90

BATTLE OF PIKETON, KENTUCKY.

portion of Kentucky, between about three thousand loyalists, under General William Nelson, and a little more than a thousand insurgents, under Colonel

1861.

John S. Williams. The latter were at Piketon, the capital of Pike County, and were marched against by General Nelson's force from Prestonburg, on the Big Sandy November, River. He sent" Colonel Sill, with nearly one-half of that force,' to march by way of John's Creek to gain the rear of Williams at Piketon, whilst with the remainder he should move forward and attack his front, so bringing him between two fires, and compelling him to surrender. Some one, counting positively on success, telegraphed to Washington that this result had been accomplished, and that a thousand prisoners had surrendered. The whole country was thrilled by the good news, for it seemed as if a way was about to be opened for the relief and the arming of the suffering loyalists in East Tennessee.

WILLIAM NELSON.

Truth soon told a different story. Nelson had moved on the 9th with his main column' directly toward Pikeville, twenty-eight miles distant, a battalion of Kentucky volunteers, under Colonel C. A. Marshall, in advance. They met picket-guards eight miles from that village. The road now lay along a narrow shelf cut in a high mountain side, ending in a steep ridge at Ivy Creek, which bent around it. There lay the Confederates in ambush, and did not fire until Marshall's battalion was close upon them. Then a volley was poured upon his men, and a sharp skirmish ensued. Confederates on the opposite side of the creek joined in the attack; but, after a contest of almost an hour and a half, all the insurgents fled, leaving thirty of their comrades dead on the field. How much greater was their loss was not ascertained. Nelson's loss was six killed and twenty-four wounded. He did not pursue far, and, as he had no cavalry, Williams escaped. The latter was too watchful and discreet to be caught in the trap laid for him by Nelson. Seeing his danger, he fled to the fastnesses of the mountains at Pound Gap, carrying with him a large amount of cattle and other spoils.

General Nelson entered Pikeville on the 10th, where he found Colonel Sill and his division, who, after fighting on the way, had arrived the previous evening, and given Williams's troops a few shot and shell when they departed. On the same day Nelson had the pleasure of saying to his troops, in an order issued from "Camp Hopeless Chase," that "In a campaign of twenty days,

1 Sill's troops for this occasion were the Thirty-third Ohio (his own regiment), a light battalion, under Major Hart, composed of portions of the Second, Thirty-third, and Fifty-ninth Ohio, and two Kentucky companies; one hundred and forty-two mounted men, mostly teamsters, commanded by Colonel Metcalf; thirty-six volunteers, under Colonel Apperson, and a section of artillery (two rifled 6-pounders), under Colonel Roher Vacher.

2 This was composed of the greater portions of the Second. Twenty-first, and Fifty-ninth Ohio Volunteers, under Colonels Harris. Norton, and Tyffe: a battalion of Kentucky volunteers, commanded by Colonel C. A. Marshall, and two sections of artillery, in charge of Captain Konkle.

RESULTS OF A FALSE ALARM.

91

you have driven the rebels from Eastern Kentucky, and given repose to that portion of the State." He alluded to their privations, and then said: "For your constancy and courage, I thank you, and, with the qualities which you have shown that you possess, I expect great things from you in the future." The East Tennessee patriots were compelled to wait and suffer longer. Bright hopes had been excited among them by the repulse of Zollicoffer at Camp Wild-Cat; and many from the great valley between the Allegheny and Cumberland ranges, had made their way to the camps of the Unionists in Kentucky, fully persuaded that they would soon return with a victorious host as liberators of East Tennessee. It might have been so, had not General Schoepf been deceived by false reports concerning the strength of the insurgents at the mountain gaps, and the movements of others who were occupying Bowling Green, in the heart of Kentucky, under General Buckner, and who at that time were too weak to make any aggressions. Startled by a report that a large force from Bowling Green was marching to strike his flank, Schoepf fell back hastily toward the Ohio, making two days' forced marches, and leaving behind him and along the road ample evidence of a precipitate and rather disastrous flight. Not a platoon of soldiers had gone out from Buckner's camp in that direction. That retrograde movement of Schoepf extinguished the hope of speedy relief in the hearts of the East Tennesseans.

Now, at the middle of November, the Confederates had obtained a firm foothold in Tennessee, and occupied a considerable portion of Southern Kentucky, from the mountains to the Mississippi River; also a greater portion of Missouri south of the Missouri River. At the same time the National authorities were making vigorous preparations to drive them southward. At this interesting point, let us leave the consideration of events westward of the Alleghenies for a time, and glance at stirring scenes eastward of that lofty range of mountains, and on the sea-coast.

92

CONFEDERATE TROOPS IN WESTERN VIRGINIA.

CHAPTER IV.

MILITARY OPERATIONS IN WESTERN VIRGINIA, AND ON THE SEA-COAST

He

N the autumn of 1861, the Confederates made a severe struggle for the possession of West Virginia. They hoped, by the employment of other commanders than those who had failed there, to recover all that had been lost in the summer by the dispersion of Garnett's forces at Carricksford,' and the pushing of the incompetent Wise out of the Kanawha Valley, as we have observed.' General Robert E. Lee was sent with re-enforcements to take command of the troops left by Garnett and Pegram in Northern Virginia. He made his head-quarters at Huntersville, in Pocahontas County. His entire force, early in August, numbered full sixteen thousand men. placed a strong guard on Buffalo Mountain, at the crossing of the Staunton turnpike, and extended his line northward from the Warm Springs, in Greenbrier County. General Floyd, the late Secretary of War,3 had, in the mean time, taken chief command of his own and Wise's troops, in the region of the Gauley River. With these two armies acting simultaneously, it was intended to expel the National troops from Western Virginia, and menace Ohio. Floyd was to sweep down the Kanawha Valley, and drive General Cox, of Ohio, beyond the border, while Lee should scatter the Union army, under General Rosecrans (McClellan's successor), in Northern Virginia, and, planting the Confederate flag at Wheeling, threaten Western Pennsylvania.

Floyd took a strong position between Cox and Rosecrans, at Carnifex Ferry, on the Gauley River, just below Meadow Creek, and eight miles from Summersville, the capital of Nicholas County. He left Wise with his force, called "Wise's Legion," at Pickett's Mills, to prevent a flank movement from Hawksnest, a mountain on the southern side of the Gauley, near which, on

1 See page 584, volume I.

2 See page 537, volume I.

3 See page 145, volume I.

+ Wise was so great a boaster, and so poor a performer, that his signal failures as a military leader on all occasions caused him to be much ridiculed. The following is a specimen of some of the shafts of wit that were cast at him through the newspapers of the day

"There was a man of Accomac,

And he was bully Wise;

He jumped into Kanawha's bush,
And scratched out both his eyes;
And, when he saw he lost his eyes,
With all his might and main,
From Kanawha he quickly flies,
To brag, and-run again."

See page 537, volume I.

Carnifex is a Latin word, signifying a villain, or villainous.

EVENTS IN THE KANAWHA VALLEY.

93

the New River, Cox's main force was then stationed. Floyd had just settled his command at Carnifex Ferry, when he received intelligence that some National troops were approaching from the direction of Summersville, north of him. These were the Seventh Ohio, under Colonel E. B. Tyler, who, as. a fur-trader, had made himself well acquainted with that region. Floyd had been placed in a perilous position in passing over the Gauley, by the capsizing of a ferry-boat. His command was severed; most of his cavalry and four pieces of artillery being on the southern side of the river, whilst his infantry and a small portion of his cavalry were on the opposite shore. Tyler had information of this affair, and hoped to strike Floyd before he could reunite his troops. But he was a little too late. He was encamped at Cross Lanes, not far from Summersville, on the night of the 25th of August, and, while at breakfast the next morning," his command was surprised by a force of Virginians sent out stealthily by Floyd, severely handled, and dispersed with the loss of about fifty men.

a Aug. 26, 1861.

General Rosecrans, soon after this defeat of Tyler, marched to the aid of Cox against Floyd. He issued a stirring proclamation to the loyal inhabitants of Western Virginia, and promised them ample protection. General Cox, of Ohio, in the mean time, had advanced from Charleston to the site of Gauley bridge, which Wise, in his hasty flight, had burnt; and, at the junction of New River with the Gauley,' he had reported to Governor Pierpont, on the 29th of July, that the Kanawha Valley was "free from the Secession troops," and that the inhabitants were denouncing Wise "for his vandalism." He had moved up the Kanawha, by land and water, having under his control a number of steamboats. His whole force proceeded cautiously, for masked batteries were

dreaded. His scouting parties were very active. One of these, under Colonel Guthrie, composed of the First Kentucky cavalry, routed a Confederate troop at Cissonville. Others were driven from their camps, and as Cox moved steadily onward, Wise, as we have observed, becoming alarmed, abandoned his strong intrenchments at Charleston, and fled up the river, burning the bridges over the streams in his rear. When approaching the abandoned town, Cox captured a Confederate steamer, and on the 25th of July he entered the

JOSEPH J. REYNOLDS.

village, just after the Confederate rear-guard had left. He found the fine suspension bridge over the Elk River in ruins, and Wise beyond his reach; so he fortified his position there, and, with some of his troops, followed his fugitive foe as far as the confluence of the New and Gauley Rivers, and took position, as we have observed, in the region between them.

1 New River rises among the spurs of the Blue Ridge, in North Carolina, and, uniting with the Gauley, forms the Great Kanawha.

2 See page 587, volume I.

94.

MARCH OF ROSECRANS TOWARD THE KANAWHA.

General Rosecrans had organized a strong column of nearly ten thousand men at Clarksburg, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railway; and early in September he marched southward, with several of his best Western regiments, to attack Floyd, wherever he might be found, leaving the remainder of his force under General Reynolds, who was in command of the Cheat Mountain division, to watch and oppose Lee. He soon ascertained that Floyd was at or near Carnifex Ferry, and he pushed forward in that direction, through Lewis, Braxton, and Nicholas Counties, by way of Weston, Jacksonville, and Braxton Court House, to Summersville. His route lay along some of the

wildest of the mountain roads, over the western spurs of the Alleghenies, and among the most charming and picturesque scenery of Western Virginia. Sometimes his troops thridded deep and gloomy ravines, and narrow defiles, and then climbed the steepest hillsides; at times along slippery winding paths, among beetling crags, catching here and there, at some sharp angle, glimpses of distant mountain groups, and fertile valleys covered with corn. Especially rugged was the Gauley mountain range, over which the army climbed, after leaving Suttonsville, on the Elk, and the valley of its tributary, the Big Birch Creek.

Sept., 1861.

1

On

Rosecrans reached the summit of the mountain at noon, on the 9th," when a magnificent panorama of lofty wooded ranges met the eye. that height, near Muddlethy Bottom, they began to feel the foe. He had an advanced camp in the vicinity, and there picket-firing commenced. Union cavalry dashed forward, and Floyd's vedettes were soon seen scampering toward Summersville, with information of the approach of the National troops. The latter passed through that town with General Benham's brigade in the advance, on the morning of the 10th, a few hours after the Thirty-sixth Virginia had left it and fled to Floyd's intrenchments at the Ferry.

The little army moved cautiously forward from Summersville, properly

1 The ascent of one of these steep mountain pathways by a portion of the Twelfth Ohio Regiment was described by an eyewitness as presenting a singularly picturesque appearance. This was accomplished a short time before the march of the army now under consideration, when those troops were making their way over the mountains south of the Gauley, to reconnoiter Floyd's position. A part of the ascent was made at night, in the light of torches. The troops were compelled to go in single file, sometimes crawling on their hands and knees and at midnight they reached the summit. The sketch given in the text is from the pencil of one who accompanied the army.