Called the
"Philippi Races" because of its brevity, Philippi, VA (now
Philippi, WV) was the scene of the first organized land action of the American Civil War, on June 3, 1861. In July 1861, in the first in a series of prominent battles in the war, Union Army troops commanded by Maj. Gen.
Irvin McDowell attacked Confederate forces, which were under the command of Beauregard near the national capital in
Washington. The Confederacy successfully repelled the attack in the
First Battle of Bull Run. In the beginning of the battle, the Union appeared to hold the upper hand. The Union Army routed Confederate forces, then holding defensive positions, but Confederate reinforcements under Joseph E. Johnston arrived from the
Shenandoah Valley by railroad, and the battle's course quickly changed. A
brigade of Virginians, commanded by
Thomas J. Jackson, then a relatively unknown brigadier general from
Virginia Military Institute, stood its ground, leading to Jackson earning the nickname "Stonewall". Lincoln urged the Union Army to commence offensive operations against
Confederate forces, which led General
George B. McClellan, in the spring of 1862, to attack
Virginia by way of the
peninsula between the
York River and
James River southeast of
Richmond. McClellan's army reached the gates of Richmond in the
Peninsula campaign.