THE CHOICE DISPLAYED. 341 Ohio to be dyed in blood-if she wishes her harvest-fields, now waving in their abundance, to be trampled beneath the case :-"Strictly and legally speaking, Kentucky must go out of the Union before she can be neutral. Within it she is necessarily either faithful to the gov-feet of hostile soldiery, as a flower-garernment of the United States or she is den is trampled beneath the threshings disloyal to it." But more powerful than of the tempest-if she wishes the homes any cold, legal argument, however con- where her loved ones are now gathered clusive, was his appeal to the generous in peace, invaded by the proscriptive sensibilities of the people. fury of a military despotism, sparing neither life nor property-if she wishes the streets of her towns and cities grown with grass, and the steamboats of her rivers to lie rotting at her wharves, then let her join the Southern Confederacy; but if she would have the bright waters of that river flow on in their gladnessif she would have her harvests peacefully gathered in her garners-if she would have the lullabies of her cradles and the songs of her homes uninvaded by the cries and terrors of battle-if she would have the streets of her towns and cities again filled with the hum and throngs of busy trade, and her rivers and her shores once more vocal with the steamer's whistle, the anthem of a free and prosperous commerce, then let her stand fast by the Stars and Stripes, and do her duty and her whole duty as a member of this Union. Let her brave people say to the President of the United States, 'You are our Chief Magistrate; the Government you have in charge, and are striving to save from dishonor and dismemberment, is our Government; your cause is indeed our cause; your battles are our battles ; make room for us, therefore, in the ranks of your armies, that your triumph may be our triumph also.' Even as with the Father of us all I would plead for salvation, so my countrymen, as upon my knees, would I plead with you for the life, aye for the life, of our great and beneficent institutions. But if the traitor's "Within the last few weeks," said he, "how many of those gallant volunteers who have left home and kindred and all that is dear to them, and are now under a Southern sun, exposing themselves to death from disease and to death from battle, and are accounting their lives as nothing in the effort they are making for the deliverance of your government and theirs; how many of them have said to me in sadness and in longing, 'Will not Kentucky help me?' How my soul would have leaped could I have answered promptly, confidently, exultingly, 'Yes, she will.' But when I thought of this neutrality my heart sank within me, and I did not and I could not look those brave men in the face. And yet I could not answer, 'No.' I could not crush myself to the earth under the selfabasement of such a reply. I therefore said-and may my country sustain me'I hope, I trust, I pray, nay, I believe Kentucky will yet do her duty.' If this Government is to be destroyed, ask yourselves, are you willing it should be recorded in history that Kentucky stood by in the greatness of her strength and lifted not a hand to stay the catastrophe? If it is to be saved, as I verily believe it is, are you willing that it shall be written that, in the immeasurable glory which must attend the achievement, Kentucky had no part? I will only add, if Kentucky wishes the waters of her beautiful knife, now at the throat of the Republic, God is, that it may be written in history, Address of the Hon. Joseph Holt to the People of CHAPTER XXIII. GENERAL MCCLELLAN IN WESTERN VIRGINIA. gaged in the defence of the common Government of all. Individuals and marauding parties are pursuing a guerrilla warfare, firing upon sentinels and pickets, burning bridges, insulting and even killing citizens because of their Union sentiments, and committing many kindred acts. I do now, therefore, make proclamation, and warn all persous that individuals or parties engaged in this species of warfare, irregular in every view that can be taken of it, thus attacking sentries, pickets, or other soldiers, destroying public or private property, or committing injuries against any of the inhabitants because of Union sentiments or conduct, will be dealt with in their persons and property according to the severest rules of military law. All persons giving information or aid to the public enemies will be arrested and kept in close custody; and all persons found bearing arms, unless of known loyalty, will be arrested and held for examination." ON the 23d of June, Major-General | when directed against loyal citizens enMcClellan, from the headquarters of his department of the Ohio, at Grafton, Virginia, issued a second proclamation "To the Inhabitants of Western Virginia," in which he took occasion to denounce various barbarities of the war on the part of the rebels, of which much had been heard from the banks of the Potomac. "The army of this department," said he, “headed by Virginia troops, is rapidly occupying all Western Virginia. This is done in coöperation with, and in support of such civil authorities of the State as are faithful to the Constitution and laws of the United States. The proclamation issued by me, under date of May 26th, 1861, will be strictly maintained. Your houses, families, property and all your rights will be religiously respected. We are enemies to none but armed rebels and those voluntarily giving them aid. All officers of this army will be held responsible for the most prompt and vigorous action in repressing disorder and punishing aggression by those under their command. To my great regret, I find that the enemies of the United States continue to carry on a system of hostilities prohibited by the laws of war among belligerent nations, and of course far more wicked and intolerable In a further address "To the Soldiers of the Army of the West," he reminded them of the delicate nature of the service in which they were engaged, and of the high principles of courage and forbearance which should govern them in their mission to preserve and not to de MCCLELLAN'S PROCLAMATION. 343 battle. You will pursue a different course; you will be honest, brave and merciful; you will respect the right of private opinion; you will punish no man for opinion's sake. Show to the world that you differ from our enemies in these points of honor, honesty and respect for private opinion, and that we inaugurate no reign of terror wherever we go. Soldiers, I have heard that there was danger here. I have come to place myself at your head and share it with you. I fear now but one thing, that you will not find foemen worthy of your steel. I know that I can rely upon you." stroy. "You are here," said he, "to support the Government of your country, and to protect the lives and liberties of your brethren, threatened by a rebellious and traitorous foe. No higher or nobler duty could devolve on you, and I expect you to bring to its performance the highest and noblest qualities of soldiers' discipline, courage and mercy. I call upon the officers of every grade to enforce the highest discipline, and I know that those of all grades, privates and officers, will display in battle cool, heroic courage, and will know how to show mercy to a disarmed enemy. Bear in mind that you are in the country of The soldiers to whom this language friends, not of enemies that you are was addressed, were soon to have an here to protect, not to destroy. Take opportunity to practice its precepts and nothing, destroy nothing, unless you are test its predictions in face of the enemy ordered to do so by your general officers. We have seen the insurgents routed at Remember that I have pledged my word Philippi, with the hope that Western to the people of Western Virginia that Virginia would be left free from invatheir rights in person and property shall sion. The expectation, however, was be respected. I ask every one of you to premature, while the force, of which that make good this promise in its broadest of Philippi was but a detachment, was sense. We have come here to save, not gathering in the central region above. to upturn. I do not appeal to the fear The headquarters of this division of the of punishment, but to your appreciation Confederate army were in Randolph of the sacredness of the cause in which county, at Beverly, a town situated at we are engaged. Carry into battle the the entrance of a valley, bounded by conviction that you are right and that two parallel outlying ridges of the AlleGod is on our side. Your enemies have ghanies, through which a road ran comviolated every moral law; neither God municating with Eastern Virginia on the nor man can sustain them. They North, by way of St. George and West have, without cause, rebelled against a Union, in the neighborhood of the Baltimild and paternal Government; they more and Ohio Railway, and on the have seized upon public and private southeast by the nearer Cheat Mountain property; they have outraged the per- Pass, leading by a circuitous route tosons of Northern men, merely because ward Staunton. From the west and they came from the North, and of South-northwest, where McClellan's Union ern Union men merely because they troops were collected, the immediate aploved the Union; they have placed proaches were by two converging roads themselves beneath contempt unless they from Buckhannon and Philippi. The can retrieve some honor on the field of Confederate force was some ten or twelve thousand in number, consisting of Virginia volunteers, with the addition of several regiments from the South, including Mississippians and Georgians, the whole under the command of General Robert S. Garnett, a native of Virginia, who had been educated at West Point, seen honorable service in Mexico, and attained the rank of Major in the United States army. On the breaking out of the rebellion he had abandoned the national service and accepted his present position with the Confederates. His camp, embracing a force of from five to six thousand men, was established at Laurel Hill or mountain, on its northwestern declivity. It was about fifteen miles north of Beverly and the same distance from Philippi, where three or four thousand of the Union troops were still kept in advance, under the command of Captain Benham. In the immediate vicinity, on the west, Beverly was protected by the line of the Rich Mountain, the road from Buckhannon passing in a hollow between two of its elevations. This defile was held by Colonel Pegram, a native of Virginia, late of the United States service, with a force of about 2,000 insurgents, who were strongly intrenched on both sides of the road. To defeat and capture the enemy in these strongholds, General McClellan sent forward a column of nearly 4,000 men, under General Morris, from Philippi to Bealington, to prevent the escape of the enemy to the northward at Laurel Hill, while he himself advanced from Clarksburg, by way of Buckhannon, from the west, to attack the enemy's left at Rich Mountain, and take General Garnett in the rear, between Beverly and Laurel Mountain. The command of General McClellan numbered about 10,000. On his arrival at Buckhannon, on the 1st of July, some skirmishing ensued by commands sent to break up parties of insurgents in the vicinity. From the 8th to the 12th, there were frequent encounters, with a loss of several killed each day on either side, between a portion of the Ohio and Indiana regiments of Morris' command, assisted by Colonel Barrett's Ohio battery, stationed at Bealington, and the Georgian regiment with Garnett at Laurel Hill, in which the advantage was with the former. On the 11th of July, General McClellan, making his way toward Beverly, was encamped with his forces a short distance to the west of Rich Mountain, in front of the rebel intrenchments on the road. So well was the enemy's position defended by art and natural advantages, that a simple direct attack was considered impracticable without the certainty of great loss. To lighten the risk or sacrifice, it was determined by General McClellan that, coöperating with the assault in front, an attack should be made by a circuitous movement around and over the mountain. This was entrusted to Colonel William Starke Rosecrans, a young officer formerly of the regular army, who had passed from West Point to the discharge of the most important services entrusted to the engineer corps in the superintendence of the construction of public works and fortifications, and who had of late been engaged in civil life in pursuits to which he was drawn by his scientific studies and accomplishments. The rebellion had found him in Cincinnati, where he returned to the service, at first with the appointment of Colonel of Volunteers, and afterwards of Brigadier - General of the army. Colonel Rosecrans was now placed in command |