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command of both Floyd's and Wise's forces stationed there and taking over troops, swelling his army to 20,000 a hundred prisoners. All who remen. Rosecrans, after remaining sev-sisted were killed by the guerrillas, eral days in his front at Big Sewell, re- who left hastily next morning, with treated thirty miles to the Gauley, all the plunder they could carry. and was not pursued; Gen. Lee being Col. Zeigler, of the 5th [loyal] Virsoon after recalled to take a command ginia, who arrived early next mornon the coast, and Gov. Wise ordered ing, ordered the houses of the Secesto report at Richmond. sionists to be burned, on the assumption that they had instigated the Rebel raid, and furnished the information which rendered it safe and successful; and, the leading citizens being mostly rebels, the village was mainly consumed. This destruction was generally condemned as barbarous, though the charge was probably true, and would have justified any penalty that might have been inflicted on those only who supplied the information.

Gen. Lee, before leaving the North, had made a strong reconnoissance in force rather than a serious attack, on the position held by Gen. Reynolds on Cheat Mountain, in Randolph county, not far from the arena of Garnett's and of Pegram's disasters. There was skirmishing on the 12th, 13th, and 14th of September, during which Col. John A. Washington, one of Gen. Lee's aids, was killed, with nearly one hundred other Rebels. The Union loss was nearly equal to Rosecrans having posted himself this, mainly in prisoners. Reynolds's at Gauley Mount, on New River, force was about half that of his assail- three miles above its junction with ants, but so strongly posted that Lee the Gauley, Floyd and Wise, after found it impossible to dislodge him, Lee's departure, took position on the and retired to his camp at Green- opposite (south) side of New River, brier. Here Reynolds, whose forces and amused themselves by shelling were equal, if not superior, to those the Union teamsters engaged in supin his front, after Lee's departure for plying our army. Here Rosecrans the South, paid a return visit to the attempted to flank and surprise them, Rebels, now commanded by Gen. H. but was first defeated by a great flood R. Jackson, of Georgia, on the 3d in the river, rendering it impassable; i of October. Reynolds, in turn, found and next by the failure of Gen. Benhis adversary's position too strong to ham to gain Floyd's rear and obbe carried by assault, and retreated struct his retreat, as he had been orunpursued, after a desultory contest dered to do. The attack in front was of several hours. duly made, but Floyd retreated unmolested by Benham, and but faintly pursued. On the 14th, his rear-guard of cavalry was attacked and driven by Benham; its Colonel, St. George Croghan, being killed. No further pursuit was attempted. Floyd retreated to Peterstown, more than

On the 10th of November, at 8 P. M., Col. Jenkins, with his regiment of Rebel cavalry, which had been engaged for some time in guerrilla warfare, dashed into the village of Guyandotte, on the Ohio river, near the Kentucky line, surprising the Union

18 November 12th.

18

ALLEGHANY SUMMIT-HUNTERSVILLE.

In the north-east, Gen. Kelly, who held and guarded the Alleghany section of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, starting from New Creek on the night of October 25th, advanced rapidly to Romney, the capital of Hampshire county, driving out a Rebel battalion and capturing two cannon, sixty prisoners, several hundred stand of arms, with all the camp equipage, provisions, and munitions. By this spirited dash, West Virginia was nearly cleared of armed Rebels.

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fifty miles southward. And thus | son, were neither surprised nor disdied out the campaign in the south- mayed; and the attack in front, led ern part of West Virginia. by Col. James A. Jones, of the 25th Ohio, though gallantly made, did not succeed. The Rebels, finding themselves superior in numbers as well as position, attacked in turn, and were likewise repulsed, as also in an attempted flank movement. Still, Milroy, having lost 150 men, with his ranks still further depleted by the skulking of his raw troops, had begun to retreat before Col. Moody, at 8 A. M., commenced his flank attack, which was of course a failure. Milroy retreated unpursued to his old camp. But, not discouraged, he dispatched Major Webster, of the 25th Ohio, with 800 men, on the last day of the year, to break up a Rebel post at Huntersville, fifty miles south, on the Greenbrier. The weather was cold; the ground covered with snow; yet the march was made in three days, the Rebel force driven out, and six buildings, filled with provisions and forage, destroyed by fire; the expedition returning without loss or accident. Here closed the campaign of 1861 in Western Virginia, with scarcely a Rebel uniform or picket to be seen, on that side of the Alleghany Mountains.

Gen. R. H. Milroy, who had succeeded Gen. Reynolds in command at Cheat Mountain, attempted, soon afterward," a similar dash on the Rebels in his front, strongly posted at Alleghany Summit, twenty-two miles distant, on the turnpike to Staunton. To this end, he moved forward with 3,200 men, nearly half of which were directed to make a détour by the old Greenbrier road, to assault the enemy's left. The combination failed. The flank movement, under Col. Moody, of the 9th Indiana, was not effected in time. The Rebel forces, consisting of four regiments, under Col. Edward John

19 December 12th.

20 Though the crest of the main ridge of the Alleghanies is the natural and proper line of demarcation between 'the Old Dominion' and new, or West Virginia, and pretty accurately discriminates the Counties wherein Slavery and Secession did, from those wherein they did not, at any time, predominate, yet three or four CountiesMonroe, Greenbrier, &c.—which geographically pertain to West Virginia, have, either voluntarily or under duress, adhered to Old Virginia and the Rebellion.

NOTE.-The originally proposed State of Kanawha included within her boundaries only the Counties of Virginia lying north and west of, but

20

not including, McDowell, Mercer, Monroe, Greenbrier, and Pocahontas-thirty-nine in all, with a total population in 1860 of 280,691, whereof 6,894 were slaves. The Constitution of WEST VIRGINIA expressly included the five counties above named, making the total population 315,969, of whom 10,147 were slaves. It further provided that the counties of Pendleton, Hardy, Hampshire, Frederick, Berkeley, Jefferson, and Morgan, might also be embraced within the new State, provided their people should, by vote, express their desire to be-which they, excepting those of Frederick, in due time, did-raising the population, in 1860, of the new State to 376,742, and entitling it to three representatives in Congress.

XXXIII.

EAST VIRGINIA-BULL RUN.

Ir the North had been, or at least had seemed, obstinately apathetic, because skeptical as to the probability or the imminence of Civil War, it was fully and suddenly undeceived by the developments that swiftly followed the bombardment of Fort Sumter, but especially by the occurrences in Baltimore and the attitude of Maryland. For a few weeks, all petty differences seemed effaced, all partisan jealousies and hatreds forgotten. A few 'conservative' presses sought to stem the rushing tide; a few old Democratic leaders struggled to keep the party lines distinct and rigid; but to little purpose. Twelve States, whose Legislatures happened to be sitting in some part of April or May, 1861, tendered pecuniary aid to the Government, amounting, in the aggregate, to nearly Nineteen Millions of Dollars; while some Five Millions were as promptly contributed, in the cities and chief towns of the North, to clothe and equip volunteers. Railroads and steamboats were mainly employed in transporting men and munitions to the line of the Potomac or that of the Ohio. Never before had any Twenty Millions of people evinced such absorbing and general enthusiasm. But for the deplorable lack of arms, Half a Million volunteers might have been sent into camp before the ensuing Fourth of July.

President Lincoln issued, on the

1Richmond and Norfolk, the 8th; Charleston, the 11th; New Orleans and Mobile, the 27th;

27th of April, a proclamation announcing the blockade of the coast of Virginia and North Carolina; due evidence having been afforded that Virginia had formally and North Carolina practically adhered to the Rebellion. Some weeks were required to collect and fit out the vessels necessary for the blockade of even the chief ports of the Rebel States; but the month of May1 saw this undertaking so far completed as to make an entrance into either of those ports dangerous to the blockade-runner. On the 3d, the President made a further call for troops— this time requiring 42,000 additional volunteers for three years; beside adding ten regiments to the regular army-about doubling its nominal strength. A large force of volunteers, mainly Pennsylvanians, was organized at Chambersburg, Pa., under the command of Major-Gen. Robert Patterson, of the Pennsylvania militia; while Gen. Butler, having completed the taming of Baltimore, by planting batteries on the highest points and sending a few of her more audacious traitors to Fort McHenry, was made a MajorGeneral, and placed in command of a Department composed of tide-water Virginia with North Carolina. George B. McClellan, John C. Fremont (then in Europe), and John A. Dix had already been appointed Major-Generals in the regular army Savannah, the 28th. 2 May 16th.

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3 May 1st and speedily thereafter.

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