Rebels at the Gate: Lee and McClellan on the Front Line of a Nation Divided (54 page)

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Authors: W Hunter Lesser

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

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