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

by W Hunter Lesser

  476. O. R. vol. 5, 162, 850, 853–55; Cox, “McClellan in West Virginia,” 146; Taylor General Lee 33.

  477. Morrison, Memoirs of Henry Heth, 155; O. R. vol. 5, 859–62, 869.

  478. Ibid., 602–03, 868–69, 878; U.S. Congress, “Rosecrans' Campaigns,” 10.

  479. O. R. vol. 51, pt. 2, 296–97.

  480. O. R. vol. 5, 864–66.

  481. Ibid., 868.

  482. Ibid., 868–69.

  483. Ibid., 162; O. R. vol. 51, pt. 2, 318; Long, Memoirs of Robert E. Lee, 128; Taylor, Four Years, 32–33.

  484. O. R. vol. 5, 873–75; O. R. vol. 51, pt. 2, 309.

  485. O. R. vol. 5, 163, 78; McKinney, Lee at Sewell Mountain, 46; Freeman, Lee, vol. 1, 590.

  486. Taylor, Four Years, 33; T.C. Morton, “Anecdotes of General R.E. Lee,” Southern Historical Society Papers, vol. 11, 519 in McKinney, Lee at Sewell Mountain, 51–52.

  487. R.E. Lee to his wife, September 26, 1861 in Dowdey, Wartime Papers, 78; O. R. vol. 51, pt. 2, 312.

  488. Taylor, Four Years, 33; Freeman, Lee, vol. 1, 592.

  489. Taylor, General Lee, 33–34.

  490. O. R. vol. 5, 148–49, 163.

  491. Taylor, Four Years, 34; O. R. vol. 5, 879; O. R. vol. 51, pt. 2, 313.

  492. Taylor, General Lee, 34; Morrison, Memoirs of Henry Heth, 160.

  Chapter 19. Too Tender of Blood

  493. U.S. Congress, “Rosecrans' Campaigns,” 10; Taylor, Four Years, 33; Richmond Daily Dispatch, October 12, 1861.

  494. O. R. vol. 51, pt. 2, 324–26; U.S. Congress, “Rosecrans' Campaigns,” 10; O. R. vol. 5, 900; R.E. Lee to his wife, October 7, 1861 in Dowdey, Wartime Papers, 80.

  495. O. R. vol. 5, 900; Taylor, General Lee, 31. The crest of Sewell Mountain is more than three thousand feet above sea level.

  496. R.E. Lee to his wife, October 7, 1861 in Dowdey, Wartime Papers, 80; O. R. vol. 51 pt. 2, 335; O. R. vol. 5, 253, 615; Freeman, Lee, vol. 1, 596–97. The turnpike supply line for Rosecrans was nearly as lengthy as that for Lee. Sewell Mountain was thirty-five miles east of Gauley Bridge and twenty-five miles farther from Rosecrans's steamboat landings on the Kanawha River, leaving about sixty miles of rough wagon road for the Federals. See Cox, “McClellan in West Virginia,” 147.

  497. Richmond Examiner, October 11, 1861; R.E. Lee to his wife, October 7, 1861 in Dowdey, Wartime Papers, 80.

  498. O. R. vol. 51, pt. 2, 337–38, 347; Richmond Daily Dispatch, October 22, 1861 in Freeman, Lee, vol. 1, 599.

  499. O. R. vol. 51, pt. 2, 338, 361, 404; O. R. vol. 5, 253–59; Cox, “McClellan in West Virginia,” 148.

  500. O. R. vol. 51, pt. 2, 362; Freeman, Lee, vol. 1, 577; R.E. Lee to his daughter Mildred, November 15, 1861 in Dowdey, Wartime Papers, 86. Biographer Douglas S. Freeman wrote, “It is impossible to say precisely” when Lee stopped shaving, but he had a full beard on October 30 when son Rob met him in Charlottesville.

  501. Freeman, Lee, vol. 1, 644–47; Broun, “General R.E. Lee's War-Horse,” 292; Lee, Jr., Recollections and Letters, 82–84.

  502. Pollard, Southern History of the War, 168; Lee, General Lee, 125.

  503. J. Cutler Andrews, The South Reports the Civil War in McKinney, Robert E. Lee and the 35th Star, 98; Freeman, Lee, vol. 1, 602.

  504. Lee, General Lee, 125; Lee, Jr., Recollections and Letters, 53.

  505. Dowdey, Wartime Papers, 84, 86; Lee, Jr. Recollections and Letters, 53.

  506. Augustus Van Dyke letter, October 18, 1861, IHS; Landon, “The Fourteenth Indiana Regiment,” 368–69.

  507. Merrill, The Soldier of Indiana, 118–23.

  508. Ibid., 124–25.

  509. Ibid., 126–31.

  510. Ibid., 132–34.

  Chapter 20. A Touch of Loyal Thunder and Lightning

  511. Price, “Plain Tales of Mountain Trails,” 461; Taliaferro, “Annals of the War,” 5; Hull, “Recollections,” The Pocahontas Times, March 12, 1908.

  512. Osborne Wilson Diary, August 13, 1861 in Price, On to Grafton, 47; Stevenson, Indiana's Roll of Honor, 189; “The Battle of the Greenbrier,” Augusta Daily Chronicle & Sentinel, October 8, 1861.

  513. Letter to the Southern Confederacy, September 19, 1861; O. R. vol. 5, 224–25. Camp Bartow, also known as “Greenbrier River” in correspondence, was named for the martyred Colonel Francis S. Bartow of Georgia. Confusion over the origin of the name has resulted from the fact that a West Point-trained officer of the Third Arkansas Infantry named Seth Barton laid out the works. See also Robson, How A One-Legged Rebel Lives, 17; O. R. vol. 5, 228.

  514. O. R. vol. 5, 603–05; Stevenson, Indiana's Roll of Honor, 185–87. Union General Reynolds was reinforced in September by the Seventh and Ninth Indiana Regiments (reenlisted as three-year units), the Thirty-second Ohio Infantry, Howe's Battery of the Fourth U.S. Artillery, Bracken's Indiana cavalry, and Greenfield's Pennsylvania cavalry.

  515. U.S. Congress, “Rosecrans' Campaigns,” vol. 3, 10; Augustus Van Dyke to Angie, September 29, 1861, Van Dyke Letters, IHS; Stevenson, Indiana's Roll of Honor, 184; Skidmore, The Civil War Journal of Billy Davis, 78; E.H.C. Cavins to his wife, September 27, 1861 in Smith, The Civil War Letters of Elijah H.C. Cavins, 17; Pool, Under Canvas, 45.

  516. O. R. vol. 5, 220; “Armed Reconnaissance on Camp Bartow,” Cincinnati Daily Commercial, October 9, 1861; “Cincinnati ‘Times’ Narrative,” Moore, Rebellion Record, vol. 3, Documents, 161–62; Landon, “The Fourteenth Indiana Regiment,” 366; Stevenson, Indiana's Roll of Honor, 188. The attacking force, in order of march, consisted of the Ninth and Fourteenth Indiana Infantry, the Twenty-fourth Ohio Infantry, the Seventeenth Indiana Infantry, Captain Loomis's Battery, First Michigan Light Artillery with six 10-pounder Parrott rifles, the Thirteenth Indiana Infantry, Captain Howe's Fourth U.S. Artillery, Battery G, with four bronze 6-pounders and two 12-pounder howitzers, the Seventh Indiana Infantry, Captain Daum's First (U.S.) Virginia Artillery, Battery A with a 6-pounder gun, along with a reserve of the Fifteenth Indiana Infantry, Twenty-fifth Ohio Infantry, parts of Bracken's Indiana, Robinson's Ohio, and Greenfield's Pennsylvania cavalry. The Thirty-second Ohio Infantry and a second gun of Captain Daum's battery were previously detached to hold the “Gum road,” a troublesome intersection along the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike.

  517. “Armed Reconnaissance on Camp Bartow,” Cincinnati Daily Commercial, October 9, 1861; Hays, History of the Thirty-second Regiment, 14; Diary of Co. A., Thirty-second Ohio Infantry, 11–12, Jacob Pinock Papers, WVU.

  518. Charles L. Campbell Diary, October 3, 1861 in Price, On to Grafton, 56; “Letter from Western Virginia!” Indianapolis Daily Journal, October 14, 1861. Three Confederate pickets were reportedly killed in this skirmish; one of the fallen Federals may have been killed by friendly fire.

  519. Warner, Generals in Gray, 158; Cammack, Personal Recollections, 41; Hull, “Recollections,” The Pocahontas Times, September 10, 1908; Hermann, Memoirs, 65; Chesnut, A Diary From Dixie, 299–300.

  520. Hull, “Recollections,” The Pocahontas Times, September 10, 1908; O . R. vol. 5, 224; “Particulars of the Late Fight,” Southern Confederacy, October 17, 1861.

  521. Hotchkiss, Virginia, 169; Phillips, “History of Valley Furnace,” Barbour Democrat, September 4, 1968.

  522. O. R. vol. 5, 225–26, 230; “Battle at Camp Bartow,” Lynchburg Daily Virginian, October 11, 1861. On the Confederate right flank, General Jackson's force consisted of the First and Twelfth Georgia Regiments and a few members of the Churchville (VA) Cavalry. Anchoring the center were the Twenty-third and Forty-fourth Virginia Regiments, along with Major Reger's battalion of the Twenty-fifth Virginia Infantry, led in his absence by Captain John Higginbotham. On the Confederate left were the Third Arkansas Infantry, the Thirty-first Virginia Infantry, and Hansbrough's Ninth Virginia Battalion. Captain Pierce Anderson's Lee Battery posted two guns on the Huntersville (Green Bank) road on the left, while Captain Lindsey Shumaker of the Danville Artillery commanded a battery of four 6-pounder guns and Captain William Rice a sing
le 6-pounder on the center and right flank.

  523. “Armed Reconnaissance on Camp Bartow,” Cincinnati Daily Commercial, October 9, 1861; O.R. vol. 5, 231; Letter to the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, October 7, 1861; Switlik, “Loomis' Battery,” 17–18.

  524. “Armed Reconnaissance on Camp Bartow,” Cincinnati Daily Commercial, October 9, 1861; O. R. vol. 5, 226, 234; J.T. Wilder to his wife, October 5, 1861 in Williams, “General John T. Wilder,” 172; Augustus Van Dyke to his folks, October 6, 1861, Van Dyke Letters, IHS; Clayton Wilson to his father, October 4, 1861, PC. Confederate General Henry Jackson's report described only eight Federal cannons. The 6-pounder gun used by Capt. Daum's battery of the First (U.S.) Virginia Light Artillery was reportedly one captured at the battle of Rich Mountain.

  525. “Cincinnati ‘Times’ Narrative,” Moore, Rebellion Record, vol. 3, Documents, 163; Landon, “The Fourteenth Indiana Regiment,” 367; O. R. vol. 5, 226.

  526. “Cincinnati ‘Times’ Narrative,” Moore, Rebellion Record, vol. 3, Documents, 163; William Houghton to his parents, October 4, 1861, Houghton Papers, IHS; “Description of the Battle of Greenbrier River, October 3d, 1861,” manuscript by C.S. Morgan, WVSA.

  527. O. R. vol. 5, 226–27, 233; “Battle at Camp Bartow,” Lynchburg Daily Virginian, October 11, 1861.

  528. James Atkins Diary, October 3, 1861, GDAH; Stevenson, Indiana's Roll of Honor, 192; Thomson, Narrative of the Seventh Indiana Infantry, 54.

  529. Frank Ingersoll to his sister, October 8, 1861, Ingersoll letters, Lilly Library, IU; “Cincinnati ‘Times’ Narrative,” Moore, Rebellion Record, vol. 3, Documents, 165; Landon, “The Fourteenth Indiana Regiment,” 368.

  530. Irby Scott to his father, October 5, 1861, Irby G. Scott Letters, DU; Cammack, Personal Recollections, 38–39; “The Battle of Greenbrier River,” Richmond Daily Dispatch, October 12, 1861.

  531. James Atkins Diary, October 4, 1861, GDAH.

  532. O. R. vol. 5, 234–35; “Armed Reconnaissance on Camp Bartow,” Cincinnati Daily Commercial, October 9, 1861; Pool, Under Canvas, 49. Confederate Capt. Pierce Anderson's guns on the Huntersville road were not engaged.

  533. “Cincinnati ‘Times’ Narrative,” Moore, Rebellion Record, vol. 3, Documents, 164; Landon, “The Fourteenth Indiana Regiment,” 367–68.

  534. O. R. vol. 5, 223, 227, 232, 235; Thomson, Narrative of the Seventh Indiana Infantry, 55; J.T. Wilder to his wife, October 5, 1861 in Williams, “General John T. Wilder,” 173. One correspondent reported that the Seventh Indiana Infantry “broke and ran,” sparking controversy that triggered an amusing rebuttal. The ranking officers of three sister regiments ultimately weighed in to swear they had seen “no running” by Dumont's Hoosiers that day! See “Letter to the Editor,” Cincinnati Daily Times, October 14, 1861 in Harris Milroy Papers, IHS.

  535. O. R. vol. 5, 221, 227; “Cincinnati ‘Times’ Narrative,” Moore, Rebellion Record, vol. 3, Documents, 164; John D.H. Ross to Agnes Reid, October 5, 1861 in Oram, “Letters of Colonel John De Hart Ross,” 167; “From the First Georgia Regiment—The Battle of the Greenbrier,” Augusta Daily Chronicle & Sentinel, October 11, 1861.

  536. O. R. vol. 5, 221, 224; “The Battle of Greenbrier River,” Augusta Daily Constitutionalist, October 11, 1861; Letter of Lucian Barber, October 16, 1861, Lucian Barber Papers, LC.

  537. Hall, Diary of a Confederate Soldier, 29; Irby Scott to his father, October 5, 1861, Irby Scott Letters, DU; “Armed Reconnaissance on Camp Bartow,” Cincinnati Daily Commercial, October 9, 1861; Cammack, Personal Recollections, 38. The Cincinnati Daily Commercial tallied Federal artillery fire as follows: Loomis' Battery—more than six hundred rounds; Howe's Battery—four hundred rounds; Daum's gun—eighty-five rounds. Other counts placed the total at 1,500 rounds or more. See also “Cincinnati ‘Times’ Narrative,” Moore, Rebellion Record, vol. 3, Documents, 165; Ben May to his brother, October 5, 1861, PC.

  538. O. R. vol. 5, 221, 223, 227–29.

  539. Pool, Under Canvas, 54.

  540. “From the First Georgia Regiment—The Battle of the Greenbrier,” Augusta Daily Chronicle and Sentinel, October 11, 1861; Clayton Wilson to his father, October 4, 1861, PC. A detailed account of the “Lost Flag” story may be found in Thomson, Narrative of the Seventh Indiana Infantry, 56–58.

  541. Clayton Wilson to his father, October 4, 1861, PC; Bierce, Ambrose Bierce's Civil War, 5–6; Hewitt, Supplement to the Official Records, pt. 2, vol. 16, 16. Bierce's tale may be embellished, but the circumstances of Abbott's death are well documented.

  542. O. R. vol. 5, 220–21; Bierce, Ambrose Bierce's Civil War, 5; Ben May to his brother, December 2, 1861; “Cincinnati ‘Times’ Narrative,” Moore, Rebellion Record, vol. 3, Documents, 166; “From Beverly,” Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, October 10, 1861.

  543. “Special Order No. 15, Army of the Northwest,” Richmond Daily Dispatch, October 8, 1861; O. R. vol. 5, 224–31, 236; Clark, Under the Stars and Bars, 32.

  544. “From the First Georgia Regiment—The Battle of the Greenbrier,” Augusta Daily Chronicle and Sentinel, October 11, 1861; Price, History of Pocahontas County, 445.

  Chapter 21. The Great Question

  545. Commeti and Summers, The Thirty-Fifth State, 365; Hall, Rending, 384–86.

  546. Ibid., 387–88; Moore, Banner, 134–35; “The Virginia ‘Division’ Election,” Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, October 31, 1861; Arnold, “Beverly in the Sixties, 72–73. A total of 273 affirmative votes for the statehood referendum were cast by members of the Third (U.S.) Virginia Infantry, polled in camp at Beverly.

  547. Moore, “A Confederate Journal,” 207–08; Joseph Snider Diary, October 18, 1861, WVU; Worsham, One of Jackson's Foot Cavalry, 20–21.

  548. O. R. vol. 5, 616, 644; Pool, Under Canvas, 56–57.

  549. “From Greenbrier River,” Richmond Daily Dispatch, October 30, 1861; “From Western Virginia,” Cincinnati Daily Gazette, November 22, 1861; O. R. vol. 5, 290–91, 338, 378–80, 625, 644.

  550. Sears, Civil War Papers of George McClellan, 112; Sears, George B. McClellan, 118, 134; Moore, Rebellion Record, vol. 3, Diary, 85; Harper's Weekly, December 7, 1861.

  551. Sears, George B. McClellan, 118; Sears, Civil War Papers of George McClellan, 81, 87, 103, 112.

  552. O. R. vol. 51, pt. 1, 491–93; “General Scott Retires from Active Service,” Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, November 2, 1861; O. R. vol. 5, 639.

  553. Hay, Lincoln and the Civil War, 32–33.

  554. Sears, Civil War Papers of George McClellan, 106, 113–14, 135–36.

  555. Ibid., 112, 114, 122–24; Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, November 9, 1861.

  556. Hannaford, The Story of a Regiment, 145; Beatty, The Citizen-Soldier, 80; “From Beverly,” Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, October 22, 1861.

  557. “From Cheat Mountain,” Indianapolis Daily Journal, September 16, 1861; Ben May to his brother, November 22, 1861, PC; Hall, Diary of a Confederate Soldier, 31–32; Adams, A Post of Honor, 103, 107.

  558. Diary of Co. A, 32nd Ohio Infantry, 14, Jacob Pinock Papers, WVU; Worsham, One of Jackson's Foot Cavalry, 21–22; Bierce, Ambrose Bierce's Civil War , 6. A large black bear, trapped by a soldier on Cheat Mountain, was transported alive and put on display in Wheeling! See also “A Big Black Bear,” Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, November 29, 1861.

  559. Beatty, The Citizen-Soldier, 69–70; William Houghton to his father, November 2, 1861, Houghton Papers, IHS; Hall, Diary of a Confederate Soldier, 25.

  560. Adams, A Post of Honor, 107, 117; Beatty, The Citizen-Soldier, 78, 80–81; Pool, Under Canvas, 54–55.

  561. Narrative, 37, Robert H. Milroy Papers, IHS; Alf. Welton Diary, October 21, 1861, LC; “Extracts from a Letter Written Home,” Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, October 30, 1861.

  562. Ben May to his brother, December 12, 1861, PC; Boston Advertiser in Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, October 11, 1861.

  563. Augustus Van Dyke to his father, August 29, 1861, Van Dyke Letters, IHS; James Atkins Diary, December 4, 1861, GDAH
.

  564. “Letter from the Fourteenth,” Indianapolis Daily Journal, November 25, 1861; “Our Army in Western Virginia,” Kirkpatrick Family Scrapbook, ISL.

  565. “Letter from Cheat Mountain,” Cincinnati Daily Commercial, October 3, 1861; “The Situation in Western Virginia,” Indianapolis Daily Journal, October 12, 1861; “Blankets for the Oglethorpe Infantry,” Augusta Daily Chronicle & Sentinel, October 12, 1861.

  566. “The War in Virginia,” Cincinnati Daily Gazette, October 30, 1861; J.W. Ross to his wife, September 15, 1861, PC; Augustus Van Dyke to his father, August 29, 1861, Van Dyke Letters, IHS.