Droop Mountain Last Key Civil-War Encounter in W. Virginia

On November 1st, Brig. Gen. William W. Averell with a 5,000-man force of Union infantry and cavalry departed southward from Beverly, West Virginia, into the Allegheny Mountains. two days later Brig. Gen. Alfred N. Duffie left Charleston, West Virginia with another 1,700 Federals. Ordered to wreck the East Tennessee & Virginia Railroad, these 2 raiding parties marched by seperate routes toward an assigned junction at Lewisburg.
Harassed by Confederate guerrillas and scouts, Averell's main body of 2 infantry, 4 cavalry regiments, and 2 artillery batteries followed the Staunton Pike to Greenbrier Bridge, then through Camp Bartow and Green Back to Huntersville, arriving there about noon on the 4th. At Huntersville, Averell learned that approximately 600 Confederate troops, under Col. William L. Jackson, were stationed at Marling's Bottom and immediately dispatched 2 cavalry regiments to cut them off. Jackson's men eluded the Union troopers, deploying at Mill Point. The next day, Averell carried out a similar movement, and Jackson retreated to the crest of Droop Mountain.
Jackson, a cousin of Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, who was derisively nicknamed "Mudwall", had requested reinforcements on the 4th. The next day, as Jackson regrouped on Droop Mountain, Brig. Gen. John Echols left lewisburg with an infantry brigade and 6 cannon, reaching the mountain summit at 9:00 A.M. on the 6th. Assuming command, Echols deployed his force, his artillery anchoring the center and his infantry on the right. Jackson's cavalrymen held the left.