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Civil War Illustrations

Rowlesburg, the Head-quarters of General Hill

Rowlesburg landscape with hills, river, bridge, and men fishing

Caption: Rowlesburg, the Head-quarters of General Hill, in Western Virginia. See page 487 [for related story].

Source: Illustration from Harper's Weekly, August 3, 1861, page 490. Text below from page 487.

General Hill's Head-Quarters

Rowlesburg, the bead-quarters of General Hill in Western Virginia, is situated in a deep gorge in the Alleghanies, at a point where the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad crosses Cheat River. The scenery around it is bold, grand, and picturesque, shut in by towering mountain-walls, the dark stream flows silently on, overshadowed with dense forests of hemlock and laurel. This region of country is wild and thinly populated, and deer and bear roam unmolested along the thickly-wooded slopes. The little village has sprung up since the opening of the railroad, and bas become quite a thriving place. General Hill is at present concentrating all his troops at Rowlesburg, by order of General M'Clellan, for the purpose of cutting off the retreat of the Confederates lately under Garnett, at St. George.