Editing Grafton, West Virginia (section)

===Civil War===
Due to the importance of the B&O and Northwestern Virginia Railroads for the movement of troops and supplies, Grafton became an early strategic target during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] (1861-1865) and both sides tried to control it.  CSA General [[Robert E. Lee]] initially vowed to protect the railroad, and sent first CSA Major Francis M. Boykin Jr., then CSA Col. [[George A. Porterfield]] (a [[Virginia Military Institute]] graduate from [[Charles Town, West Virginia|Charles Town]] across from Harpers Ferry) to recruit at Grafton, but neither had much success.<ref>Daniel Carroll Toomey, The War Came by Train: the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad during the Civil War (Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum 2013) pp. 47–48 {{ISBN|978-1-886248-01-4}}</ref> Most Grafton residents, immigrants brought in to work for the railroad, sided with the Union.<ref>Newell, Clayton R., ''Lee vs. McClellan, The first Campaign'', Regnery Publishing Inc., 1996, pg. 71 {{ISBN|0-89526-452-8}}</ref> The Grafton Guards led by Col. [[George R. Latham]] became Company B of the [[2nd West Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment|2nd West Virginia Infantry Regiment]] days after Virginians (over the objection of most of western Virginia) voted for secession on May 23.<ref>Toomey pp. 48–50, 78–79</ref>

The previous evening (May 22, 1861), opposing factions skirmished in the Town of Fetterman (now a part of Grafton), resulting in the death of [[Thornsbury Bailey Brown]], the first soldier killed in the Civil War. Southern supporters joined the Confederate Letcher's Guard.

With the Grafton Guards in Wheeling, Porterfield occupied Grafton on May 25, but left three days later for [[Philippi, West Virginia|Philippi]], when he realized his vastly outnumbered forces were facing a pincer movement from troops under the Wheeling militia's Col. [[Benjamin Franklin Kelley]] (soon to become a Brigadier General and who would station his Railroad Division at Grafton) as well as various Ohio and Indiana units sent by Union General [[George McClellan]], a U.S. Army officer turned railroad man whom President Lincoln had placed in charge of the Department of the Ohio. Kelley planned to attack the Confederates and drive them away from the vital railroads. Although reinforced by about 400 men at Philippi, the Confederates, realizing themselves vastly outnumbered in the June 3 attack, fled, leaving more than 750 muskets, ammunition, wagons, horses, medical supplies and tents behind, so the [[Battle of Philippi (West Virginia)]] would sometimes be called the "Philippi Races." Gen. Lee soon replaced Porterfield with CSA Gen. [[Robert S. Garnett]].<ref>Toomey pp. 50–55</ref>

Although the Union controlled Grafton, Confederates often raided and vandalized to disrupt railroad operations. 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 did destroy the 3-span bridge across the Monongahela River at [[Fairmont, West Virginia|Fairmont]] due north of Grafton (the largest on the line) as well as several smaller bridges, but Grafton's rail yards, which were protected by Mulligan's Brigade, the First and Eighth Maryland, and Miner's Indiana battery, were not attacked.<ref>Toomey pp. 151–152</ref>