Col. Robert Johnston, commanding the cavalry at Cockletown, reported that a volunteer scout of four had returned to camp that morning, bringing in Captain Jenkins and Lieutenant Shurtleff of the United States naval brigade. This scout met a party of six, near New Market bridge, killed Major Rawlings, wounded the two officers brought in, and put the rest to flight. Soon afterward Colonel Johnston reported that he would occupy Bethel, endeavor to secure the negroes from the lower part of the peninsula, and then occupy Harrod's and Young's mills, whence he could best operate with safety against marauding parties.

July 24th, on account of the panic following the battle of Bull Run, Butler was required to send a force of about 4,000 men to Washington. He wrote to Scott: "This reduction of my forces here leaves it impossible to take up or hold any advanced position. Newport News, where I have an intrenched camp, and a very important point in my judgment, would be in great danger of attack from Yorktown and Warwick, where the Confederates are now concentrating troops across the James river from Smithfield to Warwick."

As soon as Colonel Magruder learned the result of the battle of Manassas, he ordered Colonel Johnston to proceed, with about 2,000 men, to reconnoiter in the immediate vicinity of Hampton and Newport News. As soon as Johnston appeared before Hampton, a large balloon was sent up, from which his force was observed, and a hasty evacuation took place. Magruder ordered a junction of troops from Williamsburg and Yorktown-about 4,000, including 400 cavalry and two batteries of the howitzers-in Warwick county, where he established a depot of supplies at the courthouse, and then marched to Bethel church. On August 6th he disposed his force between the Federals at and around Fort Monroe and those in garrison at Newport News.

On the morning of the 7th, Magruder displayed his force within a mile and a half of Newport News, with the hope of drawing out the enemy. Disappointed in this, he moved his left flank to within a mile of Hampton, where a copy of the New York Tribune, containing a recent report from Butler to the secretary of war, was placed in his hands, in which the former announced his intentions with respect to Hampton, about one-third of

which had been burned by the Federals when they evacuated it in consequence of the their best troops to Washington. in substance stated:

withdrawal of 4,000 of Butler, in that report,

That he intended to fortify Hampton and make it so strong as to be easily defended by a small number of troops; that he did not know what to do with the many negroes in his possession unless he possessed Hampton; that they were still coming in rapidly; that as their masters had deserted their homes and slaves, he should consider the latter free, and would colonize them at Hampton, the home of most of their owners, where the women could support themselves by attending to the clothes of the soldiers, and the men by working on the fortifications of the town.

Magruder reported, that having known for some time that Hampton was the harbor of runaway slaves and traitors, and that being under the guns of Fort Monroe it could not be held, even if taken, he was under the impression that it should have been destroyed before; and when he found, from Butler's report, its importance to the enemy, and that the town would lend great strength to the fortifications directly around it, he determined to burn it; that the gentlemen of Hampton, many of whom were in his command, seemed to concur with him in the propriety of this course. He further hoped that the sight of a conflagration would draw away the troops from Newport News at night. Having reached this conclusion, Magruder made disposition of his troops, selecting four Virginia cavalry companies to burn the town, three of them made up of persons from that portion of the country, and many of them from Hampton. To support this party, the Fourteenth Virginia was posted near Hampton to guard against an attack from any unexpected quarter; New Market, between Hampton and Newport News, was taken possession of, and a force disposed so as to meet any troops coming from Newport News to the relief of Hampton. He then described the skirmish at the Hampton bridge, which induced the enemy to retreat, at the end of half an hour, with some loss, and with only one of his men wounded. "Notice was then given to the few remaining inhabitants of the place, and those who were aged or infirm were kindly cared for and taken to their friends, who occupied detached houses. The town was then fired in many places and burned to the ground." About daybreak of

the 8th the troops that had fired the town returned to Bethel for rest, not having been molested by the enemy.

General Butler, in his report of this affair, said that just before noon the Confederates attacked his guard at the bridge and attempted to burn it, but were driven back, when they proceeded to fire Hampton, in a great number of places, and by 12 o'clock it was in flames and was soon entirely destroyed. He wrote:

They gave but fifteen minutes' time for the inhabitants to remove from their houses, and I have to-day brought over the old and infirm, who by that wanton act of destruction are now left houseless and homeless. The enemy took away with them most of the ablebodied white men. A more wanton and unnecessary act than the burning, as it seems to me, could not have been committed. There was not the slightest attempt to make any resistance on our part for the possession of the town, which we had before evacuated. There was no attempt to interfere with them there, as we only repelled an attempt to burn the bridge. It would have been easy to dislodge them from the town by a few shells from the fortress, but I did not choose to allow an opportunity to fasten upon the Federal troops any portion of this heathenish outrage.

Magruder reported that there was sickness among the troops on the peninsula, nearly all of a typhoid character, and many deaths were occurring. The Fifth North Carolina, over 1,000 strong, had then less than 400 for duty. "In addition to the measles, ague and fever, bilious and typhoid fever, symptoms of scurvy are apparent throughout the command; typhoid has been so prevalent and fatal at Jamestown island as to make the withdrawal of the men from that post necessary." He added, that he had called out a large force of negroes to complete the fortifications, and he requested that funds be sent for the payment of these laborers, without delay, as many of them were free negroes. He did not wish the sanitary condition of his men to be made known, for obvious reasons, and said:

Those men who can take the field are in fine spirits, and so keen for an encounter with the enemy that I believe Newport News could be carried, though it is excessively strong, and garrisoned by troops and supported by a naval force more than equal to my own in numbers. I do not think it can be done, however, without a loss of onehalf of our men in killed and wounded. It could not be held by us for any length of time if it were taken, as the troops from Fort Monroe in much larger force could place themselves in our rear, and the position itself could be shelled by the enemy's ships both in front and on the left flank. Its temporary position, therefore, would not compensate for the loss necessary in taking it.

On the 17th of August, Maj.-Gen. John E. Wool superseded Butler in department command, and Butler was put in command of the volunteer forces in the department exclusive of those at Fort Monroe, practically his own brigade.

CHAPTER IX.

THE TYGART'S VALLEY AND CHEAT MOUNTAIN CAMPAIGN-BATTLE OF GREENBRIER RIVER, OR CAMP BARTOW-BATTLE OF ALLEGHANY MOUNTAIN.

TH

HE unsatisfactory condition of military operations on the line from Staunton to Parkersburg, as well as on that from Staunton to the Kanawha, during the month of July, was the cause of great anxiety both to the Virginia government and to that of the Confederacy. Reinforcements were hurried forward on both lines, especially to northwestern Virginia on the Staunton and Parkersburg line, where the larger Federal force had been concentrated. After the death of Gen. R. S. Garnett and the retreat of his forces, the command of the army of the Northwest was, on the 14th of July, assumed by Brig.-Gen. H. R. Jackson, of Georgia, who established his headquarters at Monterey, 47 miles west of Staunton, and pushed his advance across Alleghany mountain to the Greenbrier river. Another column having been ordered to the Huntersville and Huttonsville road, mainly the brigade of Brig.-Gen. W. W. Loring, that officer was, as the ranking one, assigned on the 20th of July to the command of the army of the Northwest, which included the forces on both the Monterey and the Huntersville lines which had a common objective in the Federal force on Cheat mountain and near Huttonsville. General Loring reached Monterey on the 22d day of July and assumed command.

When Loring reached Monterey he found the army of the Northwest thus distributed: Col. Edward Johnson, with the Twelfth Georgia and Anderson's Virginia Lee battery, were on Alleghany mountain, with pickets at Greenbrier river; Col. Albert Rust's Third Arkansas and Col. John B. Baldwin's Fifty-second Virginia were in supporting distance between Alleghany mountain and Monterey; Col. S. V. Fulkerson's Thirty-seventh Virginia, Col. William B. Taliaferro's Twenty-third Virginia, and Col. W. C. Scott's Forty-fourth Virginia were