The submission period for the 2025 PBS Kids Writers Contest has concluded.
Nominate an exceptional West Virginia teacher today!
On Demand
On Demand
Watch locally produced documentaries & more.
On Demand
On Demand
West Virginia Morning
Inside Appalachia
West Virginia Week
Mountain Stage
Us & Them
The Legislature Today
Send us your comments and questions.
Stream our board meetings.
Check out the latest WVPB news.
Sign up for our newsletter and get weekly updates.
Meet the WVPB staff.
WV Educational Broadcasting Authority, the WVPB Foundation, and the Friends of WVPB.
Come work with us!
Friends of WVPB nominations underway through April 18, 2025!
Sponsor impactful and engaging media and entertainment.
Use your IRA to make a gift to WVPB.
Become a member with your gift of $1,000 or more.
Civil War General Benjamin Kelley died in Maryland on July 16, 1891, at age 84. The New Hampshire native had moved to Wheeling in 1836, working as a merchant there for more than two decades. In 1851, he became freight agent for the newly arrived Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
When the Civil War began, Kelley formed and became colonel of the pro-Union 1st Virginia Infantry. Leading his troops into battle on June 3, 1861, he was severely wounded at Philippi and then promoted to brigadier general. Kelley’s principal duty throughout the war was to guard the vital B&O line in Maryland and West Virginia, particularly from Confederate raiding parties, such as those led by the famed McNeill’s Rangers from the Moorefield area.
In August 1863, federal authorities, acting on Kelley’s orders, arrested the wife and four-year-old son of Captain McNeill. Seeking revenge a year and a half later, McNeill’s Rangers kidnapped Kelley and his superior, General George Crook, in Cumberland, Maryland—one of the most embarrassing Union incidents of the war.
After the war, Benjamin Kelley served in numerous government posts. He’s buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
