(A West Point graduate, veteran of the Mexi-can War, and recent officer in the National army, Garnett was the first general officer to lose his life in the Civil War.) Meanwhile, McClellan's Ohio regiments were winning small victories inside enemy territory, for which the general immediately came to the attention of President Lincoln. The campaign continued to develop, and soon battles were fought at Rich Mountain and at Corricks Ford, where on July 13, 1861, Virginia lost the services of an excellent officer, Brigadier General Robert Garnett. The first land battle was fought at Philippi in a surprise attack that resulted in a rout of the Virginia state troops encamped there. In what became the first maneuver campaign of the war. Unfortunately, rifled muskets soon took a grim toll on these closely packed formations. Noise of battle prevented shouted commands from being heard and commanders kept their men in close formations so they could be maneuvered more easily. " BELOW: Close-order drill was a constant routine in the life of the volunteer soldier. ABOVE: Federal Teamsters and frightened Union soldiers fled from the defeat at Bull Run in their first "Great Skedaddle. PAGE 39: Thrilled by romantic musings about the valor to be won in combat, Federal volunteers such as this young soldier bravely (if somewhat naively) rushed to the service of their country. Ohio regiments, under the command of Union General George McClellan, continued to move into the interior of western Virginia As the casualty lists began to be posted, the attitudes of the opposing sides in the conflict began to harden. Shortly afterwards, additional deaths would occur in a cavalry skirmish at Fairfax Station. Thornsberry Bailey Brown, a private, lost his life in this skirmish and became the first Union soldier to die. The first combat death in the war occurred during the night of May 22, 1861, when a small Union reconnaissance team approached the enemy's pickets at the crossing of the railroad with the Northwestern Turnpike. Engagements had been fought within western Virginia as Federal troops moved in an attempt to secure the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, a vital route from the midwest to the eastern seaboard. This approach was lost on the Federal generals in command in the east. He realized that if he could hold on to the initiative as he moved to divide the Confederacy along the Mississippi River, he would later have the opportunity to dismember the western Confederacy one part at a time. Grant saw the war as a series of campaigns in which losing or winning decisive victories in individual battles made little difference. This strategic situation led Grant to develop a different view of the war than his eastern counterparts. Scarce resources, inattention from Washington-preoccupied with the threat to the National capital-and relatively weak Confederate forces (when compared to those in the east) under quarrelsome commanders meant that Federal commanders had to react quickly in a creative fashion or face destruction. He war in the east had been proceeding toward disaster for the Union while the northern armies were showing success in the region to the west of the Appalachian Mountains.
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