ALLEGHANY SUMMIT-HUNTERSVILLE. In the north-east, Gen. Kelly, who held and guarded the Alleghany section of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, starting from New Creek on the night of October 25th, advanced rapidly to Romney, the capital of Hampshire county, driving out a Rebel battalion and capturing two cannon, sixty prisoners, several hundred stand of arms, with all the camp equipage, provisions, and munitions. By this spirited dash, West Virginia was nearly cleared of armed Rebels. 527 fifty miles southward. And thus | son, were neither surprised nor disdied out the campaign in the south- mayed; and the attack in front, led ern part of West Virginia. by Col. James A. Jones, of the 25th Ohio, though gallantly made, did not succeed. The Rebels, finding themselves superior in numbers as well as position, attacked in turn, and were likewise repulsed, as also in an attempted flank movement. Still, Milroy, having lost 150 men, with his ranks still further depleted by the skulking of his raw troops, had begun to retreat before Col. Moody, at 8 A. M., commenced his flank attack, which was of course a failure. Milroy retreated unpursued to his old camp. But, not discouraged, he dispatched Major Webster, of the 25th Ohio, with 800 men, on the last day of the year, to break up a Rebel post at Huntersville, fifty miles south, on the Greenbrier. The weather was cold; the ground covered with snow; yet the march was made in three days, the Rebel force driven out, and six buildings, filled with provisions and forage, destroyed by fire; the expedition returning without loss or accident. Here closed the campaign of 1861 in Western Virginia, with scarcely a Rebel uniform or picket to be seen, on that side of the Alleghany Mountains." Gen. R. H. Milroy, who had succeeded Gen. Reynolds in command at Cheat Mountain, attempted, soon afterward," a similar dash on the Rebels in his front, strongly posted at Alleghany Summit, twenty-two miles distant, on the turnpike to Staunton. To this end, he moved forward with 3,200 men, nearly half of which were directed to make a détour by the old Greenbrier road, to assault the enemy's left. The combination failed. The flank movement, under Col. Moody, of the 9th Indiana, was not effected in time. The Rebel forces, consisting of four regiments, under Col. Edward John 19 December 12th. 20 Though the crest of the main ridge of the Alleghanies is the natural and proper line of demarcation between the Old Dominion' and new, or West Virginia, and pretty accurately discriminates the Counties wherein Slavery and Secession did, from those wherein they did not, at any time, predominate, yet three or four CountiesMonroe, Greenbrier, &c.-which geographically pertain to West Virginia, have, either voluntarily or under duress, adhered to Old Virginia and the Rebellion. NOTE. The originally proposed State of Kanawha included within her boundaries only the Counties of Virginia lying north and west of, but 20 not including, McDowell, Mercer, Monroe, Greenbrier, and Pocahontas-thirty-nine in all, with a total population in 1860 of 280,691, whereof 6,894 were slaves. The Constitution of WEST VIRGINIA expressly included the five counties above named, making the total population 315,969, of whom 10,147 were slaves. It further provided that the counties of Pendleton, Hardy, Hampshire, Frederick, Berkeley, Jefferson, and Morgan, might also be embraced within the new State, provided their people should, by vote, express their desire to be-which they, excepting those of Frederick, in due time, didraising the population, in 1860, of the new State to 376,742, and entitling it to three representatives in Congress. XXXIII. EAST VIRGINIA-BULL RUN. Ir the North had been, or at least | 27th of April, a proclamation anhad seemed, obstinately apathetic, because skeptical as to the probability or the imminence of Civil War, it was fully and suddenly undeceived by the developments that swiftly followed the bombardment of Fort Sumter, but especially by the occurrences in Baltimore and the attitude of Maryland. For a few weeks, all petty differences seemed effaced, all partisan jealousies and hatreds forgotten. A few 'conservative' presses sought to stem the rushing tide; a few old Democratic leaders struggled to keep the party lines distinct and rigid; but to little purpose. Twelve States, whose Legislatures happened to be sitting in some part of April or May, 1861, tendered pecuniary aid to the Government, amounting, in the aggregate, to nearly Nineteen Millions of Dollars; while some Five Millions were as promptly contributed, in the cities and chief towns of the North, to clothe and equip volun - nouncing the blockade of the coast Savannah, the 28th. 3 |