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THE TIMES

REBELLION

WEST

VIRGINIA.

THE

WEST VIRGINIA early became a theater of military operations. These were on a comparatively small scale, owing to the difficulties of providing and sustaining large armies. The country as a whole may be defined as a collection of lofty mountains, with deep narrow valleys that seem to exist merely to define the mountains. Along these valleys are a primitive people, simple in their wants, dressing in homespun, and living a varied life of hunting and agriculture. They are scattered in cabins often miles apart, the mountains so encroaching upon them as to leave but mere threads of arable land. The roads for want of room are much of the way in the beds of the streams, which are swollen by every heavy shower to raging, impassable torrents. Bridges do not exist excepting at a few points. Military operations are very difficult; transportation at times being impossible.

The best part is in the Northwest, along the valley of the Ohio and its tributaries. In this section runs the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, which forks at Grafton about 100 miles from the Ohio, one branch terminating at Parkersburg and the other at Wheeling. The secessionists at the beginning made strenuous exertions to hold this country, and suppress its union sentiment: also to possess the fertile valley of the Kanawha, so valuable to them for its abundant crops of grain and inexhaustible supplies of salt.

The first event of the war in West Virginia was the surprise by two union regiments under Cols. Kelly and Lander, on the morning of the 3d of June, 1861, of some 1500 secession troops under Col. Porterfield, at Philippi, a small village on the Monongahela about 20 miles south of Grafton. None of the unionists were killed; and the loss of the secessionists trifling. The surprise occurred at daybreak; but it so happened that the secessionists mostly made good their escape. flight is amusingly described by one present. Said he "Did you ever drive a stake into an ant hill, and watch the movements of the panic stricken inhabitants? It was nothing to this flight. They didn't stop to put on their clothes, much less their shoes; grabbing the first thing they could reach, and dressing as they ran, each turned his face toward Beverly. One fellow had cased one leg in his unwhisperables, when the cannister came whizzing about him.-Delay was death,' and with his shirt streaming behind, and the unfilled leg of his pants. flopping and trailing after him, he presented a most comical figure.

Some, half-naked, mounted horses unbridled, and grasping the mane, urged them into a sharp run by their cries and vigorous heel-punches. Many took to the thickets on the hills; and among these unfortunates the Indianians, after the melee was over, ignorant of their presence, discharged their minie rifles, for the purpose of clearing their guns, and with fatal effect."

Gen. McClellan, in command of the department of the Ohio, for political reasons, refrained from crossing into Western Virginia until the 27th of May, after the ordinance of secession had been voted upon in a state election. Then the western troops crossed over and took a position at Grafton. On the 11th of July, occurred the battle of Rich Mountain. At that period the secession forces under Gen. Garnett, numbering several thousand men, occupied near Beverly two intrenched campsRich Mountain and Laurel Hill, a few miles apart. Garnett remained at the last named, leaving Rich Mountain under the immediate command of Col. Pegram. Rosecrans was sent with three regiments of Indiana and Ohio troops to make an attack upon Pegram. Passing around the mountain, through miles of almost impenetrable thickets, Rosecrans, assisted by Col. Lander, made a spirited attack upon the upper intrenchment of the enemy, who were routed and fled. McClellan was preparing to attack Garnett, but he fled also. On the 13th Col. Pegram, who had been wandering in the hills for two days without food, surrendered unconditionally. When Pegram advanced to hand his sword to Major Laurence Williams, each instantly recognized the other, and both were moved to tears, and turned away unable to speak for a few moments. They had been classmates at West Point, and had met thus for the first time in many years. The number captured amounted to about 600. Pegram was killed late in the war, at the battle of Hatcher's Run, before Richmond, Feb. 1865.

The same day, Gen. Garnett, with the main body, on his retreat, was overtaken some thirty miles north at Carrick's Ford on Shafer's Fork of Cheat River, by the advance of Gen. Morris. He attempted to make a stand to cover his retreat: his men became panic stricken and fled before half their number. Here Garnett, was killed by a sharpshooter. Not a Virginian was at his side when he fell: a young lad from Georgia alone stood by him bravely to the last, and when Garnett fell, he fell too. Garnett was about 40 years of age, a brotherin-law of Gov. Wise, and in the Mexican war aid to Gen. Taylor. He was a roommate at West Point of Major Love, of Gen. Morris' staff. "But an hour or two before, the major had been talking about his former acquaintance and friendship with Garnett, and had remarked that he would be glad if Garnett could only be taken prisoner, that he might be able to see him again, and talk with him about the government which had educated and honored him. When the major reached the field, a short time after the flight of the rebels, he was led to the bank of the river, where the body of his old roommate lay stretched upon the stones! Who shall blame him for the manly tears he shed kneeling by that traitor corpse? The brave boy who fell by, was taken to the hill above the headquarters and buried by our troops. At his head they placed a board, with the inscription: "Name unknown. A brave fellow who shared his general's fate, and fell fighting by his side, while his companions fled."

The appearance of the battle field is thus described by an eye witness. Returning from the bank where Garnett lay, I went up to the bluff on which the enemy had been posted. Around was a sickening sight. Along the brink of

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that bluff lay the dead, stiffening in their own gore, in every contortion which their death anguish had produced. Others were gasping in the last agonies, and still others were writhing with horrible but not mortal wounds, surrounded by the soldiers whom they really believed to be about to plunge the bayonet to their hearts. Never before had I so ghastly a realization of the horrid nature of this fraternal struggle. These men were all Americans-men whom we had once been proud to claim as countrymen-some of them natives of our own northern states. One poor fellow was shot through the bowels. The ground was soaked with his blood. I stooped and asked him if anything could be done to make him more comfortable; he only whispered, "I'm so cold!" He lingered for nearly an hour, in terrible agony. Another-young and just developing into vigorous manhoodhad been shot through the head by a large minie ball. The skull was shockingly fractured; his brains were protruding from the bullet hole and lay spread on the grass by his head. And he was still living! I knelt by his side and moistened his lips with water from my canteen, and an officer who came up a moment afterward poured a few drops of brandy from his pocket flask into his mouth. God help us! what more could we do? A surgeon rapidly examined the wound, sadly shook his head, saying it were better for him if he were dead already, and passed on to the next. And there that poor Georgian lay, gasping in the untold and unimaginable agonies of that fearful death, for more than an hour!

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Near him lay a Virginian, shot through the mouth, and already stiffening. He appeared to have been stooping when he was shot; the ball struck the tip of his nose, cutting that off, cut his upper lip, knocked out his teeth, passed through the head and came out at the back of the neck. The expression of his ghastly face was awful beyond description. And near him lay another, with a ball through the right eye, which had passed out through the back of the head. The glassy eyes were all open; some seemed still gasping with opened mouths; all were smeared in their own blood, and cold and clammy with the dews of death upon them.

But why dwell on the sickening details? May I never see another field like that! All around the field lay men with wounds in the leg, or arm, or face, groaning with pain, and trembling lest the barbarous foes they expected to find in our troops, should commence mangling and torturing them at once. 'Words can hardly express their astonishment, when our men gently removed them to a little knoll, laid them all together, and formed a circle of bayonets around them, to keep off the curious crowd, till they could be removed to the hospital, and cared for by our

surgeons.

There was a terrible moral in that group on the knoll, the dead, the dying, the wounded, protected by the very men that had been fighting and who were as ready then as they had ever been to defend by their strong arms every right these self-made enemies of theirs had ever enjoyed.

Every attention was shown the enemy's wounded, by our surgeons. Limbs were amputated, wounds were dressed with the same care with which our own brave volunteers were treated. The wound on the battle field removed all differencesin the hospital all were alike, the objects of a common humanity that left none beyond its limits.

Among the enemy's wounded was a young Massachusetts boy, who had received a severe wound in the leg. He had been visiting in the South, and had been impressed into the ranks. As soon as the battle began, he broke from the rebel ranks and attempted to run down the hill, and cross over to our side. His own lieutenant saw him in the act, and shot him with a revolver! Listen to such a tale as that, as I did, by the side of the sad young sufferer, and tell me if your blood does not boil warmer than ever before, as you think, not of the poor deluded followers, but of the leaders, who, for personal ambition and personal spite, began this infernal rebellion."

Some amusing anecdotes were related of this battle.

Previous to the fight, before any shells had been thrown, a Georgian, who was behind a tree some distance from one of our men, called out to him, "What troops are you?" One soldier, squinting around his tree, and seeing that there was no chance for a shot at his questioner, replied: "Ohio and Indiana volunteers."

"Volunteers! "exclaimed the Georgian, "you needn't tell me volunteers stand fire that way!" The day's skirmish presented some instances of extraordinary daring. Perhaps the most astounding was that of a fellow who undertook to furnish the news to the rebels. One of Milroy's Swamp Devils, (as the boys of the Ninth Indiana were called,) took a paper and deliberately walked up the road at the foot of the hill, on which the enemy were placed, till he got within convenient talking distance. Then asking them if they wouldn't like to have the news, and they having answered in the affirmative, he unfolded his paper and began, "Great battle at Manassas Gap; rebels completely routed; one thousand killed, ten thousand wounded, and nearly all the rest taken prisoners; all traitors to be hung and their property confiscated!" By this time the bullets began to rain down upon him rather thickly, and he beat a rapid retreat to a convenient tree, carefully folding up his paper as he went, and shouting back that if they would come over to camp, he would give them the balance of the news!"

Another incident worth preserving is as follows:

In one of the Indiana regiments was a Methodist preacher, said to be one of the very best shots in his regiment. During the battle, he was particularly conspicuous for the zeal with which he kept up a constant fire. The 14th Ohio Regiment, in the thick of the fight, fired an average of eleven rounds to every man, but this parson managed to get in a great deal more than that average. He fired carefully, with perfect coolness, and always after a steady aim, and the boys declare that every time, as he took down his gun, after firing he added, "And may the Lord have mercy on your soul."

The loss in killed and wounded was slight. In the result, the enemy were for the time being driven from Northwestern Virginia. The whole affair was a mere skirmish compared to an hundred later battles of the war, too inconsequential to be described in history. But it was the first decided union victory, and gave great eclat to Gen. McClellan, who, in the enthusiasm of the time, was in consequence transferred to the command of the army of the Potomac. A second Napoleon was supposed to have been found in the person of an ex-captain of U. S. engineers.

The next engagement of importance was, the battle of Carnifex Ferry, which took place on the 10th of September between the union. forces under Gen. Rosecrans and the rebels under Gen. Floyd, ex-secretary of war. Floyd's position was a high intrenched camp on the summit of a mountain in the forest, on Gauley river, opposite the precise point where the Meadow river falls into it. The intrenchments extended about a mile and a half in his front, each end resting on the bank of the river, which here by its curving formed a kind of bow, while the intrenched line answered for the string. In the center of Floyd's line was an extensive earthen mound, supporting his main battery. The rest of his works were of fallen timber exclusively. The position could not well be flanked, and the only resource was to attack him in front. Floyd had six regiments and 16 pieces of artillery. On the last day of August, Gen. Rosecrans, moved from Clarksburg, to put himself at the head of his army, and resume active operations. His plan was to engage Floyd in the region of the Kanawha line. After much delay, the army moved from Birch river toward Summerville on the 9th. On the 10th he marched eighteen miles, to near the intrenched position of the enemy, in front of Carnifex Ferry. At three o'clock in the afternoon he began the strong reconnoissance, termed the battle of Carnifex Ferry. This lasted until night came on, when the troops being exhausted, he drew them out of the woods and

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