colonel of the 62nd Virginia Mounted Infantry (1st Partisan Rangers). He was promoted to brigadier general on January 28, 1863. Upset by the independence movement in West Virginia, the voters of which petitioned to separate from Virginia, Imboden with Brig. Gen. William E. "Grumble" Jones led 3,400 partisan rangers into northwestern Virginia. The Jones-Imboden Raid destroyed rail track and bridges of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, as well as captured thousands of horses and heads of cattle and ruined petroleum fields in the Kanawha Valley. The raiders covered in 37 days but failed to stop West Virginia's statehood. In the Gettysburg Campaign, Imboden's brigade served under Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart guarding the left flank for Gen. Robert E. Lee's movement north through the Shenandoah Valley. (His brigade did not participate in Stuart's foray away from Lee's army, but instead raided the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between Martinsburg, West Virginia, and Cumberland, Maryland.) During the Battle of Gettysburg, Imboden's men stayed in the rear and guarded ammunition and supply trains in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. During the Confederate retreat, Imboden escorted the wagon trains with thousands of wounded soldiers back to Virginia. On July 6, 1863, the Potomac River flooding at Williamsport, Maryland, trapped Imboden's wagon train. He put together a defensive force that included an artillery battery and as many of the wounded who could operate muskets. This hastily organized force turned back attacks from Union cavalry generals John Buford and Judson Kilpatrick, saving the wagon train. Robert E. Lee praised Imboden for the way in which he "gallantly repulsed" the Union cavalry. Returning to the Shenandoah Valley, Imboden responded to a request from General Lee to distract the enemy in his front by leading a raid on the vulnerable Union detachment at Charles Town, West Virginia, on October 18, 1863 at the Battle of Charlestown. Imboden reported, Union Brig. Gen. Jeremiah Cutler Sullivan soon sent a rescue column from nearby Harpers Ferry and drove Imboden back up the valley. Sullivan reported, "The cavalry came up with the enemy this side of Charlestown, and drove them through the town. Artillery coming up, drove them about 4 miles. A portion of infantry force ... , reaching them, the enemy were driven from every position they took, to near Berryville." Imboden and John C. Breckinridge's forces defeated Union Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel's command at the Battle of New Market on May 15, 1864. He