miles, Cox himself directing operations from the top of the pilot house of the leading steamboat, while military bands on board enlivened this novel mode of campaigning. The movement was without opposition until the third day, when, at the mouth of the Pocotalico, some resistance was met from Wise's advance pickets, and Cox learned that the Confederates were in force some 12 miles further on, at Tyler mountain. Cox decided to await at Pocotalico the coming in of his flanking columns.

On the 16th the forward movement of the Second Kentucky (Federal) began at Guyandotte, a few miles beyond which, at Barboursville, a lively skirmish took place with O. J. Wise's advance cavalry pickets, which fell back, pursued by the Federals, to the force encamped near Scary creek, some 24 miles from Charleston, which, on the afternoon of the 17th, met and repulsed this pursuit. After the engagement at Scary, the Federals crossed the river and encamped on the north side. The next day Wise attacked Cox's advance post with some 800 men of all arms under McCausland, forcing them to retreat to their intrenched camp near the mouth of the Pocotalico.

The retreat of Garnett's forces from Rich mountain and Laurel hill, and the advance of McClellan to Cheat mountain, thus threatening a movement on Staunton, or to the Virginia Central railroad, or to the Kanawha line at Lewisburg, induced the Confederate authorities to promptly reinforce the Northwestern army in McClellan's front, and to concentrate forces on the Kanawha line by withdrawing Wise toward Lewisburg and advancing Floyd from the valley in the southwest to the same line. Col. A. W. McDonald, in command of a large cavalry force at Romney, was ordered to march with his command to Staunton, and unite with the forces there concentrating. Gen. W. W. Loring was assigned to the command of the army of the Northwest.

Acting under discretionary orders, Wise abandoned Charleston July 24th, marching up the Kanawha; left Gauley bridge, which he burned behind him, on the 27th, and after a march of over 100 miles arrived at Lewisburg on the last day of the month, and located his camp at Bunger's mill, 4 miles west of that town.

These brief Northwestern Virginia campaigns, the first of the war and of barely two months' duration, ending

with July, were very far-reaching in their results. McClellan, by the force of numbers many times increased in efficiency by the aid of steam power on navigable rivers and railways, by the use of field telegraphs following his movements, and by superior strategy, made possible by these agencies, compelled the Confederates to retreat from the banks of the Ohio to near the Alleghany range of the Appalachians, and abandon to Federal control-which thenceforward during the war was well nigh continuous-most of Trans-Alleghany Virginia, nearly one-third of the State. These results were not only of present but of great future importance to the Federal government in the conduct of the war. They not only gave it control of the navigable waters of the Ohio along and within the borders of Virginia for transportation purposes, but also gave it access to and control of the important coal mines and salt works on the Big Kanawha, and the newly-discovered petroleum wells in the Little Kanawha basin, to the great advantage of Ohio and other Western States, and enabled it to establish camps of observation, accessible by rail and river, far within the borders of Virginia, from which raiding parties were constantly threatening Virginia's interior lines of cummunication through the Great Valley and the lead mines, salt works, coal mines, blast furnaces, foundries, and other important industrial establishments in and near that grand source of military supplies, thus requiring the detaching of large numbers of troops to watch these Federal movements, and to guard these important and indispensable sinews of war. They deprived Virginia of a large portion of her annual revenues, of a most important recruiting ground for troops, and enabled the bogus government of Virginia to establish and maintain itself at Wheeling, and under the protection of Federal armies strengthen the disloyal element in that part of the State, and organize numerous regiments of infantry and companies of cavalry and artillery to swell the numbers of the Federal army. McClellan had good reason to exult at his success, no matter if it had been easily won,

CHAPTER VI.

THE FIRST SHENANDOAH VALLEY CAMPAIGN-APRIL

TH

TO JULY, 1861.

HE United States arsenal and armory at Harper's Ferry, at the junction of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers, was the coveted object that first led to military operations in the Shenandoah valley in 1861. Ex-Governor Wise, early in April, urged the authorities at Richmond, by letter, to press forward on three points, the first, "Harper's Ferry, to cut off. the West, to form camp for Baltimore and point of attack on Washington from the west."

In Richmond, on the night of April 16th, when it became evident that the Virginia convention would pass an ordinance of secession, Wise called together at the Exchange hotel a number of officers of the armed and equipped companies of the Virginia militia: Turner and Richard Ashby of Fauquier, O. R. Funsten of Clarke, all captains of cavalry companies; Capt. John D. Imboden, of the Staunton artillery; Capt. John A. Harman of Staunton; Nat Tyler, editor of the Richmond Enquirer, and Capt. Alfred M. Barbour, late civil superintendent of the United States armory at Harper's Ferry. These gentlemen, most of them ardent secessionists, discussed and agreed upon a plan for the capture of Harper's Ferry, to be put in execution on the 17th, as soon as the convention voted to secede, if the concurrence of Governor Letcher and railway transportation could be secured. Col. Edmund Fontaine, president of the Virginia Central railroad, and John S. Barbour, president of the Orange & Alexandria railroad, being called in consultation about midnight, agreed to provide the necessary trains for the movement of troops if requested to do so by Governor Letcher. A committee was then sent to the governor, which roused him from sleep and laid before him the scheme for the capture of the armory and arsenal. He refused to take any official steps until after the passage of the ordinance of secession, but

agreed, contingent upon that event, that he would next day order the movement by telegraph.* He was then informed what companies would be under arms and ready to move at a moment's notice. This self-constituted committee then wired the captains of the companies along the above-named railways to be ready to move the next day, by orders from the governor, which, it was stated, would be to aid in capturing the Gosport navy yard, as a precaution lest information of the movement should reach Washington. It was well known that the guard at Harper's Ferry was only 45 men and could easily be captured if surprised; but Wise had information from Washington that a Massachusetts regiment, 1,000 strong, had been ordered to Harper's Ferry.

After the close of the conference the Ashbys, Funsten, Harman and Imboden secured ammunition and 100 stand of arms for the Martinsburg light infantry from the Virginia armory at Richmond, and had these moved to the railway station and loaded on a train before sunrise of the 17th.

This

Imboden, by telegraph, ordered all volunteer companies in the county of Augusta to assemble at Staunton at 4 p. m. of the 17th for marching orders. produced great excitement, as that was a strong Union county, and the people assembled in Staunton in great numbers. When Imboden reached that place, in the afternoon of the 17th, he found his own company, the Staunton artillery, and Capt. William S. H. Baylor's West Augusta guards, an infantry company, drawn up to receive him. There were also present Maj.-Gen. Kenton Harper, commanding the Fifth division of the Virginia militia, and Brig.-Gen. William H. Harman, commanding the Thirteenth brigade of the Virginia militia, who had a telegram from Letcher ordering them into service and referring them to Imboden for information. He informed them, confidentially, of what had been done. Letcher had wired Harper to take chief command of the movement and Harman to call out the armed companies of his brigade. At 5 p. m. Harper left for Winchester by rapid conveyance, after ordering Harman to take command of the trains and troops that might report

*"Jackson at Harper's Ferry," by Brig.-Gen. John D. Imboden, in "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War." Century Co., New York, 1887.

en route. Reaching Winchester at noon of the 18th, Harper received orders from Letcher to go on to Harper's Ferry.

The two companies from Staunton left by the Virginia Central railroad about sunset; at Charlottesville they were joined by Capt. W. B. Mallory's Monticello guards and Capt. R. T. W. Duke's Albemarle rifles, and at Culpeper by a rifle company. Manassas Junction was reached at about sunrise of the 18th, when Harman impressed a Manassas Gap railroad train to take the lead toward Strasburg, followed by the other trains that had brought troops to the junction. The Ashbys and Funsten left Richmond on the 16th to collect their cavalry companies, and those of the Black Horse cavalry under Capts. John Scott and R. Welby Carter of Fauquier; these to march across the Blue ridge and rendezvous near Harper's Ferry. Ashby sent men on the night of the 17th to cut the wires between Manassas and Alexandria and keep them cut for several days, to prevent information of this movement reaching Washington. Before 10 a. m. of the 18th, the trains reached Strasburg and the infantry companies took up the line of march for Winchester. Imboden, with great difficulty, secured horses for his battery, and by noon followed on to Winchester, 18 miles, which he reached about dark. The troops were coldly received by the majority of the people of that conservative town, quite unlike their conduct during the following years of heroic endurance.

Harper, reaching Winchester in advance, when the infantry arrived sent them forward by rail to Charlestown, 8 miles from Harper's Ferry, and then ordered back the train for the artillery. About midnight the infantry marched to Halltown, within 4 miles of Harper's Ferry, to which point the artillery was taken by train and the guns run forward by hand to Bolivar heights and put in position to shell the place if necessary. Harper, who thought the Massachusetts regiment had arrived at Harper's Ferry, was making his arrangements to attack the armory and arsenal at daybreak of the 19th, when at about 10 p. m. of the 18th a brilliant light from the direction of the armory convinced him that the Federal troops in charge had fired it and fled. He promptly advanced and took possession, but too late to extinguish the flames, which destroyed nearly 20,000 rifles and pis