Blue & Gray Reunion

Blue and Gray Reunion was held: May 30 – JUNE 2, 2019
On May 28, 1861, Col. George Porterfield and his Confederate troops arrived in Philippi, where they camped or were quartered in town. Neighbors and families were already divided on the question of secession. There were at least 750, if not upwards of 2,000 troops. At daylight on June 3, two columns of Union forces, with perhaps 3,000 men, arrived from Grafton under the command of Col. Ebenezer Dumont and Col. Benjamin Kelley.

Mistaking a pistol shot by a Mrs. Humpreys on the hill above the town as a signal to start the battle, the Union troops fired on the Confederates with two brass six-pound Napoleon cannons. The Confederates routed to a big rock south of town and departed in good order to Belington and ultimately to Beverly.