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 21
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soon after. His arm had been amputated at the shoulder by a Federal surgeon. In the meantime General Averell, with a force of cavalry, 2000 strong, advanced by wretched roads and miserable paths through Wyoming County, West Virginia, into Virginia, hoping to strike at Saltville or Wytheville before the Confederates could concentrate for defense. When the troops entered Tazewell County they had numerous skirmishes with small parties of Confederates. When Tazewell Court House was reached it was learned that between 4000 and 5000 Confederates, commanded by Generals W. E. Jones and John H. Morgan, had concentrated at Saltville, having learned of Averell's advance. The defences north of that town were so strongly fortified that the Union troops could not attack with hope of success. Averell turned, and made a rapid march toward Wytheville, to prevent the Confederates from marching to attack General Crook. Arriv- ing near Wytheville on May 10, he met Jones and Morgan, with 5000 men, marching to attack General Crook. Averell made an attack on them, or they on him, as both sides appeared to begin the battle about the same time. Although out-numbered and out-flanked, the Union forces held their ground four hours, at which time the vigor of the Confederate fighting began to slack. After dark the Confederates withdrew. * The Union loss was 114 in killed and wounded. Averell made a dash for Dublin, and the Confederates followed as fast as possible. The bridge across New River, and other bridges, were destroyed, and the railroad was torn up. Soon after crossing New River on the morning of May 12, the Confederates arrived on the opposite bank, but they could not cross the stream. They had been unable to prevent the destruction of the railroad property, although their forces out-numbered Averell's. The Union cavalry rejoined General Crook, and the army returned to the Kanawha Valley by way of Monroe County.
May 3. Bulltown, Braxton County, was captured and the barracks burned by Confederates under Captains Spriggs and Chewings.
May 4. Captain McNeill with 61 Confederate cavalry captured Pied-
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CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR.
mont, in Mineral County, and burned two trains, machine shops, and cap- tured 104 prisoners.
May 6. Lieutenant Blazer's scouts attacked and defeated a troop of Confederates near Princeton, Mercer County.
May 8. Fifty Confederates attacked a Federal post at Halltown, Jefferson County, and were defeated.
May 9. Skirmish on the summit of Cheat Mountain between a scouting party from Beverly and 100 Rebels.
May 10. The Ringgold Cavalry was attacked and defeated at Lost River Gap, Hardy County, by Imboden. The Federals were hunting for McNeill's men, and Imboden had hurriedly crossed from the Valley of Vir- ginia to assist McNeill to escape.
May 11. Romney was occupied by General Imboden.
May 15. A scouting party moved from Beverly under Colonel Harris against Confederate guerrillas in Pocahontas, Webster and Braxton Coun- ties, capturing 36 prisoners, 85 horses, 40 cattle, and returning to Beverly May 30.
May 19. General David Hunter was appointed to the command of Fed- eral forces in West Virginia. He assumed command May 21.
May 24. In a skirmish near Charlestown the Confederates under Mosby were defeated.
June 6. Skirmish at Panther Gap. Rebels were defeated by Colonel D. Frost.
June 6. Fight near Moorefield. Eighty Federals under Captain Hart were attacked and lost four killed and six wounded, but defeated the Confederates.
June 10. Colonel Thompson was defeated near Kabletown by Major Gilmor.
June 19. Captain Boggs, with 30 West Virginia State troops from Pen- dleton County, known as Swamp Dragons, was attacked near Petersburg by Lieutenant Dolen, with a portion of McNeill's company. The Confed- erates were at first successful, but finally were defeated, and Lieutenant Dolen was killed.
June 26. Captain McNeill, with 60 Confederates, attacked Captain Law and 100 men at Springfield, Hampshire County. The Federals were defeated, losing 60 prisoners and 100 horses.
June 28. A detachment of Federals was defeated at Sweet Sulphur Springs by Thurmond's guerrillas.
July 3. Skirmish at Leetown. Confederates under General Ransom attacked and defeated Colonel Mulligan after a severe fight. A large Con- federate army under General Early was invading West Virginia and Mary- land, penetrating as far as Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
July 3. Confederates under Gilmor attacked Union troops at Darkes- ville, Berkeley County, and were defeated.
July 3. General Early captured Martinsburg.
July 3. Skirmish at North River Mills, Hampshire County.
July 4. General Imboden attacked an armored car and a blockhouse at the South Branch Bridge, in Hampshire County. He blew the car up with a shell, and attempted to destroy the bridge, but the blockhouse could not be taken, and he retreated.
July 4 Rebels under Captain McNeill burned the railroad bridge across Patterson Creek, Mineral County.
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CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR.
July 4. An attack on the North Branch Bridge, in Mineral County, was repulsed by the Federals.
July 4. Harper's Ferry was invested by Confederates. They besiged the place four days, but the heavy guns on the heights drove them back and shelled them to the distance of four miles. General Franz Sigel was in command at Harper's Ferry.
July 6. General Imboden attacked Sir John's Run, Morgan County, and burned the railroad station-house, but was driven off by iron-clad cars. July 6. Big Capon Bridge, Morgan County, was attacked by Imboden. He was driven off by iron-clad cars.
July 14. Romney was occupied by McNeill.
July 23. Romney was taken by McNeill and Captain Harness.
July 25. Federals under General George Crook were defeated at Bunker Hill, Berkeley County.
July 25. Fight at Martinsburg. The Confederates in strong force fought General Duffie all day.
July 30. Confederates under General W. L. Jackson were defeated near Shepherdstown.
August 2. The Confederates under General Bradley T. Johnson cap- tured Green Spring, Hampshire County, Colonel Stough being in command of the Federals. The Rebels had advanced toward Cumberland, and made an attack on the Federal defenders, but did not push the attack. These Confederates were returning from their plundering raid in Pennsylvania.
August 2. Confederates under McNeill destroyed three railroad cul- verts between Keyser and Cumberland.
August 2. The suspension bridge across the South Branch of the Poto- mac near Springfield was cut down by order of General Early.
August 4. Confederates under Generals Bradley T. Johnson and John McCausland attacked Keyser and were repulsed.
August 7. General Averell overtook and routed the forces of McCaus- land and Johnson, near Moorefield. These Confederates had burned Cham- bersburg, Pennsylvania, because the people would not pay $400, 000 rausom. Averell entered Chambersburg within two hours after the Confederates left, and he pursued them through Maryland into West Virginia, and came upon them at daybreak near Moorefield and surprised them, captured all their artillery, 420 prisoners, 400 horses, retook the plunder carried from Penn- sylvania, and drove the disorganized forces ten miles into the mountains. The Rebels believed that no quarters would be given them because they had burned Chambersburg.
August 21. Skirmish at Summit Point between a detachment of Con- federates and the New York Dragoons.
August 21. General Sheridan was defeated at Welch's Spring with a loss of 275.
August 22. Confederates at Charlestown were defeated by Colonel Charles R. Lowell.
August 22. General Sheridan's troops defeated the Confederates at Halltown.
August 29. The Confederates were defeated four miles from Charles- town. This fighting, and that which followed and preceded it in the same vicinity, was between the armies of General Sheridan and General Early.
September 1. Martinsburg was captured by General Early's troops. Averell retreating.
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CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR.
September 2. Confederate cavalry under Vaughn was defeated by Averell at Bunker Hill.
September 3. Federals under General Crook defeated General Kershaw near Berryville, killing and wounding 200,
September 3. Averell defeated McCausland at Bunker Hill.
September 4. Cavalry fight near Berryville between Mosby's and Blazer's men, in which Mosby lost 19 men, killed and captured.
September 14, Skirmish near Centerville, Upshur County, between Fed- erals under Captain H. H. Hagans and 30 horse thieves,
September 17. Confederates under Colonel V. A. Witcher, to the num- ber of 523, among them Captain Philip J. and Captain William D. Thur- mond's guerrillas, moved from Tazewell County, Virginia, upon a raid into West Virginia, returning September 28 with 400 horses, 200 cattle, and hav- ing lost only one man.
September 18. General Early's troops recaptured Martinsburg.
September 23. Confederates under Major James H. Nounnan moved from Tazewell County upon a raid into the Kanawha Valley. They returned to Tazewell October 1.
September 26. Colonel Witcher captured Weston and robbed the Ex- change Bank of $5,287.85; also captured a number of Home Guards.
September 26. Captain William H. Payne, of Witcher's command, occu- pied Janelew, Lewis County.
September 27. Witcher defeated Federal cavalry at Buckhannon and captured the town.
September 28. The Rebels having moved up the river from Buckhan- non, and Federals, under Major T. F. Lang, having occupied the town, Colonel Witcher made a dash and recaptured the place and took Major Lang and 100 men prisoner, and destroyed a large quantity of military stores.
September 30, Skirmish at the mouth of Coal River. Rebels under Major Nounnan were defeated.
October 11, Skirmish two miles south of Petersburg between 198 Home Guards under Captain Boggs and Rebels under Harness,
October 26. Colonel Witcher attacked the town of Winfield and was defeated, Captain P. J. Thurmond was mortally wounded, taken prisoner, and soon after died.
October 29, Major Hall, with 350 Rebels, attacked Beverly and was repulsed with a loss of 140, Hall being mortally wounded and taken pris- oner. The Federals, 200 in number, were in command of Colonel Youart. He lost 46. The Confederate attacking force was made up of men from 21 regiments,
November 1. Green Spring, Hampshire County, was captured by Con- federates under Captain McNeill; about 30 Federals were taken prisoner.
November 5. Colonel V. A. Witcher captured and burned the steamers Barnum and Fawn at Buffalo Shoals, Big Sandy River.
November 7. Colonel George R. Latham, with 225 Federals, defeated . McNeill at Moorefield, taking 8 prisoners.
November 27. Colonel R. E. Fleming with a small force attacked 2,000 Confederates under Rosser at Moorefield, and was defeated, with a loss of 20 men and one cannon,
November 28. Major Potts, with 155 men, was defeated by Confederates of Rosser's command at Moorefield.
November 28. General Rosser surprised Keyser, capturing or dispers-
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CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR.
ing the Federal garrison of 800, and taking several cannon, burning gov- ernment and railroad property, and carrying away hundreds of horses.
November 28. Confederates under Major McDonald were defeated at Piedmont by 27 men under Captain Fisher.
1865.
January 11. General Rosser captured Beverly. The Federals were in command of Colonel R. Youart, They lost 6 killed, 23 wounded and 580 prisoners.
January 11, A Federal scouting party, under Major E. S. Troxel, moved from Keyser, passing through Pendleton County.
January 15. Skirmish at Petersburg. Major Troxel defeated McNeill. January 19. Rebel guerrillas wrecked a train on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad near Duffield.
February 4. Train thrown from track and robbed by Confederates near Harper's Ferry,
February 5. Major H. W. Gilmor was captured by Federals under Colonel Young, near Moorefield.
February 21. Generals Crook and Kelley were captured at Cumberland by 61 Confederates under Lieutenant Jesse McNeill, son of Captain J. H. McNeill. There were 3500 Union troops in Cumberland at the time.
February 26. General Winfield S. Hancock was assigned to the com- mand of the Federal forces in West Virginia.
March 15. Rebel guerrilas were defeated on the South Fork, above Moorefield, by Captain McNulty.
March 22. Lieutenant Martin defeated Confederates of McNeill's com- mand on Patterson Creek, in Mineral County, killing 2, wounding 3. March 30. A railroad train was derailed and robbed near Patterson Creek Bridge, in Mineral County, by McNeill's command.
April 2, General W. H. Emory was assigned to the command of Union forces in West Virginia.
April 6. Confederates under Mosby captured Loudoun County Rangers near Charlestown.
April 10. General Emory proposed to Governor Boreman that the West Virginia civil authorities resume their functions, re-open the courts and dispense justice, inasmuch as "no large bodies of armed Rebels are in the State."
April 12. Lieutenant S. H. Draper raided a Rebel rendezvous on Tim- ber Ridge, Hampshire County.
April 15. Captain Joseph Badger moved from Philippi with a scouting party, passing through Randolph and Pocahontas Counties, returning to Philippi April 23.
May 8. McNeill's company surrendered at Romney,
June 1. Colonel Wesley Owens left Clarksburg with 400 men and made a twelve days expedition through Pocahontas and Pendleton Counties, hunting for Governor William Smith, of Virginia, who had not surrendered. He was also collecting Government property, mostly horses, scattered through those counties. No trace was found of the fugitive governor. The country was exhausted and desolated. Only two families were found in Huntersville, Pocahontas County. The paroled Confederate soldiers were coming home and were trying to plant corn with but little to work with. By the terms of surrender granted Lee by Grant, the Confederate soldiers
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CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR.
who had horses or mules were permitted to keep them. Old cavalry horses and artillery mules were harnessed to plows, and peace again reigned in the mountains of West Virginia.
West Virginia furnished 36,530 soldiers for the Union, and about 7000 for the Confederate armies. In addition to these there were 32 companies of troops in the state service, some counties having one company, some two. Their duty was to scout, and to protect the people against guer- rillas. The majority of them were organized in 1863 and 1864. These com- panies with their captains were as follows:
Captain M. T. Haller
Barbour County.
A. Alltop
Marion County.
H. S. Sayre
.Doddridge County.
J. C. Wilkinson
Lewis County.
George C. Kennedy
Jackson County.
John Johnson.
William Logsdon
Wood County.
William Ellison
. Calhoun County.
66
Alexander Donaldson
Roane County.
Hiram Chapman
H. S. Burns
Wirt County.
John Boggs
Pendleton County.
M. Mallow.
Putnam County.
66 J. L. Kesling .
.Upshur County.
William R. Spaulding
Wayne County.
M. M. Pierce
Preston County.
William Gandee.
Roane County.
Nathaniel J. Lambert
Tucker County.
James A. Ramsey.
Nicholas County.
John S. Bond .
Hardy County.
William Bartrum.
Wayne County.
Ira G. Copeley.
66 William Turner.
Raleigh County.
Sanders Mullins
Wyoming County.
Robert Brooks
Kanawha County.
B. L. Stephenson
. Clay County.
G. F. Taylor
Braxton County.
W. T. Wiant.
Gilmer County.
Isaac Brown.
Nicholas County.
Benjamin R. Haley
Wayne County.
Sampson, Snyder Randolph County.
.
John Ball.
PART SECOND. County History.
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PREFACE,
The sources from which county history is obtained are chiefly three, from old books, maps and newspapers; from the county records at the Court-House, and from old citizens. Facts of importance come in from various quarters, often unlooked for; and in order to avail himself of everything that can throw light on the subject, the compiler must work long and patiently to bring together the scattered fragments and make of them a complete story.
Of the early books treating of Randolph County, the Border Warfare, by A. S. Withers, is the most important. This is supplemented by DeHass and added to by R. G. Thwaites. Mistakes made by Withers regarding Randolph, and followed by writers since, are corrected in this History. The old maps consulted are mostly found in Justin Winsor's great History of America, and in Sparks' Life and Writings of Washington. The History of the United States, by George Bancroft, and Benjamin Franklin's Treatise on Lands West of the Alleghanies, have been followed as the highest authority on Indian tribes and their location. But the most important source of inform- ation has been the county records. Randolph's history for more than a century is preserved in names, dates and figures scattered through seventy- seven heavy volumes of manuscript, every page of which has been care- fully examined in collecting data for this book. The work was heavy and tedions; but it was done in the hope that the people of Randolph would appreciate an effort to collect and arrange these stores of information, heretofore familiar only to lawyers and others whose life-work among the records made them acquainted with their contents. The result of this labor will be found in the chapter "Court Records of a Century."
In this connection it is necessary to say a word as to the spelling of pro- per names. Every effort has been made to ascertain what spelling is cor- rect; but the task was, in some cases, well nigh hopeless. Names were spelled in every possible way-except the right way-and if the readers of this bookfind that the names of their ancestors are not in accordance with modern orthography in the family, they should not be too hasty in conclud- ing that the historian was careless. It requires some perseverance to find out that "Crafer," "Craffor," "Crafard" and "Crawford" are all spellings for the same man; yet Andrew Crawford's name was spelled in that many ways in the old records. At the present time a numerous family of Ran- dolph spells the name "Wees" or "Weese." In 1803 it was spelled "Weze," in 1812, on the land books in Richmond, it was spelled "Wease." A moun- tain, named from the family, is spelled, on the Government maps, "Weiss;" yet in 1813, one of the founders of the family signed his name "Waas." Who is to decide what spelling is right?
In preparing the chapter on the Civil War, access was had to the reports and correspondence, both Federal and Confederate, of the officers who took part. Information was also received from many persons who had knowledge of what took place. There is in this as in nearly every depart- ment of history more or less disagreement as to facts; but in this book au- thorities are sifted and compared, and no statement is made without good authority.
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CHAPTER XVIII.
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EARLY SETTLEMENTS AND INDIAN TROUBLES .*
Nearly thirty years elapsed after settlements were planted on the upper waters of the Potomac before the tide of emigration gained sufficient force to cross the Alleghenies and take possession of the valleys of the west. The country beyond the mountains, when spoken of by the Virginians, was called "the waters of the Mississippi," because the streams having their sources on the western slope flowed into the Mississippi River, while those rising eastward of the summit found their way into the Atlantic Ocean. It
was usual, from about 1760 to 1780 for the Virginia records to distinguish between the eastern and western country by calling the former "Hampshire County," and the latter "the waters of the Mississippi," because Hampshire included the most important settlements between the Valley of Virginia and the summit of the Alleghenies, and did not include any country on the western slope, except about eighty square miles in the present county of Tucker. Hunters and explorers crossed the mountains occasionally from very early times, and the country westward gradually became known. The purpose of this chapter is to mention the routes by which the early settlers and explorers found their way over the Alleghenies to the upper valleys of Cheat River and the Monongahela, particularly that section now included in Randolph and Tucker counties. The subject has been much neglected by writers who have pretended to cover the field, they having given their attention to the great highway to the west, from Cumberland to Pittsburg, and losing sight of the fact that there were other paths, which were of no small importance although now almost forgotten. Before proceeding to a consideration of some of them, a brief history will be given of the highway from Cumberland west, by which settlers of the lower Monongahela found their way across the mountains.
About the year 1750 the Ohio Company, a wealthy corporation engaged in trading with Indians, and also dealing in lands west of Laurel Hill, em- ployed Colonel Thomas Cresap, who lived fifteen miles east of Cumberland, to survey a path by which traders could carry their goods to the Ohio River. The company had a store and a fort at Cumberland, then called Will's Creek. Colonel Cresap offered a reward to the Indian who would mark the best route for a path from Cumberland to the site of Pittsburg. An Indian named Nemacolin received the reward, and a path was marked. Part of the way it followed a buffalo trail by which those animals had crossed the
*This chapter deals in a general way only of early settlements and Indian troubles, and does not enter into details. In other parts of this book much additional informa- tion on the subjects will be found which could not be properly presented in this chapter.
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mountains for ages. Traders with their packhorses traveled the path from that time, if indeed, they had not been traveling it, or one similar to it, for years. Traders by the hundred, and packhorses by the thousand, had made their way to the Ohio before that time. In 1748 three hundred English traders crossed the Alleghanies, some by way of the Kanawha, others by Cumberland, and others by still other routes. In 1749 the French explorer, Celeron, met a company of six traders in Ohio, with fifty horses loaded with furs, bound for Philadelphia. The Nemacolin trail was widened into a wagon road as far as the Monongahela in 1754, by George Washington. This was the first wagon road made from the Atlantic slope over the moun- tains to the Mississippi basin. The next year, 1755, Braddock, with his army, widened the road and completed it within nine miles of Pittsburg. He was defeated and the road remained unfinished. The National Road now follows nearly the route of that road. Braddock took 1500 horses over the route, and more than one hundred wagons, besides several heavy can- non. Although the road was a good one, yet for twenty-five years not a wagon loaded with merchandise passed over it. Traders still packed on
horses. In 1784 the people on the Monongahela, in Pennsylvania, paid five cents a pound to have their merchandise carried from Philadelphia, and in 1789 they paid four cents for carrying from Carlisle to Uniontown. Pack- ing was a trade. There were those who followed it for a living. Wages paid the packhorse driver were fifteen dollars per month, and men were scarce at that price. In 1789 the first wagon loaded with merchandise reached the Monongahela River, passing over the Braddock road. It was driven by John Hayden, and hauled two thousand pounds from Hagerstown to Brownsville, and was drawn by four horses. One month was consumed in making the trip, and the freight bill was sixty dollars. This was cheaper
than packing on horses .*
Prior to the time the first wagonload of merchandise reached the west- ern waters, a movement had been set on foot for opening a canal along the bank of the Potomac from Alexandra, in Virginia, to a point on the North Branch of the Potomac near where the North western pike crosses that stream at Gorman, in Grant County, West Virginia. Thence a road was to be made across the mountain, thirty or more miles, to Cheat River, and a canal constructed down that stream to a point where it could be navigated ; or, if more practicable, the road was to be made from the North Branch to the nearest navigable point on the Monongahela. The prime mover in this scheme was George Washington. He had thought over it for years, and in 1775 he was about to take steps to organize a company to build the canal when the Revolutionary War began, and he could do nothing further till the war closed. As soon as peace was established he took up again the canal scheme. He believed that easy and adequate communication should be opened between the Atlantic Coast and the great valleys west of the Alleghanies; because, if those valleys remained cut off from the East by the mountain barriers, the settlers who were flocking there by thousands, would seek an outlet for trade down the Ohio and Mississippi, and their commer- cial interests would lead to political ties which would bind them to the Spanish colonies in the Mississippi Valley, and gradually they would become indifferent to the Atlantic Coast States.+ Washington believed that the
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