USA > West Virginia > Harrison County > History of Harrison County, West Virginia : from the early days of Northwestern Virginia to the present > Part 34
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January 29.
The whole command marched seven miles.
February 1.
Marched eight miles and reached the Rapids of the Maumee. Marched four miles on the ice down the river and encamped on the South East side of the River.
Before we left camp General Harrison sent three men to Malden with a flag of truce to get leave to bury our dead at General Winchester's defeat at the River Rasin. When we stopped some of our men went across the river and found the white flag with one of the men shot, tomahawked and scalped and the other two were taken prisoners, one of them being wound- ed.
March 10.
This day Lieutenant and another man went down the river a fowling. About two miles down the other man not being well left the Lieutenant and returned to camp. He had not left him far until he said he heard the Lieutenant shoot and after a little he heard another gun fire.
The next day the Lieutenant was found about one mile lower down shot, tomahawked and scalped and put under the ice.
March 30.
This day received my discharge and Captain John McWhorter his com- pany and Captain L and Captain Prince and Simmons and their compan- ies left Camp Meigs for the purpose of returning home. When we left the fort we had to wade, and we waded two miles and encamped on a branch of the river.
March 31.
March six miles and crossed C --- River, Went eight miles fur- ther and encamped on a branch of the Sandusky River.
April 1.
Marched six miles and reached the C- Block House. Here we continued until the next day and our Ensign and some of our men went to the Lower Sandusky for provisions.
April 2.
This day we marched over about four miles of dry land passing two miles below Sandusky, a small town lying on Sandusky River, which the
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Indians had left that day. We travelled ten miles and encamped on the Sandusky River.
April 3.
Had a hard and rough march of about 25 miles and reached San- dusky Fort.
April 4.
Marched 15 miles and camped at the Sciota Block House.
April 5.
This day we reached Fort Monroe in the township of Marlborough in the State of Ohio.
Here the journal ends and same was not continued on account of sick- ness.
Peter Davis was born in Srewsbury, New Jersey, September 16, 1783, and came with his parents to Western Virginia when about six years old. His father William Davis was known as "Greenbrier Billy" to distinguish him from the several other William Davis' in the neigh- borhood.
Peter Davis after his return from the war lived about four miles be- low West Union on the creek, later he moved to the West Fork River in Lewis County to a place called Westfield. About the year 1820 he moved to Greenbrier, Doddridge County.
He was for many years a minister of the Seventh Day Baptist Church and died March 4, 1873.
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The Mexican War.
The war with Mexico was opened by the operations of the troops under General Zachariah Taylor on the Rio Grande in Texas in May 1846, and was terminated by the capture of the City of Mexico by the American Army under General Winfield Scott in September, 1847.
The announcement that war had been declared created great enthusiasm and the war spirit ran high in the County. Public meetings were held and the Militia Regiments were ordered to meet in order to give their members an opportunity to volunteer for the war.
The Harrison Republican in its issue of June 26, 1846, states that the 11th. Regiment of Militia was paraded at Clarksburg under Colonel Augustine J. Smith and that forty or fifty "fell in for Mexico."
The 137th Regiment, Colonel Byron J. Bassel, met at Kniseley's Mills and formed a company of ninety-four, and elected the following officers: Captain, Byron J. Bassil; First Lieut., Wm. M. Blair; Second Lieutenant, George Davis.
The 119th. Regiment Colonel Wm. Johnson, met at Bridgeport and a company of one hundred and one was formed under the following officers : Captain, Hiram M. Winters; First Lieutenant, George T. Ross, and Sec- ond Lieutenant, Lemuel D. Shinn.
In addition to these at Clarksburg the Harrison Guards, Captain Cyrus Vance and the Rifle Company Captain Cruger W. Smith tendered their services to the Governor.
Virginia's quota being so quickly filled none of these organizations were accepted, and the few who did go from the County enlisted in the Regular Army under Captain Elisha W. McComas and Lieutenant Joseph Samuels who were on recruiting service in Clarksburg and belonged to the 11th U. S. Infantry.
Among those who enlisted were George Duff, Hiram Applebay, Jud- son Holden and George Exline.
Edgar Haymond and his brother Alfred from Braxton County also enlisted, the latter dying while in the service and Edgar shortly after his return.
At the time of the Mexican war there were two natives of Harrison
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County serving as officers in the Regular Army. They were Lieutenant Forbes Britton 7th U. S. Infantry and Lieutenant Thomas J. Jackson 1st. U. S. Artillery. They were both graduates of the Military Academy of West Point and served with their commands in Mexico.
The Harrison Republican of July 10, 1846, contains a long letter from Lieutenant Britton written May 15, 1846 from "camp opposite Mata- moras" to a friend in Clarksburg.
He states that on May 1, General Taylor with the main body of the Army marched from that point to Point Isabel on the Gulf of Mexico, thirty miles distant, for supplies and ammunition, leaving the 7th. Infan- try and two companies of the 3rd. Artillery with orders to hold the earth works hurridly thrown up, afterwards called Fort Brown opposite Mata- morus at all hazards until his return.
The Mexicans on the 3rd. opened fire on the American position with artillery from their side of the river, and crossed over a large body of troops and invested and surrounded the little force of Americans. The fire was returned and the Americans gallantly held on and returned the fire for seven days until relieved by the return of General Taylor's com- mand, who on his march to their relief fought the two battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, completely defeating the Mexicans and capturing many guns and war material.
Lieutenant Britton says that during the seven days seige the Mexicans threw 3464 shells and cannon shot into their sand bank fort.
In one spot of seven feet square he counted nine shells that had struck in that small space.
Upon one occasion during the bombardment Lieutenant Britton states that just as he stepped out of his tent a nine pound cannon shot struck the head of his cot and ranged down its whole length cutting off the back tent pole as it passed out. He says "I am glad I wasn't in bed."
Major Jacob Brown, the commanding officer and one sergeant were all who were killed in the fort during the seige.
The town of Brownsville took its name from this officer. Britton was promoted to Captain during the war, resigned from the Army in 1850, was a member of the Texas senate and died in February 1861.
In the Harrison Republican issued December 10, 1847, is the follow- ing :
"From the City of Mexico,
"We saw a letter received here at the Post Office yesterday from Lieutenant Thomas J. Jackson of the U. S. Artillery, dated City of Mex- ico, October 28th. written to a friend, which however, does not give as late news from the capitol as we have in the papers.
The letter is something of a curiosity being written upon a blank military commission, a folio post sheet of paper with the Mexican Court of Arms engraved on it.
The writer states that John Thompson, formerly a resident of this place lost a leg in one of the battles near the city, which resulted in his death subsequently.
Lieutenant Jackson is now pleasantly quartered with a Spanish family in the city, and has been favorably noticed in the reports of Gen-
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erals Pillow and Worth for his conduct in the engagements near the capitol.
Lieutenant Jackson is a resident of Lewis County, and graduated at the West Point Academy last year."
NOTE :- The officer who wrote the above mentioned letter was the celebrated "Stonewall" Jackson of civil war fame.
The result of the war with Mexico was the acquisition by the United States of that vast territory West of Colorado and New Mexico, extending to the Pacific Ocean, which has ben erected into several States checkered with Rail Roads and containing a large and prosperous population.
If it had remained as a possession of Mexico it would probably be still a vast uninhabited region, occupied by cow boys, sheep herders and roving bands of Indians. In this case at least war has been a great civilizer.
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Civil War.
It is not intended in a work of this character that a general account of the great war should be given, but only an outline sketch of events occurring in the vicinity of and affecting Harrison County.
After the election of Mr. Lincoln in Nevember 1860, the Southern States began to hold conventions and pass ordinances pretending to dis- solve their relations to the United States Government, claiming that the system of slavery would be interfered with and began to raise troops and prepare for war.
The administration of President Buchanan which expired March 4, 1861, was temporizing and had no decided policy even members of the cabinet sympathized with the rebellion and did nothing to check the rising tide that was rapidly leading to war.
But the firing on the flag waving over Fort Sumpter in Charleston Harbor by the Southern troops on April 12, 1861, followed by President Lincoln's proclamation calling for 75,000 troops to protect the govern- ment aroused the nation, which rose in its might, shook off the lethargy of doubt and uncertainty and with a determination that no sacrifice was too great to preserve the Nation intact and began to prepare to meet this challenge to the field.
No one not living during those dark days of gloomy foreboding when "Grim visaged war" showed its "wrinkled front" and stalked abroad throughout the land spreading terror to all hearts, and for four bitter troubled years brought mourning to every hamlet in the land and put 350,000 young men in their graves can realize the depressing gloom that hung like a death's pall over the Nation's life.
The events leading up to the actual hostilities in Western Virginia are as follows :
About 1858 there had been organized under the laws of the State at Clarksburg a military company, uniformed and armed with the Harper's Ferry flint locked musket, known as the Harrison Rifles.
Cyrus Vance was Captain, Uriel M. Turner and George Hoffman were Lieutenants and Theodore F. Lang was First Sergeant.
The Company paraded frequently and were fairly well drilled and presented quite a military appearance.
When the troubles commenced in 1861 the members naturally took sides and gradually fell away from each other.
Those who were for the Union formed the "Union Guards" and those who were for secession, were in favor of offering their services to the Gov- ernor of Virginia.
The Harrison Rifles was composed of a remarkable body of young men taken as they were from the residents of a country village, and
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they wielded an influence in the mighty events of the Civil War and in civil life following that was not equalled by any body of young men in the State.
Nearly every member took part in the war, a large portion of them as officers although they were arrayed in opposing armies, and the com- pany was represented in all of the great battles of the war.
At the time of the adoption of the ordinance of secession, it was directed that this action should be submitted to the voters of the State for ratification or rejection on the fourth Thursday in May, 1861.
But the authorities without waiting for the action of the people, on the 24th. day of May, entered into an agreement through Alexander H. Stephens, commissioner, transferring the whole military force of Vir- ginia to the Southern Confederacy to be under its command upon the same footing as if the State were a member of said confederacy. This was a high handed proceeding and a direct violation of all the princi- ples of popular Government.
When Col. Porterfield with his command reached Grafton the seces- sion element of the Harrison rifles, with quite a number of others from the County secretly fixed a day to rendezvous at Clarksburg and march to join him.
On the afternoon of May 23, 1861, the residents of the town were startled by the appearance of several squads of men coming in on different roads, a portion of them being armed with squirrel rifles and shot guns.
The Court House bell was rung, long and loud, and the Union Guards with a large number of other citizens assembled in the Court Room, and amid great excitement it was proposed that the new arrivals and all others who gave them aid and comfort, should be forthwith captured. But the arrival of some of the older citizens upon the scene undoubtedly prevented a collision between the two bodies. It was proposed by a cool-headed speaker that a committee should wait upon the secession body and ascer- tain their intentions in marching into town under arms. This was very re- luctantly agreed to, and the committee retired, and after some time re- ported that the new arrivals had no hostile intentions, but were there for the night and intended on the following day to march peaceably to Graf- ton to join Colonel Porterfield.
After a good deal of discussion it was finally agreed, that the Seces- sionists should surrender their arms which would be placed in the jail, locked up, and the key given into the possession of Waldo P. Goff, a pro- minent Union man, and that they should be delivered to their owners on the following morning, and that they then should leave town ..
This was done and a collision happily avoided. On the next day their arms were restored to them and the Company marched down Pike Street on their way to Grafton.
A large crowd gathered on the pavement at the Old Walker House at the corner of Second and Pike Streets to see them march away. It was a pathetic scene. Everyone seemed impressed with the solemnity of the oc- casion. There were no loud hurrahs nor waving of flags as generally takes place when men leave to go to war. Some quiet good byes were said be-
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tween those leaving and those remaining, and as they crossed Elk Bridge and rounded the bend in the street near the Catholic Church they were lost to sight. Very few of them ever saw their native town again, about twenty of them were killed in battle and ten died from disease and only six surrendered at Appamattox.
Immediately upon arrival of the Federal troops in the State, Union men began to organize and recruit troops for the war. Major General George B. McClellan U. S. Army, on May 13, 1861, assumed command of the Department of the Ohio embracing Western Virginia with Headquart- ers at Cincinnati, and began to organize troops.
Colonel Benjamin F. Kelly under direction of the War Department, had commenced early in May to organize the 1st. Regiment Virginia Vol- unteers on Wheeling Island.
On May 26th. Col. Kelly was ordered to move on Grafton, and on the 27th. the troops started by rail on the first expedition in West Vir- ginia. Owing to the bridges being destroyed the command did not reach Grafton until the 30th. and found that Porterfield's command had re- treated to Philippi.
Col. James B. Steedman had with the 14th. Ohio moved on the 27th. by way of Parkersburg, on Grafton, but was delayed also by burned bridges.
It was part of this command composed of two or three companies of the 14th. Ohio Infantry that reached Clarksburg on the evening of the 30th. of May being the first United States troops to enter the town.
Quite a number of troops had reached Grafton by June 1st. the whole being under the command of General Thomas A. Morris.
The authorities at Richmond became early aware of the dissatisfaction in North Western Virginia, and early took steps to propritiate the people in that section. Military Commissions were sent to prominent men West of the mountains, and points were designated where troops should or- ganize and rendezvous.
Robert E. Lee, who had recently resigned his commission of Colonel of the 2nd. U. S. Cavalry, was appointed Major General and ordered to take command of the Virginia troops. On April 23rd. the Governor John Letcher issued a proclamation calling out the Militia, which was unheeded by those west of the mountains.
The Affair at Righter's.
Peter B. Righter, a well to do farmer and grazier, lived in a handsome residence on Coon's Run about four miles from Shinnston just over the Marion County line. He was a pronounced secessionist and his house was a headquarters for those of like faith in the neighborhood.
He was reported to the Military authorities and a detachment of Com- pany I of the 20th. Ohio under Captain Cable from Mannington, was or- dered to the Righter Farm on June 21, 1861. They were fired upon from the house one of his men was killed and three or four wounded, and John Nay, the guide, also wounded.
Captain Cable's command fell back to Shinnston and receiving re-in-
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forcements on the 22nd. returned to Righter's and found the premises de- serted. The house, barns and outbuildings were burned and all the horses taken and moved to Mannington.
Banks Corbin, a resident of the neighborhood while held a prisoner by the troops, attempted to escape, was fired upon and killed.
This incident caused great excitement in the neighborhood and brought the realities of war home to our people.
On the 30th of April General Lee ordered Major F. M. Boykin to pro- ceed to Western Virginia to muster in volunteers for the protection of that portion of the State and to take post at or near Grafton.
On May 10th. Major Boykin reported to General Lee from Grafton that the feeling in nearly all the counties was very bitter. and every effort was made to discourage enlistment in the service of the State, and recom- mends that re-inforcements be sent from the East, and states that John S. Carlile openly proclaims that the laws of the State should not be recog- nized.
May 4th. Colonel George A. Porterfield was ordered to proceed to Grafton to receive into the service of the State a sufficient number of troops to guard the Railroads leading to Parkersburg and Wheeling. He arrived there on the 14th. and on May 16th. reported that there was much bitterness among the people and a great diversity of opinion, and they apparently were upon the verge of civil war, and gives a discouraging ac- count of the situation from his standpoint.
He was joined there by several unarmed companies among them one from Harrison County.
On the 28th. of May he retreated from Grafton having learned that Federal troops were advancing on him on both the railroads leading from Wheeling and Parkersburg and took position at Philippi.
On the night of the 2nd. of June two columns of troops left Grafton both moving on Philippi, one on the West by way of Webster Station and the other on the East by Thornton Station.
The column on the West side of the river arrived in front of Philippi a few minutes before the other column reached its position, opened fire on the town, resulting in the flight of Colonel Porterfield's command in a dis- orderly route before they could be intercepted by Col. Kelly's column. This action was called the Philippi Races.
Colonel Porterfield retreated to Huttonsville in the upper end of Ty- gart's Valley in Randolph County.
General Robert S. Garnett who had recently resigned his commission in the 9th. U. S. Infantry as Major, was sent out to relieve Porterfield with large re-inforcements.
Two roads run west from Beverly, one the Staunton and Parkersburg pike by the way of a gap in Rich Mountain to Buckhannon, and the other further down the valley over the same range of mountains to Philippi, but called by the different name of Laurel Hill, the distance between these crossings being fifteen miles.
Colonel John Pegram, who had recently resigned his commission as Lieutenant in the Second U. S. Dragoons, was placed in command on the Buckhannon road, and General Garnett assumed command on Laurel Hill,
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on the road leading to Philippi. These troops were all from Virginia ex- cept one Georgia Regiment which was with Garnett.
Both positions were established on the west slopes of the mountain and strong entrenchments built. Pegram having a detachment stationed in the gap at Hart's house in his rear.
The United States troops under the command of General George B. McClellan with Clarksburg as his base, moved up by way of Buckhannon in front of the position held by Colonel Pegram on Rich Mountain, General Thomas A. Morris moving by the way of Philippi commanded the column to operate in front of Garnett's position.
On the 11th. day of July General W. S. Rosecrans was detached from General McClellan's command and by a flank movement up the side of the mountain to the right attacked and dispersed the force stationed in the Gap at Hart's house, and interposed his force to the rear of and on the line of Pegram's retreat, who was compelled to surrender his command of ahout 600 men on the 13th. of July to McClellan.
General Garnett fiinding that General McClellen was at Beverly, cutt- ing off his line of retreat, undertook to withdraw East through Tucker and Hardy Counties. He was pursued by General Morris and in a skirmish at Carrick's ford on Cheat River was killed July 13th.
His command was dispersed and straggled into Monterey in a dis- organized, demoralized and half starved condition.
Later in the summer the Federal Troops under General Joseph J. Reynolds occupied and fortified a position on Cheat Mountain east of Huttonsvile on the Staunton and Parkersburg pike and at Elk Water, South of Huttonsville at the head of Tygart's Valley on the road leading to Pocahontas County.
In September an attack was made on these positions by General Rob- ert E. Lee, moving from Huntersville, which failed of success. In this movement Colonel John A. Washington of General Lee's staff, was killed. He was the former owner of Mount Vernon.
Thus ended the attempt of the Confederates to obtain control of North Western Virginia and their hopes of receiving large numbers of re- cruits joining their standard, and of extending their lines to the Ohio Riv- er were blasted, and except an occasional raid the Federals held the terri- tory until the end of the war.
While the subsequent great operations and battles of the war, with- drew attention from what seemed to be a small affair in Western Virginia, yet they were at the time of the utmost importance and far reaching in their results.
The Union men were encouraged and protected and in the rear of the Federal lines they flocked by thousands to central localities and were or- ganized into Regiments for the war and did gallant service for the Union.
Governor Letcher ascertaining from the reports of the Military Offic- ers that the people of the state West of the mountains were largely in favor of the Union and against secession, and that but very few of them would enlist in his regiments to serve against their country, on the 14th. of June by his proclamation issued a fervent appeal to the residents of that section, to come to Virginia's banner and drive the invader from her soil and closed in these words: "The heart that will not beat in unison
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with Virginia now is a traitor's heart; the arm that will not strike for home in her cause, is palsied by a coward fear."
The Governor extended a cordial invitation for all to come to the camp at Huttonsville where they would be met as brothers.
But all was in vain, the proclamation and all other such efforts fell upon deaf ears, and no efforts of the Virginia authorities could seduce the sturdy young men of the Western Counties to desert the cause of the Na- tional Government.
The following is an extract from a letter from General Garnett to the Adjutant General at Richmond dated :
"CAMP AT LAUREL HILL, VA., June 25, 1861.
"The Union men are greatly in the ascendancy here and are much more zealous and active in their cause than the secessionists. The enemy are kept fully advised of our movements even to the strength of our scouts, and pickets by the country people, while we are compelled to grope in the dark as much as if we were invading a foreign and hostile country."
Again in a letter dated July 1, 1861, he states : "My hope of increas- ing my force in this region has, so far been sadly disappointed.
Only eight men have joined me here and fifteen at Colonel Heck's camp, not sufficient to make up my losses by discharges, etc. These people are thoroughly imbued with an ignorant and bigotted Union sentiment."
When it was known that a Regiment was being recruited on Wheeling Island Alexander C. Moore gave notice to the Guards that all of them who desired to enlist in the Union cause should meet secretly on a certain Sun- day afternoon at the water tank, which stood a short distance West of the present passenger station of the B. & O. Railroad. Secrecy was enjoined upon every one. as it was feared that the Virginia authorities would at- tempt to arrest all who contemplated aiding the government and charge them with treason against the State.
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