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 33
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263
RANDOLPH'S SHARE IN THE CIVIL WAR.
explode .* The Union force occupied Butcher Hill, now called Mount Iser. Night came, and Dunn still did not put in an appearance, nor had he come in sight by the next morning. Jackson grew desperate, and proposed to assault the Federal position without the assistance of Dunn's forces; but a few minutes later, while again looking beyond Beverly for the long-delayed troops that were to attack from that quarter, he beheld a sight which in- stantly changed all his plans. Instead of Dunn, he saw three regiments of cavalry, led by Averell in person, sweeping up the valley. Jackson sent couriers to call in his out-lying detachments and fled up the valley to Hut- tonsville, pursued by Averell, with skirmishing; but the Confederates did not stop to risk a general battle. They retreated over the mountain, back to Virginia. There had been but little fighting, the Rebels losing four killed, five wounded. The Union forces lost fifty-five prisoners.
It is to be noted that the Confederate general blamed his subordinate, Colonel Dunn, with the miscarrage of the expedition, and his failure to take Beverly; and the Federal general blamed his subordinate, Colonel Harris, with the failure to capture the Confederate force. Colonel Dunn had reached his position, but some one told him of Averell's advance, and he retreated, just before the Union troops surrounded his position. General Jackson placed him under arrest. Averell says: "Had Colonel Harris fur- nished me with timely warning of the approach of the enemy, I should have killed, captured or dispersed his entire command. As it was he received but a slight lesson."+
General Averell stationed a strong force at Beverly during the re- mainder of the summer of 1863, and posted pickets on the roads leading east and south. Occasionally these pickets had skirmishes with scouting parties of Confederates. On September 25 a picket of thirty men on the Senaca Trail, where it crosses Cheat, nine miles northeast of Beverly, was attacked and captured by one hundred Confederates under Major D. B. Lang, who were returning from a raid into Barbour County. Two Federals were wounded and one was drowned in trying to escape across Cheat. Four days before that, Averell's picket had a fight on Shaver Mountain with a scout- ing party, defeated it, killing Wash Taylor, wounded another man and captured two. The report that a squad of thirty Confederates were at the same time moving into Tucker County, caused Averell to send a force after them. On the same night three or four rockets were sent up on the moun- tain west-southwest of Beverly, and a strong Federal scouting party was sent to ascertain what it meant. Nothing was discovered.
MAJOR HOUSTON HALL'S DEFEAT.
On the morning of October 29, 1864, a peculiar, and for the Confeder-
*The Federals had a rifled Parrott gun on the hill where J. B. Ward's house now stands, and the artillerists had practiced firing at targets and trees a mile or two beyond the river, until they became remarkably accurate. The Confederates planted a cannon on the present farm of M. J. Coberly, and a lively artillery duel resulted. But the dis- tance was too great for accuracy, and the Federals moved their cannon forward to the bluff where D. R. Baker now lives, and the first shot cut the axle of the Confederate cannon.
+It has been asserted, and the truth vouched for by reliable men, that the real trouble with Colonel Dunn, and the cause of his failure, was that two barrels of ex- cellent Randolph County whiskey fell into his hands in an evil hour, and that he and his men were so drunk they did not know whether they were Confederate or Union soldiers.
264
RANDOLPH'S SHARE IN THE CIVIL WAR.
ates a disastrous, attack was made by 360 Rebels under Major Houston Hall upon a force of about equal strength under Colonel Robert Youart, stationed at Beverly. The following account of it is from Colonel Youart's report; Major Hall made no report of the fight:
"Major Hall with a force of Confederates 360 strong, from Jackson's command made an attack on this detachment at 5 a. m. They expected to surprise us and catch the command asleep. As it was, the men were in rank for reveille roll-call. The Rebels had flanked the mounted pickets and patrols and crept up to the inner and dismounted picket line, 150 yards from camp. At the picket's challenge, they charged with a yell for the camp, over an open field. The men of my command, at the Rebel Yell, broke into the huts for their arms. The front company was thrown out as skirmishers, but the Rebel line swept it back. The other companies had half formed when the Rebel fire scattered the 125 unarmed men of my com- mand through the camp, and broke up for a time all organization. Then began a struggle among the quarters. In the darkness, friend and foe were hardly distinguishable. Both parties were taking and guarding prisoners at the same time. The Rebel force was divided and one half was shifted to the rear of camp. When day broke, I with other officers had ral- lied and formed about fifty men, and ordered a charge on the force in the rear. The Rebels were started. A second charge routed them. I then turned my attention to the force in front and routed it. I ordered immediate pursuit, which resulted in the capture of nearly all the force operating in the front of camp. Our loss was eight killed, twenty-three wounded and thirteen captured. The Rebel loss was, four drowned while trying to es- cape; twenty-five wounded and ninety-two captured."
BEVERLY TAKEN BY ROSSER.
On January 11, 1865, Beverly was captured by 300 Confederates under General Rosser, who made a night attack, killing six, wounding twenty- three and taking 580 prisoners. The Federal forces were commanded by Colonel Robert Youart. From the standpoint of complete surprise and a small force capturing a larger, the feat was not many times surpassed dur- ing the war. General Crook appointed two officers to examine into the capture of Beverly, and following is a portion of the report, made by Colonel Nathan Wilkinson, one of the officers. It is the fullest account of the affair to be found in the official records of the war. No report of it ex- ists from the Confederate standpoint, except a brief note by General Lee addressed to the Secretary of War of the Southern Confederacy, on January 15, 1865, which is as follows:
"General Early reports that Rosser, at the head of 300 men, surprised and captured the garrison at Beverly, Randolph County, on the 11th instant, killing and wounding a considerable number, and taking 580 priso- ners. His loss slight."
Colonel Wilkinson in his report filed a map of Beverly and the roads by which it could be approached, and located the pickets and sentinels at the time the attack was made, and then says:
"The pickets during the day were posted as follows: At Russell's, on the Philippi road, a corporal and three men; at the Burnt Bridge, on Staunton pike, four mounted men; at the bridge on the Buckhannon road, in the town, a corporal and three men, and sentinels beyond. At dark the pickets were withdrawn from Russell's and Burnt Bridge, and in their
265
RANDOLPH'S SHARE IN THE CIVIL WAR.
stead single sentinels were posted. These night sentinels were respectively about 400 yards from camp and about 300 yards from each other, all were relieved from camp every two hours. The enemy, about 700 mounted men, wearing U. S. overcoats, under General Rosser, came in from Crab Bottom by the Staunton and Beverly pike. At the foot of Cheat Mountain they left the pike and took a road leading on the east side of the Valley River, and made a detour around the camp and town on an old dirt road, and formed their line of battle in a hollow, within 450 yards of the camp. The sentinel saw the Rebels approaching, and challenged them, "Who comes there?" The reply was, 'Friends.' He moved toward them and was captured. The first intimation our forces had of the presence of the enemy was the Rebels forcing the doors of the quarters, demanding a surrender. The sur- prise was complete. Our forces did not have time to rally even one com- pany together. Quite a number of the officers of both regiments were ex- amined and all testified that they had repeatedly called the attention of the commanding officers to the insufficiency of the guard for picket duty. Lieu- tenant-Colonel Youart himself states that owing to the severity of the weather, the high water in the rivers, and the statements of the citizens that it was impossible for the enemy to attack at that time of the year, he felt perfectly secure.
"Major Butters testified that he notified Lieutenant-Colonel Furney that the guard was insufficient, and if the forces were attacked they would be captured. At that time Furney was in command at Beverly during the absence of Colonel Youart at Cumberland, Maryland. Youart returned from Cumberland and resumed command two days before the attack by General Rosser. The testimony was that all the officers of the Thirty- fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry were quartered in town, not one with the regiment, and it has been unofficially reported to me that on the evening previous to the attack there was a ballin the town which was largely attended by officers who remained there till a late hour of the night. From the evi- dence produced it appears that the whole command was latterly in a very loose state of discipline."*
About 400 Federals escaped to Philippi, many of them without arms. Their supplies at Beverly nearly all fell into the hands of the Confederates. General Crook, when he forwarded the testimony to headquarters, recom- mended "that Colonel Furney and Colonel Youart be dismissed the service for disgraceful neglect of their commands, and for permitting themselves to be surprised and the greater part of their commands captured, in order that worthy officers may fill their places, which they have proved them- selves incompetent to hold." The Federal authorities spoke of withdraw- ing all forces from Beverly, declaring that the leaving of a small body of troops there served only as a bait to the Rebels. The town was never after that attacked. +
*It was on this occasion that Rosser burned the bridge across the river at Beverly. Colonel Youart was asleep at the hotel when the attack was made. He left his saber behind in his flight, and it is still in possession of A. Buckey of Beverly. A song of that date began:
"Rosser went upon a raid
And captured Youart's whole brigade."
+Waddell's Journal, published in the "Annals of Augusta County," says under date of January 20, 1865: "The prisoners captured by Rosser at Beverly (600 or 700) were sent
266
RANDOLPH'S SHARE IN THE CIVIL WAR.
off by railroad to-day. They suffered greatly from cold and hunger, as our soldiers have. Several of them died on the way to Staunton, and others will probably not survive long. After the train started I saw one of the prisoners lying on the pavement at the corner of the Court-House yard. A crowd was arround him, some of whom said he was dying. He was taken to the Confederate military hospital."
Many of the prisoners were marched from Beverly to Staunton barefoot through the snow.
The Sugartree under which Gen- eral Rasecrans and his officers met ta arrange the final details for attacking the Confederates at Rich Mountain, July 11, 1861.
CHAPTER XXI,
-: 0:
MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS OF RANDOLPH.
The highest point in Randolph County is Snyder Knob, on Cheat Mountain, near the Pocahontas line. It is 4730 feet, and is only 130 feet below the highest summit in West Virginia. The lowest point in the county is the bed of Shaver's Fork of Cheat, where it crosses the Randolph- Tucker line. The point is 1765 feet. There is not twenty-five feet difference in the altitude of Shav- er's Fork at that point and the bed of the Valley River, where it crosses the line into Barbour County. The vertical range of the county-from the highest point to the lowest point-is 2965. It is, of course, understood that all altitudes are Snyder's Knob, os seen from the Mouth of Elkwater. measured from sea level; and when a point is stat- ed to be 4730 feet, it is meant that it is that high above the level of the ocean .* The ground on which the Court House in Beverly stands is exactly 2000 feet above the sea. With this fact impressed on the memory, it will be easy to calculate how much higher or lower than Beverly the various elevations are which are given.
The channel of Elk River where it enters Randolph from Pocahontas is 2390 feet; where it flows from Randolph into Webster it is 2000. The stream, therefore, has a fall of 390 feet in Randolph County.
The bed of the Buckhannon River where it crosses the Randolph-Up- shur line at Newlon is 1900. The stream has its source in Randolph among mountains 3500 feet high.
The bed of the brook which is the source of the Tygart's Valley River, is 3100 feet where it crosses the Pocahontas-Randolph line. The channel
*For additional information on altitudes in West Virginia see chapter VIII in this book.
268
MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS OF RANDOLPH.
at Valley Head is 2500 feet; where it leaves the county, 1775. The total fall of the river in its course through Randolph is 1325 feet.
The bed of the East Fork of the Greenbrier River where it crosses the Randolph-Pocahontas line is 3300 feet. The bed of the West Fork of the Greenbrier where it crosses from Randolph into Pocahontas is 2880 feet. The Greenbrier rises in Randolph among mountains more than 4500 feet high.
The channel of the First Fork of Shaver's Fork of Cheat River, where it crosses the Randolph line from Pocahontas is 3700 feet. Where the river leaves Randolph its channel is 1765. The fall of the stream in its course through the county is 1930 feet. That is 170 feet more than the fall of the stream in its course of nearly three thousand miles, from the Randolph line to the Gulf of Mexico.
The bed of Otter Fork on the Randolph-Tucker line is 2100 feet; and Dry Fork has the same altitude where it crosses the line into Tucker County.
The following table will show the elevation in feet of some of the towns, post offices and places in Randolph.
Middle Fork Bridge 1900
Elkwater
2200
Mingo Flats 2700
Elkins
1950
Avondale
2200
Huff
2800
Kerens.
2000
W. Huttonsville
2300
Blue Spring
2900
Beverly
2000
McCauley
2400
Florence
2900
Lick.
2000
Helvetia
2400
Fairview Church .. 2900
Orlena
2000
Alpina 2400
Glady
2900
Montrose
2050
Harman
2400
Buckwheat Church. .. 3050
Valley Bend
2050
Day's Mills
2450
Monterville 3300
Huttonsville
2080
Mouth Fishing Hawk 2480
Osceola 3400
Lee Bell
2100
Valley Head.
2500
The Sinks 3400
Cassity
2100
Kingsville
2500
Rich Mountain
3400
Long
2100
Pumpkintown
2550
Winchester 3600
Crickard
2100
Jol
2600
Middlebrook 3800
Roaring Creek
2150
Pickens
2700
Brush CampLow Place 4000
It is usual for roads which cross mountains to seek the lowest gaps in the ranges. This being the case, figures will be of interest which show the altitudes of certain roads where they pass over mountains.
The pike from Beverly to Buckhannon, where it passes over Rich Mountain (the battlefield), is 3000 feet. Highest point on the same pike between Roaring Creek and Middle Fork, 2600. Where the pike from Beverly to Staunton crosses Cheat Mountain (the military camp), 3750. Where the same road crosses the Randolph-Pocahontas line, 3800. The road from Beverly to Circleville crosses Cheat Mountain at an altitude of 3550; it crosses Shaver's Mountain at 3000; Middle Mountain, 3750; Rich Mountain, 3600; Alleghany Mountain, 4240. The road from Elkins to Dry Fork crosses Cheat Mountain at an altitude of 2460 feet; Shaver's Moun- tain, 3150; Middle Mountain, 3240; Rich Mountain, 3500. The highest point between Kerens and the head of Pheasant Run is 2350 feet. The highest point on the road from Montrose to Clover Run is 2400; from Elkins to Belington, the top of Laurel Hill (the military camp) 2600.
Randolph is justly celebrated for its lofty and picturesque mountains. In the chapter on the county's geology, in this book, some description of their structure and history is given. In the chapter on the State's climate* their influence upon the winds and rains is spoken of; and in the present
*See pages 78, 79 and 80.
MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS OF RANDOLPH.
269
chapter, the elevations of some of the principal knobs and peaks will suffice. The following table gives the altitudes in feet above the level of the sea.
Snyder Knob 4730
Elk Mountain 4300
Blue Knob. 3700
Iligh Knob 4710
Hutton's Knob 4260
Bee Knob 3600
Crouch Knob 4600
Bayard's Knob 4150
Lone Tree 3570
Barton Knob 4600
Haine's Knob 4130
Currence Knob 3500
Green Knob 4600
Mingo Knob. 4120
Beech Mountain. .3500
Sharp Knob 1545
Bickle Knob. 4020
Hawflat Knob 3500
Tony Camp Mt. 4510
Mast Knob 4000
Lynn Knob 3500
Cunningham Knob 4485
Round Knob. 4000*
Nettly Mt
3400
Brier Patch Mt. 4480
Chenoweth Knob 3870
Palace Ridge 3000
Roaring Plains. 4400
Round Knob 3800元
Bear Knob. 2900
Ward Knob 4400
Whitman's Knob 3800
Kelly Knob 2900
Yoakum Knob .4330
Little Beech Mt. 3700
Cranberry Flat. 2800
Bradshaw Hill 4320
-
Turkey Bone Mt ...... 3700
DISTANCES FROM BEVERLY.
Below will be found a table of distances from Beverly to various points in Randolph and neighboring counties; also the directions from Beverly to those points. The distances are "air lines," that is, they are measured in straight lines from Beverly to the points named, and take no account of the irregularities of the country. Such lines are shorter than any road con- necting the points, and in some cases are little more than half as long.
FROM BEVERLY TO
Miles
Direct'n
FROM BEVERLY TO
Miles
Direct'n
Lone Tree
3} N. of W.
Circleville
23
E. S. E.
Elkins.
6 E. of N.
Buckhannon.
23} W. N.W.
Valley Bend.
6 S. W.
Mingo Flats
23ª S. S. W.
Roaring Creek.
6
W. N.W.
St. George
|24
E. of N.
Glady
9
E. S. E.
Philippi
24
W. of N.
Huttonsville.
10
S. W.
Mouth of Senaca
25
E.
Alpina
11
N. E.
Franklin
32
E. S. E.
Kerens.
12
E. of N.
Grafton
36
W. of N.
Belington
12
W. of N.
Weston
37
W. N. W.
Middle Fork Bridge
12
W. N.W.
Oakland.
41
N. N. E.
Cheat Mountain
12
S.
Petersburg
42
E. N. E.
Elkwater
12} S. W.
Virginia Line
42
E. S. E.
Montrose
15} E. of N.
Marlinton
46
S. S. W. E. of N.
Valley Head.
17
S. W.
Sutton.
47
S. of W.
Harman.
193 E. N. E.
Moorefield
51 E. N. E.
Helvetia.
19}
W. S. W.
Glenville.
54 N. of W.
Parsons.
21
N. N. E.
Keyser
57
N. E.
Traveler's Repose
22
E. of S.
THE SCULPTURE OF TYGART'S VALLEY.
Tygart's Valley was never a lake, although many persons have sup- posed that it was, and that it was drained by the cutting of the gorge through Laurel Hill, below the mouth of Leading Creek. The broad and flat bottom lands, and the rim of mountains all round, enclosing the basin,
* Near the head of Greenbrier River.
+ Near the head of Buckhannon River.
18
16
S. E.
Kingwood
46
Sinks of Gandy
Shaver's Mountain .3700
Whitman's Flat. 2750
Gregg's Knob 4310
270
MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS OF RANDOLPH.
with the gap through the mountain for the outlet, have suggested, and naturally so, that there was an inland sheet of water, forty miles long, and that the water accumulated until it overflowed Laurel Hill, and cut the gorge for drainage. The lake theory presumes that the bottom of the valley was the bottom of the lake, and that the surrounding mountains were practically the same as they are now, as to height and shape. There are several arguments that might be presented, any one of which would show conclusively that such a lake never existed. One is that the rainfall in the basin drained by Tygart's Valley, would never have furnished enough water to fill the lake to overflowing. To have overtopped Laurel Hill, the water of the lake must have accumulated to a depth of at least 800 feet. With four feet of rain a year, which is rather an over estimate, two hun- dred years would have been required to accumulate enough water, had none been carried off by evaporation. But evaporation would carry it away three times as rapidly as rain would furnish it. Consequently it never could ac- cumulate more then a few feet at the lower end of the valley. It would dry up, except at the lower end of the basin. Perhaps the whole floor of the valley, even in the wettest season, would never be covered. It would stand 200 feet deep at Elkins before the backwater could reach Valley Head, since the floor of the valley slopes that much between the two points.
If the argument that evaporation would balance precipitation, and pre- vent the accumulation of water, is answered by the claim that in early geological times the rainfall here was much greater than it is at present (a claim not supported by fact or theory), still the lake could not have existed and cut the gorge through Laurel Hill. No one can dispute the fact that, had the basin without an outlet existed, and had the rainfall exceeded evaporation, water would have risen higher and higher until it overflowed the rim of the basin. But if it had done so it would not have found an out- let over Laurel Hill where the gorge was cut, because that was not the lowest place in the rim of the basin. The water would, of course, have sought the lowest gap through the surrounding mountains. Draw a line across the gorge in Laurel Hill, from the top of the mountain on one side to the top on the other, and the line will be 800 feet above the valley. The water must have risen that much to overflow there. But before it had risen 300 feet it would have flowed out through the low gap at the head of Pheasant Run, and Tagart's Valley River would have emptied into Cheat River. A rise of 300 feet would also have given the lake an outlet down Haddix Run, also into Cheat River. A rise of 350 feet would have over- flowed the gap at the head of Clover Run, and would have given an outlet into Cheat River at St. George. A rise of 450 would have given an outlet through the gap into the head of Mill Run, a branch of Glady Creek which flows past Meadowville, and empties into the Valley River near Philippi. Thus it is seen that there were four gaps in the rim of the basin through which the lake (had there been a lake) would have found an outlet long be- fore it could have risen high enough to overflow Laurel Hill. This is proof positive that the gorge through that mountain was not cut by water escap- ing from a lake.
Then what formed the peculiar and basin-like valley? The same agency that has formed nearly every other valley in the world-running water.
. The river has scooped out the valley. Still the valley is a pecular and wonderful form of geological sculpture. Generations have lived and died
271
MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS OF RANDOLPH.
in it, enjoying its exquisite scenery, its level lands, and the green moun- tains on both sides, and yet not knowing that the world does not furnish many valleys like it, when its geological history is con- S sidered. It is what geolo- CHEAT MT. RICHMI. gists call an "anticlinal val- ley." That is, it is neither 1 more nor less than a deep, 2 3 wide trough scooped out longitudinally along the 4 ß 5 summit of a mountain. The 5 whole top is gone. The Cross Section Showing the Sculpture of Tygart's Valley .* flanking ridges of the once enormous mountain remain along each side of the val-
ley. That on the west is called Rich Mountain and that on the east, Cheat Mountain. The space between them, and rising 2000 feet higher than either, was once filled. The river has cut out the central part and left the sides. The ancient summit was more than 5000 feet above the present floor of the valley. If the part which has been washed away were restored it would bend as a vast arch from the top of Cheat Mountain to the top of Rich Mountain, reaching to the clouds. Then, instead of a lake, there was once a mountain, occupying and rising directly above the valley, more than two thousand feet higher than the highest peak now existing in West Virginia.
There is no lack of evidence to substantiate these statements. The older persons who will read this book do not need evidence, as the most of them are familiar with the subject; but the young, into whose hands this book will fall, are not yet so fortunate, their education not yet having famil- iarized them with the facts of geology and geography with which they are surrounded. For their benefit, rather than for those who are older, the following outline of the manner of mountain-building and valley-making in this part of West Virginia will be given. In a former chapter of this book a general view was taken of the geology of the State. The argument ad- vanced there will not be repeated here. It has been shown that all the rocks in this part of West Virginia were formed of sand, mud and shells on the bottom of the ocean which once covered this region. Great layers of rock, each hundreds of feet thick, were deposited one upon another. They lay flat and level, like sheets of paper, and the same layers extended, not only over Randolph County, but eastward to the Valley of Virginia, north- ward to Pennsylvania, southward to Tennessee, and westward toward Ohio. Although these layers were flat and level at first, they were afterwards lifted above the sea, and the strain to which they were subjected, bent and folded them, squeezed them from the sides, and raised them in ridges and valleys. The horizontal thrust was as if one force were pushing from the direction of the Ohio River and another from the direction of the Valley of Virginia. That is, one force acted from the northwest toward the south-
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