Camp Upton

Schenks Ohio Regiments The Ohio Corps near Vienna, in a valley through which runs the railroad, on which the skirmish took place, a beautiful and romantic spot, but hardly a safe position against surprise, in the foreground is a scouting party in search of secessionists a great deal of this part of Virginia seems to be good farming land a great deal of wheat and other cereals being grown . . . Waud. Source: Morgan collection of Civil War drawings (Library of Congress) Creator: Waud, Alfred R. (Alfred Rudolph), 1828-1891, artist

Located near the bridge at the intersection of Four Mile Run and Wilson Boulevard, is a woody area that once was an early Civil War camp for Union troops from Ohio.

The camp was originally part of Major General Irvin McDowell's efforts to post guards at all railroad bridges between Alexandria and Vienna, Virginia. On June 17, 1861 McDowell ordered Brig. Gen. Robert Schenck with the 1st Ohio Infantry to take six companies and strategically place troops along the Alexandria, Loudon and Hampshire Railroad.

Unfortunately, by the time Schenck and his troops arrived in Vienna, Confederate soldiers from South Carolina, under the command Colonel Maxcy Gregg, were waiting. The engagement was known as the Battle of Vienna, and resulted in Union forces suffering casualties of eight soldiers killed and four wounded.

Following the Battle of Vienna, several companies of Ohio troops remained in the camp, which was later named after then Congressman Charles H. Upton a Unionist and local landowner. Upton had moved with his family from Salem, Massachusetts in the 1830s. He built a large house on top of what is now known as Upton Hill.

At the start of the Civil War Charles Upton was involved with local politics and became involved with the 1861 Wheeling Convention. The Convention was an assembly of Virginia Southern Unionist delegates from the northwestern counties of Virginia, aimed at repealing the Ordinance of Secession.

Charles Upton ran for an open congressional seat during the May 23, 1861 referendum election. Upton won and was sworn in as a Congressman in 1862. Several months later his eligibility to run for office was challenged due to the fact that he had been living in Zanesville, Ohio the prior year. He and a partner had purchased the Zanesville Courier, and was its editor.

Camp Upton was first mentioned in a National Republican newspaper article written on June 26, 1861.

"Yesterday afternoon, Charles H. Upton, Esq., late Union candidate for Congress, and delegate to the Wheeling Convention, returned to his residence, near the camp named in his honor, to day, bringing the secession flag captured by the Ohio troops at Philippi. "