Garnett retreated through Tucker County to Kalea's Ford on Cheat River, where he camped on the night of the 12th. His rear was overtaken on the 13th at Carrick's Ford, and a lively engagement took place, with loss on both sides; during a skirmish at another ford about a mile from Carrick's, Garnett, while engaged in covering his retreat and directing skirmishers, was killed by a rifle ball.'

Garnett had been early selected for promotion in the Confederate army, and he promised to become a distinguished leader. His army, now much demoralized and disorganized, continued its retreat via Horse-Shoe Run and Red House, Maryland, to Monterey, Virginia. General C. W. Hill, through timidity or inexperience, permitted the broken Confederate troops to pass him unmolested at Red House, where, as ordered, he should have concentrated a superior force.

McClellan, July 14th, moved his army over the road leading through Huttonville to Cheat Mountain Pass, and a portion of it pursued a small force of the enemy to and beyond the summit of Cheat Mountain, on the Staunton pike, but no enemy was overtaken, and the campaign was at an end.

It was the first campaign; it had the appearance of success, and McClellan, by his dispatches, gathered to himself all the glory of it. He received the commendation of General Scott, the President, and his Cabinet.'

From Beverly, July 16, 1861, McClellan issued a painfully vain, congratulatory address to the "Soldiers of the Army of the West.

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As early as July 21, 1861, he dispatched his wife that he did not "feel sure that the men would fight very well under any one but himself "; and that it was absolutely necessary for him to go in person to the Kanawha to attack General Wise. Thus far he had led no troops in battle. The Union defeat, on this date, at Bull Run, however, turned attention to McClellan, as he alone, apparently, had achieved success, though her husband was also disloyal, was a pronounced Union woman and remained devoted to the Union cause through the war. $ Ibid., p. 236.

1 War Records, vol. ii., p. 287.

2 Ibid., p. 204.

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though a success, as we have seen, mainly, if not wholly, due to Rosecrans.

On July 22, 1861, he was summoned to Washington, and on the 24th left his "Army of the West" to assume other and more responsible military duties, of which we will not here speak. In dismissing him from this narrative, I desire to say that I wrote to a friend in July, 1861, an opinion as to the capacity and character of McClellan as a military leader, which I have not since felt called on to revise, and one now generally accepted by the thoughtful men of this country. McClellan was kind and generous, but weak, and so inordinately vain that he thought it unnecessary to accept the judgment of men of higher attainments and stronger character. Even now strong men shudder when they recall the fact that George B. McClellan apparently had, for a time, in his keeping the destiny of the Republic.

To indicate the state of his mind, and likewise the immensity of his vanity, I here give an extract from a letter, of August 9, 1861, to his wife, leaving the reader to make his own comment and draw his own conclusions.

"General Scott is the great obstacle. He will not comprehend the danger. I have to fight my way against him. To-morrow the question will probably be decided by giving me absolute control independently of him. . . The people call on me to save the country. I must save it, and cannot respect anything that is in the

way.

"I receive letter after letter, have conversation after conversation, calling on me to save the nation, alluding to the presidency, dictatorship, etc. I would cheerfully take the dictatorship and agree to lay down my life when the country is saved," etc'

General McClellan was not disloyal, nor did he lack a technical military education. He was a good husband, an indulgent father, a kind and devoted friend, of pure life, but unfortunately he was for a time mistaken for a great soldier, and this mistake he never himself discovered.

1 McClellan's Own Story, p. 84.

He had about him, while holding high command, many real and professed friends, most of whom partook of his habits of thought and possessed only his characteristics. President Lincoln did not fail to understand him, but sustained and long stood by him for want of a known better leader for the Eastern army, and because he had many adherents among military officers.

Greeley, in the first volume of his American Conflict, written at the beginning of the war, has a page containing the portraits of twelve of the then most distinguished" Union Generals." Scott is the central figure, and around him are McClellan, Butler, McDowell, Wool, Fremont, Halleck, Burnside, Hunter, Hooker, Buel, and Anderson. All survived the war, and

not one of them was at its close a distinguished commander in the field. One or two at most had maintained only creditable standing as officers; the others (Scott excepted, who retired on account of great age) having proved, for one cause or another, failures.

In Greeley's second volume, published at the close of the war, is another group of "Union Generals." Grant is the central figure, and around him are Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, Meade, Hancock, Blair, Howard, Terry, Curtis, Banks, and Gilmore-not one of the first twelve; and he did not even then exhaust the list of great soldiers who fairly won eternal renown.

The true Chieftains had to be evolved in the flame of battle, amid the exigencies of the long, bloody war, and they had to win their promotions on the field.

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REPULSE OF GENERAL LEE, AND AFFAIRS AT CHEAT MOUNTAIN AND IN TYGART'S VALLEY (SEPTEMBER, 1861)KILLING OF JOHN A. WASHINGTON, AND INCIDENTS, AND FORMATION OF STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA

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ENERAL ROSECRANS, from headquarters at Grafton, July 25, 1861, assumed command of the" Army of Occupation in Western Virginia. He subsequently removed his headquarters to the field on the Kanawha and there actively participated in campaigns.

Brigadier-General Joseph J. Reynolds, of Indiana, a regular officer, was assigned to the first brigade and to command the troops in the Cheat Mountain region.

Many of the troops who served under McClellan were threemonths' men who responded to President Lincoln's first call and, as their terms of service expired, were mustered out, thus materially reducing the strength of the army in Western Virginia, and as the danger apprehended at Washington was great, new regiments, as rapidly as they could be organized, were sent there.

Already a movement at Wheeling had commenced to repudiate the secession of Virginia, and to organize a state government, and subsequently a new State.

Great efforts were put forth at Richmond by Governor Letcher and the Confederate authorities to regain possession of Western Virginia and to suppress this loyal political move

ment.

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service, and others were active on the Kanawha and in Southwestern Virginia, but as the line from Staunton across Cheat Mountain led to Buchannon and Clarksburg, and also via Laurel Hill to Webster and Grafton, striking the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at two points, it was regarded at Richmond as the gateway to Western Virginia which, if opened, would insure its permanent recovery.

General R. E. Lee, from the first a favorite of the Confederate authorities, who had thus far won no particular renown, not even participating in the Bull Run battle and campaign, was now (about August 1st) sent to Western Virginia "to strike a decisive blow at the enemy in that quarter."'

He established his headquarters at Staunton, but we find him, in August, with his main army at Valley Mountain (Big Springs), on the Huntersville road, and about twelve miles south of the Union camp at Elk Water on the Tygart's Valley River. General W. W. Loring, late of the United States Army, an officer who won some fame in the Mexican War, was in immediate command of the Confederate troops at Valley Mountain. Brigadier-General H. R. Jackson-not Stonewall Jackson, as so often stated-commanded the Confederate forces, subject to the orders of Loring, on the Greenbrier, on the Staunton road leading over Cheat Mountain to Huttonville. On these two lines Lee soon had above 11,000 effective soldiers present for duty, and he could draw others from Floyd and Wise in the Kanawha country."

Confronting Lee's army was the command of General Reynolds, with headquarters at Cheat Mountain Pass, three

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'No order assigning Lee to Western Virginia seems to have been issued, but see Davis to J. E. Johnson of August 1, 1861, War Records, vol. v., p. 767.

2 An abstract of a return of Loring's forces for October, 1861, shows present for duty 11,700 of all arms.- -War Records, vol. v., p. 933.

3 While the Third Ohio was temporarily camped in Cheat Mountain Pass (July, 1861), word came of the Bull Run disaster, and while brooding over it Colonel John Beatty, in the privacy of our tent, early one morning before we had arisen, exclaimed in substance: "That so long as the Union army fought to maintain human slavery it deserved defeat; that only when it fought for the liberty of all mankind would God give us victory." Such prophetic talk was then premature, and if openly uttered would have insured censure from General McClellan and others.