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ALLEGHANY SUMMIT-HUNTERSVILLE.

In the north-east, Gen. Kelly, who held and guarded the Alleghany section of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, starting from New Creek on the night of October 25th, advanced rapidly to Romney, the capital of Hampshire county, driving out a Rebel battalion and capturing two cannon, sixty prisoners, several hundred stand of arms, with all the camp equipage, provisions, and munitions. By this spirited dash, West Virginia was nearly cleared of armed Rebels.

527

fifty miles southward. And thus | son, were neither surprised nor disdied out the campaign in the south- mayed; and the attack in front, led ern part of West Virginia. by Col. James A. Jones, of the 25th Ohio, though gallantly made, did not succeed. The Rebels, finding themselves superior in numbers as well as position, attacked in turn, and were likewise repulsed, as also in an attempted flank movement. Still, Milroy, having lost 150 men, with his ranks still further depleted by the skulking of his raw troops, had begun to retreat before Col. Moody, at 8 A. M., commenced his flank attack, which was of course a failure. Milroy retreated unpursued to his old camp. But, not discouraged, he dispatched Major Webster, of the 25th Ohio, with 800 men, on the last day of the year, to break up a Rebel post at Huntersville, fifty miles south, on the Greenbrier. The weather was cold; the ground covered with snow; yet the march was made in three days, the Rebel force driven out, and six buildings, filled with provisions and forage, destroyed by fire; the expedition returning without loss or accident. Here closed the campaign of 1861 in Western Virginia, with scarcely a Rebel uniform or picket to be seen, on that side of the Alleghany Mountains."

Gen. R. H. Milroy, who had succeeded Gen. Reynolds in command at Cheat Mountain, attempted, soon afterward," a similar dash on the Rebels in his front, strongly posted at Alleghany Summit, twenty-two miles distant, on the turnpike to Staunton. To this end, he moved forward with 3,200 men, nearly half of which were directed to make a détour by the old Greenbrier road, to assault the enemy's left. The combination failed. The flank movement, under Col. Moody, of the 9th Indiana, was not effected in time. The Rebel forces, consisting of four regiments, under Col. Edward John

19 December 12th.

20 Though the crest of the main ridge of the Alleghanies is the natural and proper line of demarcation between the Old Dominion' and new, or West Virginia, and pretty accurately discriminates the Counties wherein Slavery and Secession did, from those wherein they did not, at any time, predominate, yet three or four CountiesMonroe, Greenbrier, &c.-which geographically pertain to West Virginia, have, either voluntarily or under duress, adhered to Old Virginia and the Rebellion.

NOTE. The originally proposed State of Kanawha included within her boundaries only the Counties of Virginia lying north and west of, but

20

not including, McDowell, Mercer, Monroe, Greenbrier, and Pocahontas-thirty-nine in all, with a total population in 1860 of 280,691, whereof 6,894 were slaves. The Constitution of WEST VIRGINIA expressly included the five counties above named, making the total population 315,969, of whom 10,147 were slaves. It further provided that the counties of Pendleton, Hardy, Hampshire, Frederick, Berkeley, Jefferson, and Morgan, might also be embraced within the new State, provided their people should, by vote, express their desire to be-which they, excepting those of Frederick, in due time, didraising the population, in 1860, of the new State to 376,742, and entitling it to three representatives in Congress.

XXXIII.

EAST VIRGINIA-BULL RUN.

Ir the North had been, or at least | 27th of April, a proclamation anhad seemed, obstinately apathetic, be- nouncing the blockade of the coast cause skeptical as to the probability of Virginia and North Carolina; or the imminence of Civil War, it due evidence having been afforded was fully and suddenly undeceived that Virginia had formally and North by the developments that swiftly fol- Carolina practically adhered to the lowed the bombardment of Fort Rebellion. Some weeks were reSumter, but especially by the occur- quired to collect and fit out the vesrences in Baltimore and the attitude sels necessary for the blockade of of Maryland. For a few weeks, all even the chief ports of the Rebel petty differences seemed effaced, all States; but the month of May' saw partisan jealousies and hatreds for- this undertaking so far completed as gotten. A few 'conservative' presses to make an entrance into either of sought to stem the rushing tide; a those ports dangerous to the blockfew old Democratic leaders struggled ade-runner. On the 3d, the Presi to keep the party lines distinct and dent made a further call for troopsrigid; but to little purpose. Twelve this time requiring 42,000 additional States, whose Legislatures happened volunteers for three years; beside to be sitting in some part of April adding ten regiments to the regular or May, 1861, tendered pecuniary army-about doubling its nominal aid to the Government, amounting, strength.. A large force of volunin the aggregate, to nearly Nineteen teers, mainly Pennsylvanians, was Millions of Dollars; while some Five organized at Chambersburg, Pa., Millions were as promptly contribu- under the command of Major-Gen. ted, in the cities and chief towns of Robert Patterson, of the Pennsyl the North, to clothe and equip volun- vania militia; while Gen. Butler, having completed the taming of Baltimore, by planting batteries on the highest points and sending a few of her more audacious traitors to Fort McHenry, was made' a MajorGeneral, and placed in command of a Department composed of tide-water Virginia with North Carolina. George B. McClellan, John C. Fremont (then in Europe), and John A. Dix had already been appointed

teers.

Railroads and steamboats were mainly employed in transporting men and munitions to the line of the Potomac or that of the Ohio. Never before had any Twenty Millions of people evinced such absorbing and general enthusiasm. But for the deplorable lack of arms, Half a Million volunteers might have been sent into camp before the ensuing Fourth of July.

President Lincoln issued, on the Major-Generals in the regular army

'Richmond and Norfolk, the 8th; Charleston, the 11th; New Orleans and Mobile, the 27th;

Savannah, the 28th.

May 16th. 'May 1st and speedily thereafter.

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