ginia. Your mission is to restore peace and confidence, to protect the majesty of the law and to rescue our brethren from the grasp of armed traitors. You are to act in concert with the Virginia troops and to support their advance. "I place under the safeguard of your honor the persons and property of the Virginians. I know that you will respect their feelings, and all their rights. Preserve the strictest discipline-remember that each one of you holds in his keeping the honor of Ohio and the Union. "If you are called upon to overcome armed opposition, I know that your courage is equal to the task, but remember that your only foes are the armed traitors, and show mercy even to them when they are in your power, for many of them are misguided. When under your protection the loyal men of Western Virginia have been enabled to organize and arm, they can protect themselves, and you can then return to your homes with the proud satisfaction of having preserved a gallant people from destruction. "GEO. B. MCCLELLAN, The 16th Ohio Regiment, commanded by Colonel Irvine, and the 14th, May under Colonel Lander, a noted 27. frontiersman, were on the next day after these proclamations thrown across the Ohio into Western Virginia. The former crossing the Ohio to Wheeling, and the latter at Marietta to Parkersburg, continued their progress through Western Virginia by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Their advance was hailed by the people with great enthusiasm and demonstrations of loyalty, and many volunteers joined their standard. The campaign in Western Virginia had now fairly opened. Junction of the Ohio Troops with the Western Virginians.-Colonel Kelley takes possession of Grafton.-March to Philippi.-A severe march.-Delay.-Colonel Lander in advance.--Colonel Kelley mistakes the route.---The Enemy on the alert.-The Attack.-Retreat of the Enemy.-Pursuit.-Arrival of Kelley, who joins in the pursuit.-Kelley wounded.-Prospects of death.-Biography of Kelley.-Tributes of admiration.-Recovery of Kelley.-Comparative losses at Philippi.-Trophies.-Movement of General Patterson.-Attack on Romney.-March of Colonel Wallace. -A long and hard March.-Flight of the Enemy.-Good moral effect of the advance of the Federal Forces.Spirited Skirmish of Corporal Hayes and his thirteen men.-Tribute from General Patterson.-The political action of the Union men of Western Virginia.-Convention at Wheeling.-Declaration of Grievances and Ordinance of Reorganization passed.—The motion to form a new State defeated.-New State Officers appointed.—Proclamation of Governor Pierpont.-Call upon the President for aid to put down the Insurrection in Virginia.-Answer of the Secretary of War.-Counter-manifesto of Governor Letcher.-Appeal of the Secessionist Governor to Western Virginia.—Effects of proclamations and counter-proclamations.—Increased civil rage in Virginia. 1861. THE Ohio troops despatched by Gen- | Regiment, part of the Ohio Sixteenth eral McClellan, though delayed on and the Indiana Seventh, under the the railway in consequence of the command of Colonel Kelley; the other, derangement of the tracks and the de- of the Indiana Regiment and the Ohio struction of the bridges by the enemy, Fourteenth, which joined at Webster on finally succeeded in forming a junction the route, commanded by Colonel Lanwith the Western Virginians. Colonel der. The former division proceeded by Kelley, who commanded the latter, railroad as far as a small way station, had with great promptitude marched five miles only from Grafton, and May upon Grafton. Upon reaching this marched the rest of the distance, twenty29. place, the enemy, about fifteen two miles, to Philippi. The latter was hundred strong, retired, and the West- conveyed by railroad as far as Webster, ern Virginians took possession of it, and marched the remaining twelve miles without striking a blow. Being now to Philippi. reinforced, not only by the Ohio troops, but by the Seventh and Ninth regiments of Indiana, Kelley determined to dislodge the enemy at Philippi, on the Monongahela River, twenty miles south of Grafton, where they were encamped with a force of two thousand men. The Union force at Grafton set out at June ten o'clock, in two divisions, one 2. composed of the First Virginia The march was performed during the night, with the view of coming upon the enemy before the break of day, and taking them by surprise. A severe storm was raging, and the night was so dark that it was exceedingly difficult to form the troops-the violence of the wind was such, that the word of command could hardly be passed from front to rear. Order was, however, finally established, and the troops began their march. All night they toiled on through the darkness and storm, the soft earth yielding beneath their feet at every step. Thus impeded, the whole force was prevented from arriving at the time proposed. The division under Colonel Lander, having the shortest distance to march, was the first to reach its destination, June but did not arrive until five o'clock 3. in the morning, instead of four, the hour when the joint attack was to have taken place, in accordance with the plan. It had been intended that Colonel Lander's march upon the enemy in front should have been simultaneous with a movement in their rear by Colonel Kelley, with a view to completely surround Philippi and close in upon the enemy. But Colonel Kelley, with his long march of twenty-two miles, impeded by the darkness and the storm, was greatly delayed, and, moreover, mistook the road, coming in below instead of above the town, where it was intended he should have cut off the retreat of the enemy. Colonel Lander's force, as it approached Philippi in front, was discovered by a woman, who, after firing two discharges from a gun, sent her son across the hills to apprise the enemy of their danger. Lander continued to push on, but when he reached a point commanding the town, and began to dispose his artillery and troops in order to be ready, when Kelley should arrive, to make the simultaneous attack proposed, he found the enemy on the alert. Their advance guards, posted on the neighboring heights and among the woods and brushwood on both sides of the road, opened a brisk fire. Lander hurriedly ordered his guns to be moved into position, and responded with a volley, while, at the same time, the infantry prepared to advance into the town. "A moment's delay to the infantry," says their commander, Dermot, in his report," was occasioned by want of knowledge on my part as to which of the two roads led to the bridge leading into the town across the river. At the forks of the road I halted my command, and, riding rapidly to the guns, got the desired information from Colonel Lander. So informed, I proceeded on the doublequick down the declivity of the hill, and here had a full view of the enemy, and I must confess that I never saw a flight determined on with greater promptness or executed with more despatch. The enemy was under the command of Col. G. A. Porterfield. What his strength was, is variously estimated. On my own judgment I would say from one thousand five hundred to two thousand, of which I should think five hundred were cavalry. "They had no artillery but a swivel. I have conversed with many of the citizens of the town as to the strength of Colonel Porterfield's command. Some say the Colonel himself professed to have two thousand five hundred troops. It is my opinion that he had but magnified his own strength, with a view to intimidate the people and crush out the Union sentiment. FLIGHT OF THE ENEMY. "When I first saw the enemy, it seemed to me he was pushing for the bridge, which I was rapidly approaching; but it turned out that it was necessary to converge towards the bridge to gain the street leading out of the town on the opposite side from that entered by my command. The bridge is a narrow structure, some three or four hundred feet in length, spanning the Valley River, a branch of the Monongahela. A small body of determined troops could have impeded our progress and crippled us at the bridge, and I apprehended resistance at this point. "Toward it my men poured down the hill, in good order, and with an energy and determination that assured me in advance that victory was certain. In a moment I was at the mouth of the bridge; one of the passages was barricaded, the other clear; through it (Company B, commanded by Captain Morgan, in advance) my men pushed; the Seventh Indiana first, then Colonel Steedman's command, not including the artillery, then Colonel Crittenden's, and opened upon the enemy, then retreating in wild disorder. Both parties being upon the full run, and the distance between them being quite considerable, but little execution could be done. I pursued the enemy from the bridge through the town and for several miles beyond. At one time I thought I should be able to capture his entire baggage train; but the horses, to prevent this, were cut from many of the wagons and mounted, and the wagons and contents left as our booty. The wagons were 295 filled with munitions of war, blankets, knapsacks, clothing, baggage of officers and men, and with a considerable amount of flour and forage." It was not until Colonel Lander's division had thus begun the attack, that Colonel Kelley arrived with his force, and then, in consequence of having mistaken the road, at a point where, instead of cutting off the retreat of the enemy, he could only join in the pur suit. This, however, he did with great spirit, though with less effect than if he had arrived but a moment sooner. With a "friendly cheer," Kelley's troops made their presence known to their comrades, and descending the declivity of the heights upon which they had first appeared, they were soon in quick pursuit of the enemy. Some followed and cut down those who had taken refuge among the wooded hills, and others gave chase to the fugitives upon the road, whom they pursued for several miles, "overtaking, killing, and wounding a number." Col. Kelley himself, "with a bravery amounting to rashness," was among the foremost of his men in the pursuit. He had thus reached the upper part of the town, when one of the enemy, concealed behind a fence, turned upon him and shot him in the breast. The wound was severe, and was thought to have been mortal. He himself despaired of recovery, and said to a friend at his side: "I expect I shall have to die; I would be glad to live if it might be that I might do something for my country; but if it cannot be, I shall have at least the consolation of knowing I cannot be by his side to thank him in that I fell in a just cause." person. God bless him!" When it was supposed that Kelley would not survive his wound, great regret was felt at the prospective loss to the service of so devoted a Unionist and spirited soldier. Although an Eastern man, having been born in Deerfield, New Hampshire, he had taken up his residence in Wheeling, and was among the first to sustain the cause of the Federal Government in Western Virginia. Educated at West Point, though latterly engaged in civil occupations, he continued to cherish his military tastes, and had served as the colonel of a city regiment in Wheeling. At the commencement of the war, he was urged to resume his position and lead his former comrades to battle for the Union. He did not hesitate a moment, but accepting the command on one day, he was on the next en route for the scene of war. General McClellan, and Morris, the brigadier-general of the United States volunteers of Virginia, as soon as they heard that Kelley was wounded, hastened to make known to him their admiration of his gallantry and worth. To this hearty testimonial of affectionate admiration, General Morris added his emphatic approbation of Kelley's conduct : "I am extremely pleased and greatly gratified with your gallant and soldierly conduct in the expedition, which owes its success to your skill and bravery. I feel that your country owes you a deep debt of gratitude for your services on the occasion; and a grateful people cannot but render to you that honor you so richly deserve." These despatches were borne by Morris' aide-de-camp to the litter of the prostrate officer, and as he was supposed to be dying, they did not hesitate to read them to him. His eyes filled with tears as he listened, but he was too weak to speak a word. The despatches were, after being read, put into his hands, and he held them with a fond grasp until he was removed from the litter to the bed in the next room, prepared for his comfort. Kelley finally recovered, and was made a brigadier-general for his services. In this rout of the secessionists at Philippi, no one but Kelley, of our forces, was wounded, but it was supposed that the enemy had met with some loss of life. Their commander, Colonel Willy, was taken prisoner, and their camp was captured, with the secession flag, seven hundred and eighty stand of arms, a number of horses, and a quantity of blankets and provisions. Though, as a military operation, the |