USA > West Virginia > Hampshire County > History of Hampshire County, West Virginia : from its earliest settlement to the present > Part 15
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It is proper to state here that an effort was made, after fighting had commenced, to win the West Virginians over to the cause of the south by promising them larger privi- leges than they had ever before enjoyed. On June 14, 1861, Governor Letcher issued a proclamation, which was published at Huttonsville, in Randolph county, and ad- dressed to the people of Northwestern Virginia. In this proclamation he promised them that the injustice from unequal taxation of which they had complained in the past,
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should exist no longer. He said that the eastern part of the state had expressed a willingness to relinquish exemp- tions from taxation, which it had been enjoying, and was willing to share all the burdens of government. The governor promised that in state affairs, the majority should rule; and he called upon the people beyond the Alleghanies, in the name of past friendship and of historic memories, to espouse the cause of the Southern Confed- eracy. It is needless to state that this proclamation fell flat. The people of Western Virginia would have hailed with delight a prospect of redress of grievances, had it come earlier. But its coming was so long delayed that they doubted both the sincerity of these who made the promise and their ability to fulfill. Twenty thousand soldiers had already crossed the Ohio, and had penetrated more than half way from the river to the Alleghanies, and they had been joined by thousands of Virginians. It was a poor time for governor Letcher to appeal to past memories, or to promise justice in the future which had been denied in the past. Coming as the promise did at that time, it looked like a death bed repentance. The Southern Confederacy had postponed fortifying the bank of the Ohio until too late; and Virginia had held out the olive branch to her neglected and long suffering people beyond the mountains when it was too late. They had already cast their lot with the north; and already a power- ful army had crossed the Ohio to their assistance. Vir- ginia's day of dominion west of the Alleghanies was near- ing its close; and the Southern Confederacy's hope of empire there was already doomed.
CHAPTER XVIII
MISCELLANEOUS WAR NOTES,
The campaign undertaken by Mcclellan to drive Garnett and the other confederates out of West Virginia; the movement of Lee to reoccupy the lost territory; and the campaign in the valley of the Kanawha against Wise and Floyd, were military movements undertaken with design and persecuted with systematic strategy and tactics, and with definite objects in view. They have been written of somewhat in detail elsewhere in this book. There were many other military movements on the soil of West Vir- ginia, not perhaps to be classed as regularly organized campaigns, but rather as incidents and episodes in other campaigns having their chief centers outside of this state. Some were raids, occasionally small, again of so large pro- portions as to cover many counties. Again, there were raids starting on West Virginia soil, but having their prin- cipal developments elsewhere. In a local history, such as this book is, and professing to deal chiefly with the events of a single county, it is impossible to enter into a detailed account of the military occurrences in this state. But, in order to understand the history of even one county, it is necessary to speak, although in the briefest manner, of circumstances of the war taking place in neighboring coun- ties. Otherwise, the meaning and sequence of occurrences in one locality could not be appreciated. So dependent and inter-related are the facts of history that it is often necessary to step, temporarily, outside the immediate territorial limits under consideration, in order to see the beginning or the ending of movements or occurrences.
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which seem, at first glance, to be local. This chapter will be devoted to an account of various and sundry military movements within West Virginia, or partly within it. Many of these have no direct connection with one another; but when taken, as a group, they give a tolerable idea of the war in West Virginia. It is necessary to be brief. Nor will any attempt be made to include all the occur- rences within the state that deserve to be recorded as features of the civil war.
Harper's Ferry -- At the mouth of the Shenandoah river, where the Potomac has cut its way through the Blue Ridge, Harper's Ferry is situated. On account of its loca- tion it was contended for by both the north and the south. It is the gateway to the valley of Virginia. The Baltimore and Ohio railroad, the chief military road of the war, passed that place. The confederates wanted the town, because when they held it, they could cut the road at will. The surroundings are picturesque, amounting almost to the sublime. The river at that place is the lowest point in the state, being two hundred and sixty feet above sea level. The summits of the mountains, almost overhanging the vil- lage, are about eight hundred feet higher. At the begin- ning of the war the Baltimore and Ohio railroad had a branch line up the Shenandoah to Winchester, about thirty miles. Harper's Ferry was one of the first places seized by the confederates after Virginia passed the ordinance of secession and joined the confederacy. Lieutenant R. Jones, of the United States army, was in command when the Virginia troops approached. Believing that he would not be able to hold it, he set the armory on fire and re- treated into Pennsylvania. The arsenal contained fifteen thousand stands of arms. The guns were badly damaged, but some of them were subsequently repaired and were used by the confederates in future battles. Harper's Ferry was held by the southern forces for some time. Stonewall Jackson was placed in command there. He at
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once began to regulate traffic on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and finally carried off a large number of cars and : engines. This was regarded as a great feat by the con- federates. In General J. D. Imboden's history of the war he speaks of it as follows: "From the very beginning of the war the confederacy was greatly in need of rolling stock for the railroads. We were particularly short of lo- comotives, and were without the shops to build them. Jackson, appreciating this, hit upon a plan to obtain a good supply from the Baltimore and Ohio road. Its line was double tracked, at least from Point of Rocks to Martins- burg, a distance of twenty-five or thirty miles. We had not interfered with the running of trains, except on the occasion of the arrest of General Harvey. The coal traffic from Cumberland was immense. The Washington gov- ernment was accumulating supplies of coal on the sea- board. These coal trains passed Harper's Ferry at all hours of the day and night. and thus furnished Jackson with a pretext for arranging a brilliant scoop. When he sent me to Point of Rocks, he sent Colonel Harper to Mar- tinsburg. He then complained to President Garrett, of the Baltimore and Ohio, that the night trains, east bound, disturbed the repose of his camp, and requested a change of schedule that would pass all east bound trains by Har- per's Ferry between eleven and one o'clock in the daytime. Mr. Garrett complied. But, since the 'empties' were sent up the road at night, Jackson again complained that the nuisance was as great as ever; and, as the road had two tracks, said that he must insist that the west bound trains should pass during the same two hours as those going east. Mr. Garrett promptly complied. One night, as soon as the schedule was working at its best, Jackson sent me an order to take a force of men across to the Maryland side of the river the next day at eleven o'clock, and, letting all west bound trains pass till twelve o'clock, to allow none to go east, and at twelve o'clock to obstruct the road so
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that it would require several day to repair it. He ordered the reverse to be done at Martinsburg. Thus he caught all the trains that were going east or west between these points. He ran them up to Winchester, thirty-two miles, on the branch road, where they were safe, and whence they were removed by horse power to the railroad at Stras- burg. I do not remember the number of trains captured, but the loss crippled the Baltimore and Ohio road seriously for some time, and the gain to our scantily-stocked Vir- ginia roads of the same gauge was invaluable."
Harper's Ferry remained in possession of the confeder- ates until May 14, 1861. General Patterson, in command of a large union force, crossed the Potomac near Martins- burg. defeated Stonewall Jackson at Falling Waters, and was moving upon Harper's Ferry when the confederates evacuated the place. General Banks succeeded General Patterson in command of the forces in that part of Vir- ginia. The defeat of the union army soon after rendered the abandonment of the south bank of the Potomac neces- sary, and Harper's Ferry again fell into the hands of the confederates. They held it till March, 1862, when the retreat of their armies up the Shenandoah made it impos- sible for them longer to hold the town which, for the second time, was evacuated by the confederates, and was at once occupied by the union forces. The rebels had destroyed the Baltimore and Ohio bridge at that place. On August 15, 1862, Colonel Miles, who was holding Harper's Ferry, received orders from General Wool to fortify Maryland Heights. It was at that time believed that a large confed- erate army was preparing to move in that direction. Colonel Miles neglected to fortify, as instructed, although in the latter part of August it was positively known that the confederates were coming.
On September 4 the confederate army began to cross the Potomac and invade Maryland. The next day Colonel T. H. Ford, who was in charge of the union forces on the
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heights overlooking Harper's Ferry, sent an urgent re- quest for reinforcements and tools for erecting fortifica- tions. He received the reinforcements, but not the tools. He borrowed a few axes and built breastworks by cutting down trees. He was engaged in this work when the con- federates appeared, commanded by Stonewall Jackson, who had been detached from Lee's invading army. As soon as the rebels appeared fire was opened upon them from the heights. The federals were reinforced by troops from Martinsburg under General Julius White. This raised the force in and about Harper's Ferry to thirteen thous- and. The confederates were stronger. The only defen- sive position fortified by Colonel Miles was Bolivar Heights, behind the town, and this was commanded by Maryland Heights, and by Loudon Heights on the Virginia side of the Potomac. The confederates attacked and captured Maryland Heights September 13, and on the same day the rebels occupied Loudon Heights and advanced directly to- ward the town along the Charlestown pike. Colonel Miles saw that he would be cut off and he sent a message to McClellan for reinforcements. The confederates opened fire September 14. About two thousand five hundred union cavalry, under Colonel Davis, cut their way out and escaped into Pennsylvania. The next morning Colonel Miles sur- rendered. Eleven thousand prisoners fell into the hands of the victors. Colonel Miles was mortally wounded by a confederate shell fired half an hour after the white flag had been raised. A special commission was appointed to in- vestigate the circumstances attending the surrender of Harper's Ferry. The result was that Colonel Ford and other officers were dismissed from the service; the conduct of Colonel Miles was stated in the report to have exhibited "an incapacity amounting almost to imbecility, " and Gen- eral Wool was censured for placing Colonel Miles in so im- portant a place. It was also stated that "General McClel- lan could and should have relieved and protected Harper's
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Ferry." Jackson occupied the place one day and then pro- ceeded into Maryland to join Lee's invading army on the march to Antietam.
Figures have been compiled, showing that the Baltimore and Ohio road, east and west from Harper's Ferry, lost in the year's 1862 and 1863, forty-two engines, three hundred and eighty-six cars; twenty-three bridges, thirty-six miles of track; all the waterstations and telegraph offices for one hundred miles; and the machine shops and engine houses at Martinsburg.
General Schenck's Defeat: Alter the campaign, during which the battles of Elkwater, Cheat mountain, Greenbrier and Camp Alleghany were fought, the union army went into winter quarters among the mountains, and early in the spring of 1842 began to move toward Staunton. The confederates had been driven out of West Virginia, and it was the plan to push them into the valley of Vir- ginia. This plan was thwarted by the result of the battle at McDowell, May 8, 1862. This fight did not take place within the present limits of West Virginia, but in the ad- joining county of Highland, in Virginia. But it is not im- proper to speak of the occurrence, for the movement was made from West Virginia, largely by West Virginia troops, and after the repulse, the union force retreated into West Virginia. General John C. Fremont was at that time in command of the mountain department, which included the forces designed for the descent on Staunton. General Milroy had immediate command of the troops, until the arrival of General Schenck, who then took com- mand.
The confederates were not slow to learn of the advance of Melroy, and they prepared to repulse him. While he was at Monteray, the county seat of Highland county, on April 12, he was attacked by a force of one thousand. The attacking party was repulsed. About two weeks later, Milroy marched to McDowell, twelve miles distant, on the
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road to Staunton. Some days later, about May 7, a for- ward movement was made; but the confederates began to mass their forces for battle. Stonewall Jackson had come up with reinforcements for the confederates. He had seven thousand men; but he was badly in need of artillery. Milroy's troops numbered thirty-seven hundred, and were strong in artillery. The next day a hard battle was fought, beginning at 3:30 P. M. and ending after dark. In some places the fighting was exceedingly severe. A com- pany of confederates and a company of union troops, all from Clarksburg, and all acquainted, were pitted against each other. They were so near they could speak from one line to the other. They fought face to face with un- flinching bravery. Portions of the two armies were some- times not one hundred yards apart, and maintained their positions in these close quarters a considerable time. At length, about nine o'clock in the evening, it became ap- parent that the ground could not be held, and General Schenck ordered a retreat in the direction of Franklin, in Pendleton county. He succeeded in saving nearly all his stores, and reached Franklin, closely pursued by the con- federates, who kept at a safe distance. They made dem- onstrations, as if to attack General Schenck's forces at Franklin; but no attack was made, and Jackson soon with- drew in the direction of Staunton.
Confederate Raids .- At intervals, after the con- federates were pushed over the Alleghanies by Mcclellan, and driven from the Kanawha by Rosecrans, they made raids into West Virginia until near the close of the war. These incursions were sometimes military movements of considerable magnitude, on one occasion extending en- tirely across the state east and west, to the Ohio river, and across that stream into Ohio; and at another time penetrat- ing within cannon shot of the borders of Pennsylvania near the Monongahela. Other incursions were of less ex- tent; some being no more than the dash of large scouting
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parties to pick up plunder and to destroy property. No complete record of all these raids has ever been made; and from the nature of the case, perhaps it would be im- possible to make a full list. After the confederates saw that West Virginia would not willingly join the confed- eracy, and that they could not force it to join, they re- garded it as the enemy's country, and as legitimate plun- der. The citizens of West Virginia lost thousands of horses, carried off by raiders to replenish the decimated ranks of confederate cavalry. A brief account of a few of these raids is here given.
In May, 1862, General Henry Heth, in command of a confederate force of twenty-five hundred men, advanced from New River Narrows upon the union forces at Lewis- burg, in Greenbrier county, under Colonel George Crook. On the morning of May 23 the confederates arrived in front of the town, on a hill to the east, and planting guns, were ready for battle. Colonel Crook had prepared for the attack, and made an impetuous charge with both in- fantry and cavalry. The fight was over in thirty minutes, The confederates were swept from the hill, and driven across the Greenbrier river, losing eighty killed, one hun- dred wounded, one hundred and fifty-seven prisoners, four guns, twenty-five horses, three hundred stands of small arms. The union forces lost thirteen killed, fifty wounded and six prisoners.
In September of this year, 1862, a raid of far greater dimensions was made into the valley of the Kanawha by General Loring, with a force estimated at nine thousand men. A raid to Guyandotte, on the Ohio river, was made by another confederate force about the same time, Colonel J. A. J. Lightburn was the chief officer in charge of union forces in the Kanawha valley. He fell back as Loring ad- vanced. The confederates made a tolerably clean sweep of the whole valley from the mountains to the Ohio river. At one o'clock in the morning of September 14 Lightburn
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retreated from Charleston and burned vast quantities of government stores to prevent their falling into the hands of the confederates. He then formed a line of battle, and Loring promptly replied, and an artillery engagment con- tinued for some time. The battle was not decisive, but the union forces continued their retreat and the confederates were slow to follow. Colonel Lightburn had twenty-five killed and ninety-five wounded. The confederates lost nearly the same number. They remained in Charleston to procure salt for their armies. In the meantime the rebel force which had appeared near Guyandotte had been attacked and defeated by Colonel Paxton. Union forces gathered at Point Pleasant in large numbers and proceed- ed to reoccupy the Kanawha valley. The confederates did not attempt to hold it, but withdrew to the east. Before the close of the year all the country to the base of the Alle- ghanies was again in possession of the union forces.
In November, 1862, a remarkable feat was accomplished in the mountains of Greenbrier county by General W. H. Powell. General George Crook, in command of the Ka- nawha division, learned that about five hundred confede- rates were spending the winter in an abscure camp in Sinking creek valley. He sent an ample force for their capture; but the march was a hard one; there was a heavy snowstorm; the infantry gave out and could not proceed, and the cavalry was divided. General Powell was in charge of the advance party of twenty men. When near the camp four confederates were encountered; two were captured and two escaped. Knowing that they would alarm the camp, if allowed to reach it, Powell made a charge. The rebels, not doubting that an army was upon them, surrendered. Thus, a force of twenty-two men, without føring a gun or losing a man. captured a camp of five hundred confederates. Congress presented General Powell with a medal on account of this achievement.
In September, 1862, General A. G. Jenkins, at the head 16
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of a confederate cavalry force, crossed the Alleghanies from the head of the Shenandoah river, and made a de- scent upon Beverly in Randolph county. Not meeting with much opposition, he continued to Buchannon, Wes- ton, westward through Roane county, thence to the Ohio river which he crossed. The confederate flag was then seen for the first time in a northern state. He re- crossed the Ohio and made his way back to Virginia by way of the Kanawha valley.
In the latter part of March, 1863, General Jenkins, with eight hundred confederates, made another raid into West Virginia, this time coming from Dublin, a small town on the Virginia and Tennessee railroad. He soon appeared in Putnam county, and an encounter took place between his force and a body of union troops at Hurricane Bridge. The battle continued five hours, when the confederates withdrew. They continued their raid, and the next day attacked a steamer on the Kanawha, but failed to capture it. The next day, March 30, they reached Point Pleasant, on the Ohio. A small union force stationed there took refuge in the court house, and fought the besiegers four hours. News of the fight had reached Gallipolis, on the opposite side of the Ohio, a short distance above, and a force was sent down the river, and planting a battery on the opposite bank of the Ohio, were about to open fire, when the confederates retreated.
The most disastrous raid experienced by West Virginia during the war, occurred in April and May, 1863. Three dashing confederate leaders took part in it, Imboden. Jones and H. L. Jackson. Their combined forces amounted to four thousand men. They drove the union forces before them wherever encountered, except at Clarksburg and West Union. They did not attack either place. Their first attack was made upon Colonel George R. Latham's force of nearly nine hundred men at Beverly. Latham retreated to Buckhannon, and later to Clarksburg. The
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union forces at Sutton, in Braxton county, hurried to Clarksburg, as did those at Bulltown, Birch, Weston, and other points in that part of the state. General B. S. Roberts was in command of the union forces in that part of the state. He was urged to hold Clarksburg at all haz- zards, and the forces, hurriedly concentrated there, were sufficient to deter the confederates from making an attack. The raiders reached the Baltimore and Ohio railroad at Cranberry Summit, in Preston county, and at Rowles- burg, Independence and other points. Major Showalter with two hundred and twenty men had fortified the moun- tain above Rowlesburg. He was attacked by General W. E. Jones with one thousand cavalry on Sunday, April 23. After a short resistance, Major Showalter retreated into Pennsylvania. General Lee had instructed General Jones to destroy the trestles on the Baltimore and Ohio road be- tween Rowlesburg and Tunnelton, but he failed to do so. The confederates occupied Kingwood, and marched to Morgantown where they looted stores, killed two citizens, and wounded a third, claiming that these citizens had attacked them. They burnt bridges as they went, and captured horses and cattle in large numbers. It was be- lieved that they were striking at Wheeling, and troops for its defense were hastily concentrated there; but no attack was made. They marched to Fairmont, and overrun that country. They advanced almost within sight of Parkers- burg; and at Burning Springs, on the Little Kanawha, they burned one hundred thousand barrels of crude petroleum at the oil wells. This was on May 9. Soon after this the invaders began to withdraw, and by May 14 the most of them recrossed the Alleghanies. They carried away fifteen hundred horses, more than three thousand cattle, and destroyed or carried away property to the value of millions of dollars. As soon as the confed- erates had left the country General Roberts returned with his forces. But his failure to stop the raid led to his re-
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moval from the command, and General W. W. Averell was sent to take charge of the troops. Confederate raids into his territory were unsuccessful, for he was as quick in movement as they, as able in planning and as fearless in execution.
A confederate raid had been made into Pennsylvania, and Chambersburg had been burnt because the inhabi- tants had refused to pay a ransom of half a million dollars. The rebels fled into West Virginia, crossed the Balti- more and Ohio railroad at New Creek, and reached Moore- field on the South branch of the Potomac, and there rested in fancied security within a day's march of the valley of Virginia. But, Averell pursued them, and just before day came up with them. An impetuous charge swept the con- federates from one bank of the river; and Averell crossed immediately, drove them from a wheat field where they had formed for battle; broke their lines in the timber where they had prepared an ambuscade, and put the army to flight in a few minutes.
On January 1, 1864, a fight took place a short distance from Moorefield between a strong confederate force, and a detachment of union soldiers under Colonel Joseph Snider, guarding a supply train on the road from New Creek to Petersburg, in Grant county. The union force was out- numbered and defeated with the loss of the train, and five killed and thirty-four wounded. In this skirmish General Nathan Goff, of Clarksburg, was taken pioneer. His horse was shot, and falling upon him, held him until the confederates came up.
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