rout of the enemy at Philippi was The enemy were on the alert, and on comparatively a failure, the moral effect the approach of their assailants their proved so great in Western Virginia mounted picket guards fired and galthat that loyal district was temporarily loped into the town to arouse their comrelieved of all fears of the domination rades. of the secessionists. Major-General Patterson was, in the mean time, advancing through Pennsylvania from the north towards Maryland and Virginia, with the view of co-operating with General McClellan, about to approach from the west, in a combined effort against the secession troops gathered in force at Harper's Ferry. While Patterson was at Chambersburg, an attack was made upon Romney, in Virginia, by a portion of his advance troops stationed at Cumberland, in Maryland. This was planned by Colonel Wallace, of the Eleventh Indiana Volunteers, who, having learned that several hundred troops were quartered at Romney, drilling, imprisoning Union men, and otherwise annoying loyal citizens, determined to rout them out. The ColJune onel, accordingly, started at ten 17. o'clock in the morning from Cumberland with eight hundred men, and proceeded by railway twenty-one miles to New Creek station. Arriving in the afternoon, he began his march at four o'clock, with the hope of reaching Romney at an early hour next day. The road, however, leading across the mountains, through narrow passes and along high bluffs, proved difficult, so that after a long and fatiguing march of twenty-three miles, Colonel Wallace did not arrive before the town until past eight o'clock in the morning. "In approaching the place, it was necessary," wrote Colonel Wallace, in his animated report of the affair, "for me to cross a bridge over the South Branch of the Potomac. A reconnoissance satisfied me that the passage of the bridge would be the chief obstacle in my way, although I could distinctly see the enemy drawn up on the bluff which is the town site, supporting a battery of two guns, planted so as to sweep the road completely. "I directed my advance guard to cross the bridge on a run, leap down the embankment at the farther entrance, and observe the windows of a large brick house not farther off than seventy-five yards. Their appearance was the signal for an assault. A warm fire opened from the house, which the guard returned, with no other loss than the wounding of a sergeant. The firing continued several minutes. I led a second company across the bridge, and by following up a ravine got them into a position that soon drove the enemy from the house to a mountain in its rear. 'My attention was then turned to the battery on the hill. Instead of following the road, as the rebels expected, I pushed five companies in skirmishing order and at double-quick time, up a hill to the right, intending to get around the left flank of the enemy, and cut off their retreat. Hardly had my companies de ployed and started forward, and got within rifle range, before the rebels limbered up and got off over the bluff in the hottest haste. Between their position and that of my men was a deep, precipitous gorge, the crossing of which occupied about ten minutes. When the opposite ridge was gained, we discovered the rebels, indiscriminately blent with a mass of women and children, flying as for life from the town. Having no horse, pursuit of the cannoniers was out of the question, as they went off under whip and spur. After that I quietly marched into the place, and took possession of the empty houses and a legion of negroes, who alone seemed unscared at our presence. After searching the town for arms, camp equipage, etc., I returned to Cumberland, by the same road, reaching camp at eleven o'clock at night. My return was forced, owing to the fact that there was not a mile on the road that did not offer half a dozen positions for the ruin or rout of my regiment by a much smaller force." ascertained with precision; two of them, however, were undoubtedly killed, and one wounded. A number of tents and a quantity of stores were captured, and some guns destroyed. The Colonel, moreover, congratulated himself upon the impressive moral effect of his spirited demonstration. "One good result," he said, "has come of it. The loyal men in that region have taken heart. Very shortly, I think, you will hear of another Union company from that district. Moreover, it has brought home to the insolent chivalry' a wholesome respect for Northern prowess." The Indiana Volunteers, or Zouaves, as they termed themselves, soon had an opportunity of again displaying their spirit. A scouting party, consist- June ing of thirteen mounted men, led 26. by Corporal Hayes, a ranger of renown during the Mexican war, crossed from Maryland and proceeded on a reconnoitering expedition into Virginia. They proceeded within a quarter of a mile of Frankfort, half way between Cumberland, whence they had set out, and Romney, the scene of the former exploit of the Indiana men. Finding the place full of the enemy's cavalry, they turned back, and meeting forty-one mounted secessionists, charged full upon them, driving them back more than a mile, capturing seventeen of the horses and killing eight of their riders. In the collision, Corporal Hayes, the leader of the Indiana men, was wounded with sabre cuts and bullets. A man of great The loss of the enemy could not be daring and strength, he had already The Colonel was proud of the achievement of his men, and took occasion to direct the notice of General Patterson to the wonders they had accomplished. "I beg," he said, "to call your attention to the length of our march, eighty-seven miles in all, forty-six of which were on foot, over a continuous succession of mountains, made in twenty-four hours, without rest, and varied by a brisk engagement, without leaving a man behind; and what is more, my men are ready to repeat it to-morrow." CONVENTION AT WHEELING. killed two men with his own hand, when he himself was wounded, but he had still strength enough to wield his sabre with such effect, that he brought a third dead to the ground. 299 monwealth, while others, who finally carried the day, advocated the reorganization of the existing State. Accordingly a Declaration of Grievances and an ordinance of reorganization having been reported by Mr. Carlile, the chairman of the "Committee on Business," they were submitted to the approval of the Convention. These were adopted by a vote of seventy in favor and three against, not, however, until the opinion. of the members was tested on the question of forming a new State. A member offered the resolution, "that one of the leading objects of the Convention, after establishing a provisional government, is the separation of Western from Eastern Virginia." upon This, however, on His comrades, however, were now forced to bear back their exhausted leader and halt. They had thus remained about an honr, when the fugitives of the enemy returned with a reinforcement of seventy-five men. Coming suddenly up, they forced the Indiana men to abandon their horses and seek safety by crossing Paterson Creek and landing upon a small island at its mouth. Here they were being closed in by the larger numbers of the enemy, and again compelled to fly, but not until they had fired their assailants with such effect, that twenty-three of them were made to bite the dust. The Zouaves finally reached their camp with the loss of only one man, who had been left behind wounded, and whom the enemy despatched, after his capture, with their bayonets. Major-General Patterson honored the spirited exploit of the Indiana men with a special mention in the orders of the day. For a proper appreciation of the military events in Western Virginia, it is necessary to resume the history of the political action of the Union men of that loyal district. The Convention which had adjourned to meet at Wheeling now reassembled. At the opening of June the session a discussion arose as to 11. the policy to be pursued by Western Virginia. Some favored a separation and the formation of a new com a motion to lay it on the table, which was carried by a vote of fifty-seven to seventeen, was temporarily defeated. The Declaration of Grievances, and the ordinance for the Reorganization of the State Government, having thus been carried by a large majority, was formally signed by all the members present. June On the same day, the Convention, in 20. conformity with this act, proceeded to the election of provisional State officers. Frank H. Pierpont, of Marion County, was unanimously chosen Governor, Daniel Paisly, of Marion County, Lieutenant-Governor, and Messieurs Lamb, Paxhon, Van Winkle, Harrison, and Lazar members of the council. These gentlemen, immediately upon being elected, were sworn into office, each taking this newly prescribed form of oath: "I solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the laws made in pursuance thereof, as the supreme law of the land, anything in the Constitution and laws of the State of Virginia, or in the ordinances of the Convention which assembled in Richmond on the 13th day of February last, to the contrary notwithstanding, and that I will uphold and defend the Government of Virginia as vindicated and restored by the Convention which assembled in Wheeling on the 11th day of June, 1861." The Convention, after this momentous action, closed their session with passing ordinances adopting the former military laws of Virginia and recognizing the duty of the State to respond to the requisition of the President of the United States for militia and volunteers. The new Governor soon after issued June a proclamation causing the General 22. Assembly to be composed of delegates to be elected as provided by the Convention of June 11th in its ordinance for the State Government. These delegates were accordingly chosen, and July assembled at Wheeling, when Gov1. ernor Pierpont delivered his first "TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF DELEGATES OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA-Gentlemen: You have been convened in extraordinary session in midsummer, when, under other circumstances, you should be at home attending to pursuits incident to this season of the year. The exigencies with which we find ourselves surrounded demand your counsels. "I regret that I cannot congratulate you on the peace and prosperity of the country, in the manner which has been customary with Executives, both State and Federal. For the present, those happy days which, as a nation, we have so long enjoyed, and that prosperity which has smiled upon us, as upon no other nation, are departed. Following this independent action of Western Virginia, the new Governor became anxious about the safety of the commonwealth from "the banding together of large numbers of evil-minded persons, aided by men of like mind from other States, whose purpose was to invade the State," and confessing his want of a sufficient military force, to overcome them, earnestly called upon the President of the United States for assistance. The secretary of war responded in behalf of the Federal chief magistrate, that a large additional force would be soon sent to the relief of the new Governor of Virginia, and at the same time. took occasion to apologize for the apparent remissness hitherto of the Federal authority: "The full extent," wrote Secretary Cameron, "of the conspiracy against popular rights, which has culminated in the atrocities to which you refer, was not known when its outbreak took place at Charleston. It now appears that it was matured for many years by secret organizations throughout the country, especially in the slave States. By this means, when the President called upon Virginia, in April, for "It is my painful duty to announce that the late Executive of the State, with a large part of the State officers, civil and military, under him, are at war with the loyal people of Virginia and the Constitutional Government of the United States. They have leagued themselves with persons from other States to tear down the benign Governments, State and Federal, erected by the wisdom and patriotism of our fathers, and under which our liberties have so long been protected and our prosperity secured. They have instituted civil war in our midst, and created a system of terror around us to intimidate our people. "But while we are passing through this period of gloom and darkness in our country's history, we must not de GOVERNOR PIERPONT'S MESSAGE. its quota of troops, then deemed necessary to put it down in the States in which it spair, or fold our hands until the chains of despotism shall be fastened upon us by those conspiring against our liberties. As freemen, who know their rights and dare defend them, our spirits must rise above the intimidation and violence employed against us; and we must meet and conquer every obstacle these men are attempting to interpose between us and our liberties. If we manfully exert ourselves we shall succeed. There is a just God who "rides upon the whirlwind and directs the storm." Let us look to him with abiding confidence. "The fact is no longer disguised, that there has been in the South, for many years, a secret organization, laboring with steady perseverance to overturn the Federal Government, and destroy constitutional liberty in this country. The various conventions held in that portion of the country, for some years past, ostensibly for other objects, have only been the means of feeling the public pulse to ascertain if there was sufficient disease in the body politic for dissolution. The cry of danger to the institution of slavery has been a mere pretext to arouse and excite the people. In abandoning the Constitution of the Union, the leaders of the movement must have known that they were greatly weakening the safeguards and protection which were necessary to the existence of that institution. "It has been urged that secession was necessary to protect the slave interest of the South. As a usual thing, those who are interested in a species of property, are the best informed in regard to their own rights, and the most tenacious in maintaining them. Secession has not originated among the large slaveholders of the South, nor has it found among that class its busiest and most ardent advocates. The sections of the country in which the largest slave interests have existed in this State, have heretofore been the most decided in support of the Union. The votes given at the last November and February elections in Eastern and Western Virginia, will show that the slaveholders themselves considered the safety of their property as dependent upon the maintenance of the Union. Another pertinent fact may be mentioned in this connection. It is, that in sections where slaves are numerous, it is always much easier to introduce a mob-law and intimidation to control the votes of the people. The constant apprehension of servile insurrection makes the matter an easy subject of control in a crisis like the present. Eastern and Western Virginia are illustrations of the truth of this statement. "What affiliations this great conspiracy has had in the Northern States, remains yet unknown. The spirit which has been roused throughout the North has carried all opposition before it. But the extent of the treasonable plot has not been fully developed. Before the designs of the conspirators were made manifest, thousands of good men sympathized with the effort, as they regarded it, of the South to maintain their constitutional rights; but these have all 301 had shown itself in arms, the call was responded to by an order from the chief abandoned them when the true purpose was ascertained. If there are any in the North, or in the border States, who still adhere to the conspiracy, they will attempt to aid its object by indirect means; by opposing and caviling at the efforts to which the Government, in a struggle for existence, may use in its own defence, and by attempting to raise a popular outcry against coercion, and advocating a peaceable separation. A bold stand for secession would scarcely be attempted; but those who sympathize with the leaders of rebellion will seek by covert and indirect means to aid the object of the conspirators. "There is only one question now for each American citizen to decide in this controversy: Do you desire to stand by and live under the Constitution which has contributed so long and so greatly to the happiness and prosperity of the people, and to transmit its blessings to our posterity? Or, do you desire the Union broken up, and an oligarchy or military despotism established in its stead? The leaders of the South are striving for the latter. The Government of the United States is exerting its whole force to maintain the integrity of the former. There can be no neutral ground. The secession leaders have declared that they desire no compromise, except the unconditional surrender to them of the objects they have been aiming to accomplish, and the consent of the Government to its own destruction. The very proposition of compromise places a false issue before the country. It implies that the Federal Government has committed some great wrong which ought to be remedied before peace can be restored; when in fact the leaders in the South have controlled the legislation of the country for years, and the laws now in existence were made or suggested by themselves when in power. "The position of this State is a peculiar one at this moment. Last November, at the Presidential election, it gave upward of sixteen thousand majority for Bell and Douglas, both Union candidates for the Presidency. Their principal competitor was loudly proclaimed as also true to the Union; and throughout the canvass any imputation of favoring disunion was indignantly denied by the advocates of all the candidates. At the election for members of the Convention in February last, there was a majority of over sixty thousand votes given to the Union candidates; and the people by an equal majority determined that no act of that Convention should change the relations of the State to the Federal Government, unless ratified by the popular vote. Yet the delegates to that Convention passed the ordinance of secession, and attached the State to the Southern league, called the Confederate States; and to render the step irretrievable, and defeat the whole object of requiring a ratification of the people to render such acts valid, they put them into effect immediately; and before the vote could be taken on the question of ratification, transferred the whole military force of our State to |