Buckhannon: Stonewall's Grandfather Drew These Streets

Buckhannon, the county seat of Upshur County, West Virginia, may take its name from the Delaware chief Buckongahelas, though most historians think it honors the missionary John Buchannon. The area was settled in the late seventeen sixties and the town was established in eighteen sixteen, with Edward Jackson among its early families, whose grandson Thomas Jackson would grow up to become one of the most celebrated Confederate generals of the Civil War, better known as Stonewall Jackson.

During the Civil War, Buckhannon played an early and significant role in the Union effort. In June and July of eighteen sixty-one, Union forces used the town as a staging area for operations that led to the Battle of Philippi, one of the first land engagements of the war. Though some county residents supported the Confederacy, Upshur County sided primarily with the Union.

Buckhannon was part of Virginia until June twentieth, eighteen sixty-three, when West Virginia entered the Union as a state born directly from the war. The town survived Confederate raiding and occupation during the conflict and emerged as a stable county seat in the new state's mountain heartland.