USA > West Virginia > Randolph County > The history of Randolph County, West Virginia. From its earliest settlement to the present, embracing records of all the leading families, reminiscences and traditions > Part 20
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April 29. Governor Pierpont's library at his home in Fairmont was burned by the Rebels.
April 29. Colonel Mulligan, who had been in Barbour County fighting Imboden, came up and attacked the Confederates under Jones, while they were destroying the bridge above Fairmont, and sharp fight ensued. Mul- ligan saw that he could not save the bridge, and fell back to Grafton.
April 30. Imboden lost 200 soldiers at Buckhannon by desertion, be- cause he would not permit them to steal horses for their private benefit.
April 30. Skirmish at Bridgeport, Harrison County. General Jones captured 47 prisoners, burned a bridge and trestle, and run a freight train into the creek.
May 2. General Jones occupied Philippi, and from there sent across the Alleghanies, by way of Beverly, several thousand cattle and horses
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taken from the people. On the same day he formed a junction with Im- boden's troops.
May 2. Lieutenant G. M. Edgar, with a detachment of Confederates, was attacked by Federals at Lewisburg, Greenbrier County. He defeated them.
May 4. General Jones invested Clarksburg, where several thousand Union troops had collected from the counties south of that place, but he did not make alı attack.
May 5. Imboden skirmished with a small Union force at Janelew, Lewis County.
May 6. Imboden moved from Weston toward the southwest, Jones having moved west from Clarksburg toward Parkersburg. Up to that time Imboden had collected 3,100 cattle from the country through which he had raided.
May 6. Jones moved against West Union, in Doddridge county, but upon approaching the town he saw that the Union troops collected there were prepared to make a stand and fight, and he declined battle and moved on west.
May 7. Jones captured Cairo, Ritchie County, and the small garrison at that place.
May 8. Colonel James A. Galliher was fired upon by bushwhackers at Capon Bridge, Hampshire County.
May 9. Jones burned 100,000 barrels of oil at the oil wells in Wirt County. The tanks broke and the crude petroleum flowed into the Little Kanawha River, took fire and the spectacle of a river in flames for miles was never before seen. The destruction of everything combustible along the river was complete. The Confederates advanced no nearer the Ohio. Both Imboden and Jones turned southward and eastward and recrossed the Alleghanies late in May. Instead of procuring "several thousand " recruits, as Imboden had expected, more soldiers were lost by desertion than were gained by recruits. General Lee expressed disappointment with the result, and Imboden excused the failure to increase his army by saying that the inhabitants of West Virginia were a "conquered people," in fear of Northern bayonets, and not daring to espouse the Confederate cause.
May 12. Imboden defeated a small Union force near Summerville.
May 19. Fayetteville, in Fayette County, was attacked by General McCausland, but after bombarding two days the Federals forced him to retreat.
May 23. General B. S. Roberts was superseded by General William W. Averell in command of the Federal forces in the northern part of West Vir- ginia. General Roberts was relieved because he offered so little opposition to the advance of Jones and Imboden. When Imboden crossed the moun- tains and took Beverly, the war department at Washington urged General Roberts to collect his forces and fight. To this General Roberts replied that the roads were so bad he could not move his troops. The answer from Washington was sarcastic, asking why the roads were too bad for him and yet good enough to enable the Rebels to move with considerable rapidity. From all accounts, the roads were worse than ever before or since. Imbo- den left Weston with twelve horses dragging each cannon, and then found it necessary to throw away ammunition and the extra wheels for the guns, in order to get along at all, and then sometimes being able to make no more than five miles a day. When General Averell took command he changed
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3000 infantry to cavalry, and trained it to the highest proficiency, and with it did some of the finest fighting of the war. The Confederates feared him and moved in his vicinity with the greatest caution. His headquarters at first were at Weston.
June 7. General Lee ordered Imboden into Hampshire County to destroy railroad bridges, preliminary to the Gettysburg campaign.
June 10. General Averell urged that the mass of mountains forming the great rampart overlooking the Valley of Virginia should be fortified and held. He referred to the Alleghany, Cheat Mountain, Rich Mountain and others about the sources of the "Greenbrier, Cheat, Tygart and Elk Rivers. In his letter to General Schenck he said: "It has always ap- peared to me that the importance of holding this mass of mountains, so full of fastnesses, and making a vast re-entrant angle in front of the enemy, has never been appreciated."
June 14. A portion of General Milroy's forces were captured by Con- federates at Bunker Hill, near Martinsburg.
June 14. Martinsburg was captured by Confederates under General A.
G. Jenkins. General Daniel Tyler, who had occupied the town, retreated.
June 16. Romney was captured by Imboden.
June 17. South Branch Bridge, at the mouth of South Branch, was burned by Imboden, who advanced through Hampshire County, forming the extreme left of General Lee's army in the Gettysburg campaign.
June 24. A Union scouting party from Grafton to St. George had a skirmish with guerrillas, killing five and capturing several horses.
June 26. Skirmish at Long Creek, in the Kanawha Valley. Captain C. E. Hambleton, with 75 men, was attacked and defeated by Confederates under Major R. A. Bailey, with a loss of 29 prisoners and 45 horses.
June 29. General William L. Jackson, with 1,200 Confederates, moved against Beverly to attack the forces under Averell.
July 2. The Confederates under Jackson attacked the troops at Beverly and were repulsed.
July 4. The Confederates under W. L. Jackson, who had fallen back from Beverly, were attacked and routed at Huttonsville by General Averell.
July 13. An expedition set out from Fayetteville, crossed into Virginia and cut the railroad at Wythville, being absent twelve days, skirmishing with small parties of Confederates.
July 14. Skirmish on the road between Harper's Ferry and Charles- town, resulting in the defeat of the Confederates.
July 14. Confederates defeated in a skirmish at Falling Waters.
July 15. Colonel C. H. Smith defeated Confederates near Charlestown.
July 17. Skirmish at North Mountain, Berkeley County. The Rebels were defeated, with 17 captured.
July 19. Fight near Martinsburg, in which General Bradley T. John- son was defeated by General Averell, who had just arrived from Beverly and was opposing the western wing of General Lee's army retreating from Gettysburg. Johnson was destroying the railroad when Averell drove him away, capturing 20 prisoners.
August 5. General Averell moved from Winchester through Hardy County on his expedition to Greenbrier County.
August 5. Skirmish at Cold Spring Gap, in Hardy County, by a portion
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of Averell's force under Captain Von Koenig, and a detachment of Im- boden's command. The Confederates lost 11 men captured.
August 6. Averell sent a squad of cavalry to Harper's Mill, from Lost River, Hardy County. Several prisoners were taken, but the Federals subsequently fell into an ambuscade and lost the prisoners and had 13 men captured and 4 wounded. The Confederates had 3 killed and 5 wounded.
August 19. The Federals destroyed the saltpeter works near Franklin.
August 21. Wilkinson's Brigade skirmished with Confederate guer- rillas near Glenville, killing 4.
August 22. Confederates were defeated by Averell near Huntersville. . August 25 Averell crossed from Huntersville to Jackson River and destroyed saltpeter works.
August 26. Battle of Rocky Gap, in Greenbrier County. Averell with 1300 men fought General Sam Joncs with over 2000. The battle continued two days, when Averell's ammunition ran short and he retreated to Bev- erly. His loss in the battle was 218, the Confederate loss 162. This was one of the most hotly contested battles in West Virginia. Captain Von Koenig was killed. It has been said it was done by one of his men whom he had struck while on the march. It is also said that this soldier did not know Averell by sight, and supposed it was Averell who had struck him, and when he shot Von Koenig, supposed he was shooting Averell.
August 26. Lieutenant Dils with 40 Federals killed 3 bushwhackers ten miles from Sutton, Braxton County.
August 26. Union troops were fired upon by bushwackers on Elk River, five miles below Sutton.
August 27. Forty guerrillas under Cunningham attacked a Federal detachment under Captain C. J. Harrison, on Elk River, near Sutton. The guerrillas were defeated.
August 27. In a skirmish with Confederate guerrillas on Cedar Creek, fifteen miles from Glenville, Gilmer County, Captain Simpson defeated them, killing 4.
September 4. Skirmish at Petersburg Gap, in Grant County. A Union detachment marching from Petersburg to Moorefield was defeatcd.
September 11. Confederates under McNeill made a daybreak attack upon Major W. E. Stephens near Moorefield and defeated him, killing or wounding 30 men and taking 138 prisoners. The Federals were endeavor- ing to surprise McNeill, but were surprised by him. The Rebels had 3 wounded.
September 15. One hundred Federals under Captain Joncs attacked 70 Confederates at Smithfield, capturing 11. Captain Jones was wounded.
September 20. A Federal picket on the Senaca Road, where it crosses Shaver Mountain, was attacked and defeated by the Confederates who lost 4.
September 24. A scouting party of 70 sent from Beverly by Averell lost 2 men in a skirmish at Greenbrier Bridge.
September 25. Sixty Confederates under Major D. B. Lang of Imboden's command, surprised and captured 30 of Averell's men at the crossing of Cheat River by the Senaca trail.
October 2. A petition was signed and forwarded to the Confederate Government, asking for the removal of General Sam Joncs from the com- mand in Western Virginia, and the assignment of some other General in his place. Among the signers were members of the Virginia Legislature from
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the West Virginia counties of Mercer, Roane, Putnam, Logan, Boone and Wyoming. There were many other signatures. Those counties were rep- resented in the Virginia and the West Virginia Legislature at the same time. The petition charged incompetency against General Jones. He was soon after relieved of command in West Virginia.
October 7. Confederates under Harry Gilmor defeated Captain G. D. Summers and 40 men at Summit Point, Jefferson County. Captain Sum- mers was killed.
October 13. Fight at Bulltown, Braxton County. Confederates under W. L. Jackson were defeated with a loss in killed and wounded of 50 by Captain W. H. Mattingly, who was severely wounded in the action.
October 14. When Jackson retreated from Bulltown he was pursued by Averell's troops, who came up with him and defeated him at Salt Lick Bridge.
October 15. Twenty-seven of Harry Gilmor's men who had been sent to burn the Back Creek Bridge, were captured in a skirmish near Hedge- ville by Federals under Colonel Pierce.
October 18. Attack on Charlestown by 1200 men under Imboden. The Confederates captured 434 of Colonel Simpson's command and then retreat- ed, hotly pursued. Some of Imboden's infantry marched 48 miles on the day of the fight, thus beating the record made by Napoleon's soldiers, who marched 36 miles and fought a battle in one day.
November 1. General Averell moved from Beverly into Pocahontas County with about 2,500 men, and General Duffie moved from Charleston to co-operate with him. They expected to form a junction in Greenbrier County.
November 3. Skirmish at Cackleytown, Pocahontas County. Confed- erates were defeated by Averell.
November 5. Confederates were defeated by Averell at Hillsboro, Poca- hontas County, and at Mill Point.
November 6. Battle of Droop Mountain, Pocahontas County. Averell attacked General Echols, who had 1700 men strongly posted on the summit of a mountain. It was a stubborn contest and the Federals gained the day by a flank movement, Echols retreating with a loss of 275 men and three cannon. Averell's loss was 119. The Confederates made their escape through Lewisburg a few hours before General Duffie's army arrived at that place to cut them off, while Averell was pursuing. By blockading the road, Echols secured his retreat into Monroe County. Averell attempted pursuit, but received no support from Duffie's troops, who were worn out, and the pursuit was abandoned.
November 6. Confederates at Little Sewell Mountain were defeated by General Duffie.
November 7. Lewisburg was occupied by General Dufrie.
November 7. In a night skirmish at Muddy Creek the Confederates were defeated by General Duffie's troops.
November 8. A squad of Confederates driving cattle was attacked on Second Creek, on the road to Union, in Monroe County, and lost 110 cattle.
November 12. The Saltpeter Works in Pendleton County, used by the Confederates in making gunpowder, were destroyed by Averell's troops.
November 15. General Imboden sent Captain Hill into Barbour County to waylay wagon trains on the road from Philippi to Beverly.
November 16. At Burlington, in Mineral County, 100 Confederates un- 11
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der McNeill captured a train of 80 wagons and 200 horses, killing two men, wounding 10 and taking 20 prisoners. The wagon train was under an escort of 90 men, commanded by Captain Jeffers.
December 8. Averell moved from Keyser with Federal troops upon his great Salem raid, which he concluded on Christmas Day. He had 2500 cavalry, and artillery. It was a momentous issue. General Burnsides was besieged at Knoxville, Tennessee, by General Longstreet, and it was feared that no re-inforcements could reach Burnsides in time to save him. The only hope lay in cutting Longstreet's line of supplies and compelling him to raise the siege. This was the railroad from Richmond to Knoxville, passing through Salem, sixty miles west Lynchburg. Averell was ordered to cut this road at Salem, no matter what the result to his army. He must do it, even if he lost every man he had in the execution of his work. An army of 2500 could be sacrificed to save Burnsides' larger army. With his veteran cavalry, mostly West Virginians, and equal to the best the world ever saw, Averell left Keyser December 8, 1863, and moved through Petersburg, Monterey, Back Creek, Gatewood's, Callighan's, Sweet Sulphur Springs Valley, New- castle to Salem, almost as straight as an arrow, for much of the way fol- lowing a route nearly parallel with the summit of the Alleghanies. Four Confederate armies, any of them larger than his, lay between him and Salem, and to the number of 12,000 they marched, counter-marched. and maneuvered to effect his capture. Still, eight days he rode toward Salem in terrible storms, fording and swimming overflowing mountain streams, crossing mountains and pursuing ravines by night and by day, and on December 16 he struck Salem, and the blow was felt throughout the South- ern Confederacy. The last halt on the downward march was made at Sweet Sulphur Valley. The horses were fed and the soldiers made coffee and rested two hours. Then at 1 o'clock on the afternoon of December 15, they mounted for the dash into Salem.
From the top of Sweet Springs Mountain a splendid view was opened before them. Averell, in his official report, speaks of it thus: "Seventy miles to the eastward the Peaks of Otter reared their summits above the Blue Ridge, and all the space between was filled with a billowing ocean of hills and mountains, while behind us the great Alleghanies, coming from north with the grandeur of innumerable tints, swept past and faded in the southern horizon." Newcastle was passed during the night. Averell's ad- vance guard were mounted on fleet horses and carried repeating rifles. They allowed no one to go ahead of them. They captured a squad of Con- federates now and then, and learned from these that Averell's advance was as yet unsuspected in that quarter. It was, however, known at that time at Lynchburg and Richmond, but it was not known at what point he was striking. Valuable military stores were at Salem, and at that very time a train-load of soldiers was hurrying up from Lynchburg to guard the place. When within four miles of Salem a troop of Confederates were captured. They had come out to see if they could learn anything of Averell, and from them it was ascertained that the soldiers from Lynchburg were hourly ex- pected at Salem. This was 9 o'clock on the morning of December 16. Aver- ell's men had ridden twenty honrs without rest. Averell saw that no time was to be lost. From this point it became a race between Averell's cavalry and the Lynchburg train loaded with Confederates, each trying to reach Salem first. The whistling of the engine in the distance was heard, and Averell saw that he would be too late if he advanced with his whole force.
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So he set forward with three hundred and fifty horsemen and two rifled cannon, and went into Salem on a dead run, people on the road and streets parting right and left to let the squadron pass. The train loaded with Con- federates was approaching the depot. Averell wheeled a cannon into posi- tion and fired three times in rapid succession, the first ball missing, but the next passing through the train almost from end to end, and the third fol- lowing close after. The locomotive was uninjured, and it reversed and backed up the road in a hurry, disappearing in the direction whence it had come. Averell cut the telegraph wires. The work of destroying the rail- road was begun. When the remainder of the force came up, detachments were sent four miles east and twelve miles west to destroy the railroad aud bridges. The destruction was complete. They burned 100,000 bushels of shelled corn; 10,000 bushels of wheat; 2,000 barrels of flour; 50,000 bushels of oats; 1,000 sacks of salt: 100 wagons; large quantities of clothing, leather, cotton, harness, shoes; and the bridges, bridge-timber, trestles, ties, and everything that would burn, even twisting the rails, up and down the rail- road sixteen miles.
At 4 p. m., December 16, Averell set out upon his return. Confeder- ate troops were hurrying from all sides to cut him off. Generals Fitzhugh Lee, Jubal A. Early, John McCausland, John Echols and W. H. Jackson each had an army, and they occupied every road, as they supposed, by which Averell could escape. Rain fell in torrents. Streams overflowed their banks and delnged the country. The cavalry swam, and the cannon and caissons were hauled across by ropes where horses could not ford. The Federals fought their way to James River, crossed it on bridges which they burned in the face of the Confederates, and crossed the Alleghanies into Pocahontas County by a road almost unknown. More than 100 men were lost by capture and drowning at James River. The rains had changed to snow, and the cold was so intense that cattle froze to death in the fields. Such a storm had seldom or never been seen in the Alleghanies. The soldiers' feet froze till they could not wear boots. They wrapped their feet in sacks, Averell among the rest. For sixty miles they followed a road which was one unbroken sheet of ice. Horses fell and crippled themselves or broke the riders' legs. The artillery horses could not pull the cannon, and the soldiers did that work, 100 men dragging each gun up the moun- tains. Going down the mountains a tree was dragged behind each cannon to hold it in the road. The Confederates were hard in pursuit, and there was fighting nearly all the way through Pocahontas County, and at Edray a severe skirmish was fought. Beverly was reached December 24, and thence the army marched to Webster, in Taylor County, and was carried by train to Martinsburg. Averell lost 119 men on the expedition, one am- bulance and a few wagons, but no artillery.
December 11. Confederates under Captain William Thurmond attacked General Scammon at Big Sewell and were repulsed. General Scammon was marching to attract the attention of the Confederate General Echols, and thereby assist Averell on his Salem raid.
December 11. Confederates under General W. L. Jackson were defeated at Marlin Bottom, Pocahontas County, by Colonel Augustus Moor, who marched into that country to assist Averell, by attracting the attention of the Rebels.
December 12. Lewisburg was taken by General Scammon, General Echols retreating.
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December 12. Troops sent by General Scammon drove Confederates across the Greenbrier River.
December 13. Skirmish at Hurricane Bridge. Confederates attacked a small force of Federals under Captain Young. Both sides retreated.
December 14. Skirmish on the Blue Sulphur Road, near Meadow Bluff. Lieutenant H. G. Otis, with 29 men was attacked by Rebel guerrillas under William Thurmond. The guerrillas fled, having killed 2 and wounded 4 Union soldiers, while their own loss was 2.
1864.
January 2. Confederates under General Fitzhugh Lee invaded the South Branch Valley. This raid, following so soon after Averell's Salem raid, was meant as a retaliation for the destruction at Salem. The weather was so cold and the Shenandoah Mountains so icy that Lee could not cross with artillery, and he abandoned his guns and moved forward with his troops.
January 3. Petersburg, Grant County, besieged by Fitzhugh Lee.
January 3. An empty train of 40 wagons, returning from Petersburg to Keyser, was captured by Confederates.
January 6. Romney was occupied by Fitzhugh Lee.
January 6. Springfield, in Hampshire County, was captured by Con- federates under McNeill and Gilmor.
January 30. General Rosser, with a strong Confederate force, captured a train of 93 wagons, 300 mules and 20 prisoners, at Medley, Mineral County. Among the prisoners taken was Judge Nathan Golf, of West Vir- ginia, whose horse fell on him and held him. He was then twenty years old. The wagon train was in charge of Colonel Joseph Snyder.
January 31. Petersburg, Grant County, was evacuated by Federals under Colonel Thoburn upon the advance of an army under General Early. Colonel Thoburn retreated to Keyser by way of Greenland Gap.
February 1. General Early advanced and attacked the fort near Peters- burg, not knowing that Colonel Thoburn had retreated and that the fort was empty.
February 2. General Rosser destroyed the railroad bridges across the North Branch and Patterson Creek, in Mineral county.
February 3. Forty Rebels under Major J. H. Nounnan attacked and captured the steamer Levi on the Kanawha, at Red House. General Scam- mon was on board and was taken prisoner.
February 11. Confederates under Gilmor threw a Baltimore and Ohio passenger train from the track near Kearneysville, and robbed the pas- sengers.
February 20. Twenty Federals under Lieutenant Henry A. Wolf were attacked near Hurricane Bridge. Lieutenant Wolf was killed.
February 25. General John C. Breckenridge was assigned to the com- mand of the Confederate forces in West Virginia, relieving General Sam Jones. General Breckenridge assumed command March 5.
March 3. Colonel A. I. Root marched from Petersburg and destroyed the Saltpeter Works operated by Confederates in Pendleton County.
March 3. Skirmish in Grant County. Lieutenant Denney with 27 Fed- erals was attacked and defeated near Petersburg with a loss of 7 men and 13 horses.
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March 10. Major Sullivan was killed by Mosby's guerrillas in a skirm- ish at Kabletown.
March 19. Eight men, of Imboden's command, who had been in Bar- bour County attempting to waylay a wagon train, crossed into Tucker County and robbed David Wheeler's Store, three miles from St. George.
March 20. Skirmish at the Sinks of Gandy in Randolph County. The Rebels who had robbed Wheeler's store were pursued by Lieutenant Val- entine J. Gallion and Captain Nathaniel J. Lambert and defeated, with 3 killed, 2 captured, and the stolen property was recovered.
April 19. Confederates were attacked and defeated at Marlin Bottom, Pocahontas County.
May 2. An expedition moved from the Kanawha Valley under Generals Crook and Averell against the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad. This is known as the Dublin Raid, so called from the village of that name in Pulaski County. The cavalry was under the command of General Averell, while General George Crook was in command of all the forces. On May 9 occurred a desperate battle on Cloyd Mountain, near the boundary between Giles and Pulaski Counties, Virginia, General Crook commanded the Union forces, and the Confederates were under General Albert G. Jenkins. For a long time the issue of the battle was doubtful; but at length General Jenkins fell, and his army gave way. He was mortally wounded, and died
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