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appointed time the whole garrison would have been captured. As it was, however, his loss was trifling, although he was obliged to abandon the greater portion of his baggage and equipments in his precipitate retreat beyond the mountains.

This dispersion of the only organized force of secessionists in the State west of the Alleghanies was very disheartening to the Virginia military authorities, and means were sought to regain their prestige in this region. To accomplish this, two columns were organized, one, under General H. A. Wise, to operate on the Kanawha line, and the other, under General R. S. Garnett, on the Cheat River line, the orders for which were issued June 6th and 8th, respectively. At this latter date Governor Letcher had, by proclamation, transferred the Virginia forces to the Confederate authorities, and some little delay necessarily occurred before the troops could be assembled and equipped for these two expeditions. Although the Virginia convention. had passed in secret session the ordinance of secession, April 17th, it was not until June 25th that the result of the popular vote on the question of its ratification. was announced. General Robert E. Lee, who had been appointed to command the military forces of the State immediately after he had resigned from the United States Army, April 20th, still retained general charge of affairs in West Virginia after the State forces had been transferred to the Confederacy, and he was especially anxious to strengthen Garnett to enable him to gain possession of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at the Cheat River Bridge, the rupture of which at that point, as he expressed it, "would be worth to us an army."

The theater of operations of Garnett's column, with which this campaign is alone concerned, was the western flank of the broken and difficult country formed by the series of parallel ridges of the Alleghanies that separate West Virginia from the Shenandoah Valley just south of the Potomac River. Many mountain streams, tributary to the Monongahela, flowing in a

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general northerly direction through the intervening valleys, add to the difficulties of the terrain and necessitate the construction of many substantial bridges for crossing the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad over them. The principal of these streams are the Tygart Valley and Cheat Rivers; the former, passing by Beverly, breaks through the gap separating Rich and Laurel Mountains, flows thence on to Philippi and Grafton, while the latter, flowing through the valley east of Cheat Mountain, crosses the railroad near Rowlesburg. The possession of the railroad at Cheat River and the destruction of this bridge were among the principal objects of Garnett's expedition.

The main avenue of communication between northwestern Virginia and Staunton in the Shenandoah Valley was the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike, which, leaving Staunton, passes through Monterey, over Cheat Mountain to Huttonsville, and thence to Beverly; here the road forks, the Parkersburg branch crossing by a gap in Rich Mountain to Buckhannon and thence to the Ohio, while the Grafton branch turns the southern extremity of Laurel Hill near Leadsville and follows the valley of the Tygart River.

These two gaps at Laurel Hill and Rich Mountain were therefore the gates through which communication could be had between the east and the west, and to secure them to his possession Garnett strongly defended them by intrenchments, abatis, and wood slashings, while he was gathering his forces together in anticipation of a forward movement.

McClellan had all along believed that the true line of operations in West Virginia was by the line of the Kanawha River, having for his objective the Virginia and East Tennessee Railroad, whose possession would enable him to strengthen the loyalists of the mountainous region of the three nearby States, and at the same time threaten the left flank of the Confederate forces gathering at Manassas. But the concentration of Garnett's force at Beverly compelled him to abandon for the present the Kanawha plan, and to direct his atten

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tion to the frustration of the enemy's design against the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He had been detained at his headquarters at Cincinnati until the 21st of June attending to the multifarious duties of his extensive department, and to the reorganization of the volunteers into three years' regiments under the second call of the President. Reaching Parkersburg on the 22d, he hastened his troops forward in every possible way, and the next day proceeded to Grafton, where he made a study of the situation and formulated the general plan of his intended campaign. This he communicated to the War Department on the 23d; in general outline, it was briefly as follows: To secure his left flank on the Cheat River line first, then to move with the remainder of his available force from Clarksburg on Buckhannon, then on Beverly, to turn entirely the detachment at the Laurel Mountain. The troops at Philippi will advance in time to follow up the retreat of the rebels in their front. After occupying Beverly I shall move on Huttonsville and endeavor to drive them into the mountains, whither I do not propose to follow them, unless under such circumstances as to make success certain. Having driven out the mass of their troops, and having occupied the pass by which they might return, I propose moving small columns through the country to reassure the Union men and break up any scattered parties of armed rebels. As soon as practicable, I intend to clean out the valley of the Kanawha."

To carry on his campaign, McClellan had collected twenty-seven regiments of infantry, four batteries of artillery of six guns each, two troops of cavalry, and a company of rifles, or, in all, a force of about twenty thousand men. This force was divided into three commands: one, of about five thousand men, under General C. W. Hill, was assigned to guard the Cheat River line and the railroad west from Grafton; another, of about the same strength, under General Morris, formed a strong brigade at Philippi, intended to be sent on the road to Leadsville to hold the enemy in check at Laurel

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