CHAPTER X.

WESTERN VIRGINIA.

GENERAL ROSECRANS IN WEST VIRGINIA.-ROBERT E. LEE.-BATTLE OF CARNIFEX FERRY.ESCAPE OF FLOYD.-REYNOLDS AND LEE.-Death of ColoNEL WASHINGTON.-TRAVELLERS' REPOSE.-MILROY AND JOHNSTON.-MUNSON'S HILL, VIRGINIA.-THE POTOMAC CLOSED BY CONFEDERATE BATTERIES.-ACQUIA CREEK.-TORPEDOES.-ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.QUAKER GUNS.-LEWINSVILLE AND DARNESTOWN.-Disaster at BalL'S BLUFF.-Death of COLONEL BAKER.-FALSE REPORTS OF BATTLES.-GENERAL STONE IN FORT LAFAYETTE.— FAULT-FINDING.-SOLDIERS' JOKES.-HARD-TACK. · FORAGING. DRAWING POTATOES.

SOLDIERS' SLANG.-GENERAL SCOTT RESIGNS.-MCCLELLAN GENERAL-IN-CHIEF.-DRANESVILLE.-WINTER QUARTERS.

WHE

HEN General McClellan was called to take General McDowell's place at the head of the Army of the Potomac, Brigadier-General William S. Rosecrans was left in command of the troops in West Virginia. General Robert E. Lee, the Confederate commander, who had gathered together the forces which had been defeated under Garnett and Pegram, and some others, found himself in August at the head of about sixteen thousand men. Lee made his headquarters at Huntersville, while General John B. Floyd, the former Secretary of War at Washington, took up a position on the Gauley River for the purpose of cutting off General Cox of Ohio, who with a brigade of Rosecrans's army had just driven a Confederate force. under ex-Governor Henry A. Wise of Virginia out of the Kanawha Valley. Floyd surprised and routed the Seventh Ohio under Colonel Tyler, and then moved to a place on the Gauley River called Carnifex Ferry, hoping to cut off Cox from Rosecrans. But early in September Rosecrans, leaving part of his army under General Joseph J. Reynolds to watch Lee, marched southward with about ten thousand men and attacked Floyd, who had strongly fortified himself with about two thousand men on the banks of the river. After a severe fight of three or four hours, in which the Union troops lost heavily, Rosecrans, finding the position much stronger than he expected, gave orders at twilight to stop the assault until morning; but when morning came no enemy was to be seen; Floyd, finding his enemy much superior in numbers, had crossed the river in the night over a bridge hastily built of logs, and retreated to the

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mountains thirty miles away. Rosecrans followed, but finally fell back again to the Gauley.

When Rosecrans marched against Floyd, Reynolds took up a strong position on Cheat Mountain. This part of West Virginia, as can be seen by the map, is very mountainous. On the east the Alleghany Mountains separate West Virginia from Virginia, while west of and parallel with them is another range called in one part the Greenbrier Mountain and in another Cheat Mountain. The country is very beautiful and picturesque, but rugged and difficult to travel in, the spurs of the

mountains being often cut by deep and gloomy ravines. The mountains and hills, too, are densely wooded in many places. The scouts of Reynolds and of Lee watched each other for weeks in this wild region, often meeting and firing at each other from behind trees or rocks, and having hair-breadth escapes and adventures enough to fill a book. In September Lee moved against Reynolds, hoping to crush him during Rosecrans's absence, and then to push on to the Ohio River; but he found the Union troops in a very strong position, and being repulsed withdrew and joined Floyd and Wise on Big Sewell Mountain. In this fight with Reynolds was

killed Lieutenant-Colonel John A. Washington, of General Lee's staff. He was the owner of Washington's home, Mount Vernon, which he sold to the Ladies' Mount Vernon Association, the present owners. Lee's force now amounted to about twenty thousand men, while Rosecrans, though he had been joined by the brigades of Cox, Schenck, and Benham, had only twelve thousand men. But Lee would not attack Rosecrans, and the latter, not feeling strong enough to force his position on the mountain, which was well fortified, fell back toward the Gauley River. Lee, whose campaign had been a failure, was soon after recalled and sent to South Carolina; Wise had his command taken from him, and Floyd was left alone in West Virginia to watch the Union forces. But he was soon driven away by Rosecrans, and fled southward out of the country.

A TREE.

Lee had left about three thousand SCOUT FIRING FROM BEHIND men under General H. R. Jackson, of Georgia, to watch Reynolds. Reynolds attacked him with five thousand men in his fortified camp near a tavern called Traveller's Repose, but after a fight of seven hours was repulsed and fell back to Elk Water. Soon after this Reynolds joined Rosecrans, and General Robert H. Milroy was left with a small force to guard the mountain passes. In December Milroy attacked Colonel Edward Johnston, of Georgia, who had a small Confederate force in the Alleghany Mountains, and after a severe fight retired with a loss on each side of about two hundred men. Milroy soon after broke up a Confederate post at Huntersville, and this ended the campaign in West Virginia.

We must now return to the East once more and see what was done there in the fall of 1861. Soon after the battle of Bull Run the Confederates took possession of the hill at Centreville and fortified it, and pushed their scouts forward within sight of the defences of Washington. Their flag on one of their posts on Munson's Hill could be seen plainly from the Capitol. They also erected batteries along the Virginia bank of the Potomac, and closed the river to navigation. This caused much inconvenience, because most of the provisions and other things

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for the army around Washington had been sent thither by water, and the railroads were not able to keep up the needed supply. Washington was therefore almost in a state of blockade, notwithstanding the great army gathered there. This was looked upon as a disgrace by all Union men, and caused much mortification throughout the North. Several attempts were made to silence these batteries, especially one at a place called Acquia Creek, where the little stream of that name enters the

Potomac. About the 1st of June the sloop-of-war Pawnee, aided by several gunboats, bombarded the battery there for five hours, but without success. The Confederates afterward tried to destroy the Pawnee with a torpedo, like the one in the picture. It was picked up in the Potomac, only a few yards. from the vessel, which it would probably have blown up if it had reached it. This was one of the first torpedoes used in the

war.

The Army of the Potomac now numbered about one hundred and fifty thousand men. From the time when General McClellan took command, a few days after the disaster at Bull Run, he had labored to organize it and to bring it into a fit condition to move once more against the enemy. Men were drilled in com

panies and in regiments, and regiments were formed into brigades and brigades into divisions, each brigade being made up of four regiments and each division of three brigades. As each regiment had about eight hundred men, a division was composed of about ten thousand infantry; and to this was added a regiment of cavalry and four batteries of artillery. At the same time the men were employed in finishing the fortifications around Washington, and by October the city was encircled by a chain of earthworks along the hills on both sides of the Poto

mac.

The Confederates also occupied themselves with fortifying their position at Manassas, where their main body still lay. At Richmond, too, they built strong fortifications and established large manufactories of war material and depots of arms and supplies. Men were drilled and sent to the army at Manassas as fast as they became fit for service, but the force there did not increase as fast as that at Washington. It was thought at Washington at the time that the Confederate force was nearly if not quite equal in number to the Union army, but it is now known that General Johnston, who had succeeded Beauregard in the command, did not have in October much more than a third as many men as McClellan had.

TORPEDO.*

At the end of September the Confederates withdrew from Munson's Hill and their other posts near Washington, and fell back to Centreville. Their earthwork on Munson's Hill, which looked very formidable from a distance, was found to be very weak, while its armament was nothing but logs cut somewhat in the form of cannon, each with a round black spot painted on

* 1 1, Oil casks, used for buoys; 2 2, Iron cylinders, filled with gunpowder; 3, Rope, with pieces of cork fastened to it; 4 4, Boxes with fusees or slow-matches; 5 5, Gutta-percha tube; 6 6, Brass tops on the torpedoes; 77, Copper tubes running through the casks; 8, Wooden board in casks, on which the fusee was coiled. The fusees were first lighted and the torpedo was then set afloat with the tide, with the expectation that the slowmatches would fire the gunpowder and explode the torpedo about the time it struck the vessel.