit the town of Phillipi, WV.

One reason that Steve Gilly (my co-host on Stories) and I made the trip was to view the Phillipi Mummies. After arriving in Phillipi at the local historical museum, I soon found out about Phillipi being the hometown of actor and voice over actor Ted Cassidy (Lurch from The Addams Family) and that Phillipi was the location of the first land action of the Civil War. This was after the Confederate barrage on Fort Sumpter in Charleston, SC, considered by historians as the first salvo that launched the War Between the States.

This land conflict, although minor by today’s standards, was when the Union made a move into Confederate territory. That’s right. Confederate territory in the fact that there was NO West Virginia at the time.

Despite its strategic importance, the battle is sometimes humorously referred to as the “Philippi Races” due to the swift retreat of untested raw Confederate recruits.

Join us as we tell the story of the Battle of Philippi, another one of the Stories of Appalachia.

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