Gauley Bridge 2007
Population: 738 (2000 Census)
Photos contributed by: Jamin Goosman
Gauley Bridge Civil War Trivia
The majority of the people in Fayette County were in sympathy with the Southern cause.
At a meeting of the Fayette County Confederate sympathizers held at Gauley Bridge, April 27, 1861, it was unanimously resolved
First: That an immediate response to the proclamation of the Governor of Virginia should be made by the organization of a volunteer company of riflemen pledged to defend the honor and interests of the state, and with this in view to cooperate with other military companies along the route of the Kanawha Valley.
Second: that until arms and equipment of suitable character can be obtained, each citizen shall provide his own rifle and equipments, and be mustered at such time and place as may be appointed with the least possible delay.
On June 6, the Confederate War Department commissioned Henry A. Wise, ex-governor of Virginia, as brigadier general, and authorized him to raise in the Kanawha Valley and surrounding territory an independent force of volunteers, comprising all arms of the service, to be known as Wise's Legion.
At an affair at Scary Creek below Charleston on July 17, in which the Federals retreated, Wise learned that the Federals were being re-enforced, and being short of ammunition, he retreated by way of Gauley Bridge, burning the bridge behind him.
Two later presidents, Ruttherford B. Hayes and William McKinley, were among Northern officers quartered in Gauley Bridge, at the old Miller Tavern during the Civil War.
Rutherford Birchard Hayes, 19th president of the United States (1877–81)
William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States (1897–1901) ,
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