Published: March 29, 2008 09:00 pm            

Historical merit of Princeton house recognized

PRINCETON — An historic Princeton structure that saw the flames of war and hosted two future presidents will soon be the first marked location on the West Virginia Civil War Trails program.

Officials will unveil a Civil War Trail historical marker Thursday, April 3, at 2 p.m. at the Dr. Robert B. McNutt House, the current home of the Princeton-Mercer County Chamber of Commerce. Located at 1522 N. Walker Street, the structure was built in 1840 and purchased seven years later by Dr. Robert E. McNutt for $200.

But in 1862 the home’s rather ordinary history took dramatic turns when the American Civil War arrived in Princeton. A Union campaign to cut an important Confederate supply line brought opposing forces together in Mercer County. One man who had two great-grandfathers serving the South at that time described how the clash took shape.

“The mission was to get to Dublin, Va. and destroy the railroad bridge there. The Tennessee-Virginian Railroad was the lifeblood to the Confederate forces that were in Tennessee and Georgia,” said Ken Hylton of Princeton, a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ Flat Top Copperheads.

Following the campaign’s plan, Union General Jacob Dolson Cox’s units came down from Raleigh Courthouse, now Beckley, crossed Flat Top Mountain and entered the Camp Creek area, Hylton said. There the northern troops soon encountered their southern counterparts.

“On May 1, 1862, they had a skirmish, the Clark House Battle,” Hylton said. “And then following that skirmish the Confederates retreated back into Princeton because they were outnumbered by the Union forces considerably.”

When the Union troops arrived in Princeton, they found that the city was on fire. “There’s always been a contradiction as to who started the fire,” Hylton said. “It seems that more people think that the Confederate commander, a Colonel Jenifer, was concerned about all the stores in Princeton. One story goes he set fire to it to keep stores away from the Union. Other stories say the Union set the fire.”

The invading troops and Princeton residents battled the fire. The McNutt House was among the three to five homes that survived the blaze, Hylton said. Two of the Union officers who came to Princeton that day were destined for especially high office years later.

“Here’s the interesting part. Under Cox’s command was Rutherford B. Hayes. I believe he was future 24th president. He was in command of the Ohio regiments that were part of the command. And he personally occupied the McNutt house and used it as his headquarters,” Hylton said. “They were here only a short time. He made some official reports that he sent back to General Cox while he was at Princeton.”

A second future president also helped fight the Princeton fires. Like Hayes, Sgt. William McKinley was destined to survive the war and win the White House.

The Union assault on the Dublin, Va. railroad was destined never to reach its objective.

“They went to Pearisburg and had another battle May 10,” Hylton said. “They were overcome by the Confederates there and retreated back to Princeton, and then on May 16 and 17, the Battle of Pigeon Roost took place in Princeton.”

By that time other Confederate forces from Jeffersonville, now Tazewell, Va. and other locations had arrived in Mercer County. After the battle the Union forces retreated back to Raleigh County.

Now the historic McNutt House is slated to become a more prominent part of Civil War tours. In December 2007, the Princeton-Mercer Chamber applied for a Civil War Trails marker to be installed at the McNutt House as part of the West Virginia Civil War Trails program. The marker is designed for tourists who know little about the Civil War and what really happened at the home.

The application was accepted and the marker will be the first installed in West Virginia, said Executive Assistant Keith Circle of the Princeton-Mercer chamber.

Civil War maps are being designed, each showing markers on the trail all over the state. The Civil War Trails program has installed almost 800 interpretive markers at Civil War sites in Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina, and more markers are expected soon in West Virginia and Tennessee.

Additional information is available on the Internet at www.civilwartrails.org and www.civilwartraveler.com.

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

        

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