Disunion: Captain Hannum Attends the Philippi Races

(NYTimes) ... The engagement was widely publicized as an overwhelming Union victory, proof that the war would be a quick one. The New York Tribune proclaimed the affair “The Philippi Rout.” Others mocked the fleeing Confederates when they styled it “The Philippi Races.” ... Sardonic soldier-author Ambrose Bierce, who served in Company C of the Ninth at Philippi, wrote with characteristic bitterness after a visit to the town four decades later, “that battery of ours did nothing worse than take off a young Confederate’s leg. He was living near there a year ago a prosperous and respectable gentleman, but still minus the leg; no new one had grown on.” Continued

Photo: Ambrose Bierce