 During the summer of 1862, General William W. Loring’s Department of Southwestern Virginia (Confederate States of America) made some plans to move into the Kanawha Valley of western Virginia and take the city of Charleston.On September 6, 1862, General Loring, with 5,000 men, left Narrows, Virginia on a march toward Charleston.The Confederate troops first encountered Union forces near Fayetteville on September 10, driving them back toward Charleston.