Rebels at the Gate: Lee and McClellan on the Front Line of a Nation Divided

by W Hunter Lesser

  298. Benham, Recollections, 686; Samuel Baldwin to father, July 27, 1861, Margaret A. Baldwin Papers, VHS.

  299. Davis, Rise and Fall, vol. 1, 294; O. R. vol. 2, 253.

  Chapter 11. Victory On the Wires

  300. Plum, The Military Telegraph, vol. 1, 98; O. R. vol. 2, 202; Arnold, “Beverly in the Sixties,” 65; Cincinnati Daily Commercial, July 17, 1861.

  301. O. R. vol. 2, 203–04; Zinn, Battle of Rich Mountain, 35.

  302. O. R. vol. 2, 260, 262–63, 279–83; Bird, Two Perilous Adventures, 33; C. Tacitus Allen Memoirs, DU.

  303. O. R. vol. 2, 258–66.

  304. Ibid., 208, 210, 258–59, 266–67; Sears, Civil War Papers of George McClellan, 53; Cincinnati Daily Commercial, July 19, 1861. The escape route offered by Captain Moomau was the “Seneca Road,” roughly following present-day U.S. Route 33 East. See Hotchkiss, Virginia, 54.

  305. O. R. vol. 2, 267; S. Williams to W.S. Rosecrans, July 14, 1861 RG 393, Box 2, NA; Arnold, “Beverly in the Sixties,” 67.

  306. Sears, Civil War Papers of George McClellan, 53; Howison, “History of the War,” 131; O. R. vol. 2, 250; Parole of Officers Taken Prisoner…, Beverly C.H., July 16, 1861, RG 109, Entry 212, Box 36 NA; McClellan, McClellan's Own Story, 55.

  307. Ibid., 55; O. R. vol. 2, 251; Maxwell, History of Randolph County, 265–66n.

  308. Beatty, The Citizen Soldier, 27; Sears, Civil War Papers of George McClellan, 54–55; Ellen McClellan to G.B. McClellan, July 12, 1861, McClellan Papers, LC.

  309. Sears, Civil War Papers of George McClellan, 56.

  310. New York Herald, July 13 and 15, 1861; New York Tribune, July 16, 1861; Louisville Journal, July 20, 1861; New York Times, July 20, 1861 in Moore, Rebellion Record, vol. 2, Diary of Events, 31, Documents, 288; O.R. ser. 2, vol. 3, 9; Sears, George B. McClellan, 93.

  311. Rice and Baxter, Historic Beverly, 28; Sears, Civil War Papers of George McClellan, 53.

  312. O. R. vol. 2, 236.

  313. Kepler, History of the Fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, 35; O. R. vol. 2, 752; Logansport Weekly Journal, July 27, 1861; Sears, Civil War Papers of George McClellan, 60, 65.

  314. Cox, “McClellan in West Virginia,” 137–39; O. R. vol. 2, 291–92; Cincinnati Daily Commercial, July 22, 1861 in Moore, Rebellion Record, vol. 2, Documents, 330; Lowry, Battle of Scary Creek, 235; Sears, Civil War Papers of George McClellan, 61–62. The captured Federal officers at Scary Creek included Col. Jesse S. Norton, Twenty-first Ohio Infantry (wounded), Col. Charles A. De Villers, Eleventh Ohio Infantry, Col. William E. Woodruff and Lt. Col. George W. Neff, Second Kentucky Infantry, along with two captains.

  315. Sears, Civil War Papers of George McClellan, 65.

  316. Catton, The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War, 98, 100, 102; New York Herald, July 13, 1861; New York Tribune, June 30, 1861; Fry, “McDowell's Advance to Bull Run,” 183–93; Beauregard, “The First Battle of Bull Run,” 210.

  317. Williams, Lincoln and His Generals, 23; O. R. vol. 2, 752–53; O. R. vol. 51, pt. 1, 491.

  Chapter 12. A Fortress in the Clouds

  318. Sears, Civil War Papers of George McClellan, 67, 70; Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, July 24 and 25, 1861; Sears, George B. McClellan, 95; Reid, Ohio in the War, vol. 1, 283.

  319. O. R. vol. 2, 759, 767; O. R. vol. 5, 6; U.S. Congress, “Rosecrans' Campaigns,” 8.

  320. Warner, Generals in Blue, 397–98; Boatner, Civil War Dictionary, 694; Beatty, The Citizen-Soldier, 36–37.

  321. Stevenson, Indiana's Roll of Honor, 154, 156; Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, October 7, 1861; Ben May to brother Will, July 29, 1861, PC.

  322. Landon, “The Fourteenth Indiana Regiment,” 353–54; Stevenson, Indiana's Roll of Honor, 154; Beatty, The Citizen-Soldier, 43.

  323. Ibid., 33.

  324. Stevenson, Indiana's Roll of Honor, 157–58; Brock, “The Twelfth Georgia Infantry,” R.T.D. to editor of the Savannah Republican, July 28, 1861, p. 164; J.J.M. to Cincinnati Daily Press, September 21, 1861 in Hannaford, The Story of a Regiment, 539.

  325. Merrill, The Soldier of Indiana, 20.

  326. Hutton, “A Botanist Visits Tygarts Valley,” 23–27; “Letter from the Bracken Rangers,” Indianapolis Daily Journal, September 10, 1861.

  327. Rice, Randolph 200, 151.

  328. Pool, Under Canvas, 16; Warner, Generals in Blue, 267; Baxter, Gallant Fourteenth, 28, 38; William Houghton Diary, July 16, 1861, IHS. The Fourteenth was reportedly the first Indiana regiment to volunteer for three-year service.

  329. Pool, Under Canvas, 18, 45, 57; Cobb, “The Huttonsville Vicinity,” 59.

  330. Pool, Under Canvas, 16–17; Van Dyke, “Early Days,” 24; Bierce, Ambrose Bierce's Civil War, 4–5.

  331. Landon, “The Fourteenth Indiana Regiment,” 370.

  332. Ibid., 357; Ben May to brother Will, August 4 and 5, 1861, PC; Pool, Under Canvas, 34–35.

  333. Van Dyke, “Early Days,” 25; Merrill, The Soldier of Indiana, 78; Augustus Van Dyke to Angie, August 18, 1861, Van Dyke Letters, IHS; Richmond Daily Dispatch, September 18, 1861; David Beem Papers, narrative history, p. 5, IHS.

  334. Hannaford, The Story of a Regiment, 104–05; Hewitt, Supplement to the O. R ., pt. 2, vol. 16, 257, 260; Beatty, The Citizen-Soldier, 44, 48. Col. George D. Wagner's force at Elkwater consisted of his own Fifteenth Indiana Infantry, the Third Ohio Infantry, and two guns of Loomis's First Michigan Light Artillery.

  335. Stevenson, Indiana's Roll of Honor, 156, 159; O. R. vol. 5, 185; Plum, Military Telegraph, 98; Pool, Under Canvas, 18–19.

  336. Ben May to brother Will, August 4, 1861, PC; Landon, “The Fourteenth Indiana Regiment,” 355.

  337. Ross, “Scouting for Bushwhackers,” 399–400; Beatty, The Citizen-Soldier, 56.

  338. O. R. vol. 2, 245, 248, 263; Warner, Generals in Gray, 149–50; Freeman, Robert E. Lee, vol. 1, 543–44; Dargan, The Civil War Diary of Martha Abernathy, 13–14.

  339. O. R. vol. 2, 984, 988–89, 993, 998; O. R. vol. 5, 230; O. R. vol. 51 pt. 2, 181, 188; Report on the Condition of the Army of N.Western Va., July 21, 1861, PC. Many war-date dispatches use the spelling “Millborough” for the Virginia Central Railroad terminus.

  340. Southern Confederacy, August 17, 1861; Albert Rust to H.R. Jackson, July 22, 1861, Army of the Northwest Papers, PC; Hagy, “The Laurel Hill Retreat,” 173; O. R. vol. 2, 989.

  341. Taylor, “War Story of a Confederate Soldier Boy,” in Bristol Herald-Courier, January 20, 1921, TSLA; Hagy, “The Laurel Hill Retreat,” 173; Watkins, “Company Aytch,” 50.

  342. O. R. vol. 2, 993; Toney, Privations, 19; Watkins, “Company Aytch,” 51–52.

  343. Long, Memoirs of Robert E. Lee, 119; O. R. vol. 51, pt. 2, 197; R.N. Avery to Callie, July 28, 1861, PC.

  344. O. R. vol. 51, pt. 2, 180–81; Warner, Generals in Gray, 193–94; Newell, Lee vs. McClellan, 174; John D.H. Ross to Aggie, July 29, 1861 in Oram, “Letters of Colonel John De Hart Ross,” 164; O. R. vol. 2, 999; Worsham, One of Jackson's Foot Cavalry, 14. The disposition of Confederates under General Loring's command in late July was thus: Colonel Edward Johnson's Twelfth Georgia Infantry and three guns of Captain Pierce Anderson's Lee Battery of Virginia held the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike on Allegheny Mountain. Colonel Albert Rust's Third Arkansas Infantry was in supporting distance of Johnson at Hightown. The convalescing regiments of Colonel William Taliaferro's Twenty-third Virginia, the remnant of the Twenty-fifth Virginia, Colonel William Jackson's Thirty-first Virginia, Colonel Samuel Fulkerson's Thirty-seventh Virginia, Colonel William Scott's Forty-fourth Virginia, Colonel James Ramsey's shattered First Georgia, a detachment of the Fourteenth Virginia Cavalry under Major George Jackson, and Captain Lindsay Shumaker's Virginia Light Artillery occupied Monterey and points east. Colonel William Gilham's Twenty-first Virginia Infantry was at Huntersville. Colonel Stephen Lee's Sixth North Carolina Infantry and the Bath Cavalry held Elk Mountain, eleven miles north of Huntersville. See also O.R. vol. 2, 997–99, 1006; Long, Memoirs of Robert E. Lee, 117.


  345. O. R. vol. 2, 1006, 1009; O. R. vol. 51, pt. 2, 206; Long, Memoirs of Robert E. Lee, 117–19; Price, Historical Sketches of Pocahontas County, 597. General Loring's talented staff consisted of Colonel Carter Stevenson, assistant adjutant general; Major A.L. Long, chief of artillery; Captain James Corley, chief quartermaster; Captain R.G. Cole, chief commissary; Lieutenant H.W. Matthews, aide-de-camp; and Colonel W.E. Starke, volunteer aide-decamp. Stevenson later became a major-general; Long became chief of artillery and a brigadier general in the Army of Northern Virginia; Corley and Cole became chief quartermaster and commissary on the staff of General Lee; Starke became a brigadier general and Matthews became governor of West Virginia! See also Hotchkiss, Virginia, 153.

  346. Mills, History of the Sixteenth North Carolina Regiment, 3. The Sixth North Carolina later became the Sixteenth North Carolina Infantry. Confederates arriving at Huntersville, finding wet and muddy camp grounds, would soon call it a “hole of a place.”

  Chapter 13. Scouts, Spies and Bushwhackers

  347. Stevenson, Indiana's Roll of Honor, 161; Price, “Guerrilla Warfare,” 241–43; O. R . vol. 51, pt. 2, 183; “Military History,” p. 4, Hugh B. Ewing Papers, OHS; Landon, “The Fourteenth Indiana Regiment,” 354. Hanging Rock is adjacent to the present town of Durbin. Accounts vary as to the number of Federal cavalrymen killed and wounded in this incident.

  348. Stevenson, Indiana's Roll of Honor, 159–61; O. R. vol. 2, 984–85; O. R. vol. 51, pt. 2, 184–85, 187–88; Pollard, First Year of the War, 168.

  349. Stevenson, Indiana's Roll of Honor, 162; Lang, Loyal West Virginia, 8–9; Monfort, “From Grafton to McDowell,” 8; Ross, “Scouting for Bushwhackers,” 400–01; Leib, Nine Months, 126.

  350. Monfort, “From Grafton to McDowell,” 8; Leib, Nine Months, 126–27; Beatty, The Citizen-Soldier, 16; Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, September 27, 1861; R.B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, August 17, 1861 and R.B. Hayes to his wife, August 17, 1861 in Curry, A House Divided, 74–75. Western Virginia newspapers were filled with stories of guerrilla depredations in 1861.

  351. Pool, Under Canvas, 25–26; Felix W. Worthington to his father, September 11, 1861 in Wiley, Billy Yank, 350.

  352. Merrill, The Soldier of Indiana, 79–80; Landon, “The Fourteenth Indiana Regiment,” 357–58; Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, August 2, 1861.

  353. O. R. vol. 2, 766; Pool, Under Canvas, 23, 28; A Member of the Bar, Cheat Mountain, 45; John L. Griffin Diary, July 28, 1861, EU.

  354. Ben May to brother Will, July 29, 1861, PC; Merrill, The Soldier of Indiana, 20–22; Thomson, The Seventh Indiana Infantry, 24; Morton, Sparks From the Camp Fire, 345–46.

  355. Landon, “The Fourteenth Indiana Regiment,” 356; Ross, “Old Memories,” 152.

  356. Beatty, The Citizen-Soldier, 51–53; Keifer, Slavery and Four Years of War, vol. 1, 208–10; “War Experiences of Colonel DeLagnel,” 508; Long, Memoirs of Robert E. Lee, 115–16.

  357. Stevenson, Indiana's Roll of Honor, 73; Hannaford, The Story of a Regiment, 94–95; E.D. House Diary, July 18, 1861, PC; O. R. vol. 2, 291.

  358. Pinkerton, Spy of the Rebellion, vol. 1, 210–17; Stutler, West Virginia in the Civil War, 54–59.

  359. Skidmore, The Civil War Journal of Billy Davis, 37; A Dish of History, n . p . ; Thacker, French Harding: Civil War Memoirs, 78.

  360. Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, July 19 and November 19, 1861; Leib, Nine Months, 95–96; Matheny, Wood County, 182–88.

  361. Stutler, West Virginia in the Civil War, 43–48; Plum, Military Telegraph, 105.

  362. Stevenson, Indiana's Roll of Honor, 155; Merrill, The Soldier of Indiana, 104–10; Hall, Lee's Invasion of Northwest Virginia, 157, 161.

  Chapter 14. Mud, Measles and Mutiny

  363. Taylor, Four Years, 16, 35; Taylor, General Lee, 29; Lee, Recollections, 41, 50. Lee's cook in Western Virginia, “Meredith,” came from a son's residence; his slave “Perry” had worked in the dining room at Arlington.

  364. Chesnut, A Diary from Dixie, 94–95.

  365. Lee, Jr., Recollections and Letters, 37; O. R. vol. 5, 767, 828–29; O. R. vol. 51, pt. 2, 254; Taylor, Four Years, 16; Freeman, Lee, vol. 1, 541–42. The Richmond Examiner, July 31, 1861, reported Lee “on a tour of the West, looking after the commands of Generals Loring and Wise…His visit is understood to be one of inspection, and consultation on the plan of campaign.” Confusion regarding Lee's role in Western Virginia exists to this day. Biographer Douglas Freeman wrote that Lee “took command with no apologies,” yet acknowledged that he was “not in direct command.” General Fitzhugh Lee (a nephew) wrote that “General Lee proceeded at once to West Virginia, and for the first time assumed active command of troops in the field.” General Loring's chief of artillery and Lee biographer A.L. Long wrote that Lee was appointed “to the command of the department of Western Virginia.” An organization chart in the Official Records lists Lee as “Commanding General of the Army of the Northwest.” See also Freeman, Lee, vol. 1, 542n, 600, 640; Lee, General Lee, 116, Long, Memoirs of Robert E. Lee, 501; O. R. series 4, vol. 1, 631.

  366. R.E. Lee to his wife, August 4, 1861 in Dowdey, Wartime Papers, 62; Freeman, Lee, vol. 1, 543.

  367. Hotchkiss, Virginia, 155; Armstrong, 25 Virginia Infantry, 23.

  368. R.E. Lee to his wife, August 4, 1861 in Dowdey, Wartime Papers, 61; Freeman, Lee, vol. 1, 550.

  369. Long, Memoirs of Robert E. Lee, 117, 119; Hotchkiss, Virginia, 154–55; Mills, History of the Sixteenth North Carolina Infantry, 4; R.E. Lee to his wife, August 4 and 9, 1861 in Dowdey, Wartime Papers, 61, 63. See Freeman, Lee, vol. 1, 552–53 for a discussion of the roll played by Lee's sense of noblesse oblige in his handling of General Loring.

  370. Ibid., 63; Taylor, Four Years, 35–36; Randolph Enterprise, June 25, 1925.

  371. R.E. Lee to his wife, August 9, 1861 in Dowdey, Wartime Papers, 63; Warner, Generals in Gray, 184; R. Hatton to his wife, August 16, 1861 in Drake, Life of General Robert Hatton, 372.

  372. O. R. series 2, vol. 3, 25–26; R.E. Lee to his wife, August 9, 1861 in Dowdey, Wartime Papers, 63. Joseph Reynolds had been an instructor of philosophy at West Point during Lee's tenure as superintendent of that institution.

  373. Merrill, The Soldier of Indiana, 110–17.

  374. Long, Memoirs of Robert E. Lee, 121–22; Freeman, Lee, vol. 1, 555.

  375. Hermann, Memoirs, 39; Watkins, “Company Aytch,” 53; Toney, Privations, 21.

  376. J. Hotchkiss to Fitz Lee, October 22, 1891, Miller, Mapping for Stonewall, 42; Worsham, One of Jackson's Foot Cavalry, 15–16.

  377. Freeman, Lee, vol. 1, 577–78.

  378. O.R. vol. 5, 552, 554–56, 561, 563–64; Sears, Civil War Papers of George McClellan, 79–80.

  379. O. R. vol. 5, 7–8; Sears, Civil War Papers of George McClellan, 78–79; Sears, George B. McClellan, 97–101.

  380. Hotchkiss, Virginia, 155; S. Pryor to his wife, August 15, 1861 in Adams, A Post of Honor, 44; Freeman, Lee, vol. 1, 559–60.

  381. R.E. Lee to his daughters, August 29, 1861 in Dowdey, Wartime Papers, 67; A Member of the Bar, Cheat Mountain, 45–46; Worsham, One of Jackson's Foot Cavalry, 17.

  382. Strider, The Life and Work of George William Peterkin, 47; R. Hatton to his wife, August 23, 1861 in Drake, Life of General Robert Hatton, 375.

  383. O. R. vol. 5, 785; Taylor, Four Years, 17; Worsham, One of Jackson's Foot Cavalry, 17.

  384. Hotchkiss, Virginia, 156; A Member of the Bar, Cheat Mountain, 62; S. Pryor to his wife, August 3, 1861 in Adams, A Post of Honor, 33; Toney, Privations, 20; Taylor, Four Years, 17.

  385. Worsham, One of Jackson's Foot Cavalry, 16; Strider, The Life and Work of George William Peterkin, 48; S. Pryor to his wife, August 9 and September 8, 1861 in Adams, A Post of Honor, 38, 63; R.E. Lee to his wife, September 1, 1861 and R.E. Lee to G.W.C. Lee, September 3, 1861 in Dowdey, Wartime Papers, 68–70.

  386. R. Hatton to his wife, August 14 and 16, 1861 in Drake, Life of General Robert Hatton, 370, 373; R.E. Lee to G.W.C. Lee, Sep
tember 3, 1861 in Dowdey, Wartime Papers, 70.

  387. Mills, History of the Sixteenth North Carolina Infantry, 5; R. Hatton to his wife, August 18, 1861, Drake in Life of General Robert Hatton, 374–75.

  388. R.E. Lee to his daughters, August 29, 1861 in Dowdey, Wartime Papers, 67.

  389. Landon, “The Fourteenth Indiana Regiment on Cheat Mountain,” 352; Beatty, The Citizen-Soldier, 58–60.

  390. Pool, Under Canvas, 24–25, 33; William Houghton Diary, August 14 and 15, 1861, IHS.

  391. Pool, Under Canvas, 33; Landon, “The Fourteenth Indiana Regiment on Cheat Mountain, 358–59; “Letter from Cheat Mountain,” Indianapolis Daily Journal, September 24, 1861. The August snow on Cheat Mountain is well documented. See also Augustus Van Dyke to his folks, August 18, 1861, Van Dyke Letters, IHS; Merrill, The Soldier of Indiana, 79; J.H. Slaughter to his mother, August 17, 1861 and J.H. Slaughter to J.C. Rawlins, December 5, 1861, PC.