Rebels at the Gate: Lee and McClellan on the Front Line of a Nation Divided (59 page)

585. “The Battle of Alleghany Summit,”
Wheeling Daily Intelligencer
, December 1861; Hays,
History of the Thirty-second Regiment
, 16–17; “Full Account of the Late Battle in Western Virginia,”
Indianapolis Daily Journal
, December 25, 1861.

586.
O. R
. vol. 51, pt. 1, 51. General Milroy listed his force as follows: seven hundred members of the Ninth Indiana Infantry under Col. Gideon Moody; four hundred of the Twenty-fifth Ohio Infantry, Col. James Jones; two hundred and fifty of the Second (U.S.) Virginia Infantry, Major James Owens; three hundred of the Thirteenth Indiana Infantry, Major Cyrus Dobbs; one hundred and thirty of the Thirty-second Ohio Infantry, Captain William Hamilton; thirty of Captain James Bracken's Indiana cavalry, and seventy-five members of Rigby's Indiana artillery.

587. “Joseph R.T. Gordon,” Julia Dumont Gordon Scrapbook, ISL;
O. R
. vol. 51, pt. 1, 51; “Full Account of the Late Battle in Western Virginia,”
Indianapolis Daily Journal
, December 25, 1861; Bierce,
Ambrose Bierce's Civil War
, 8.

588.
O. R
. vol. 51, pt. 1, 51; Stevenson,
Indiana's Roll of Honor
, 196–97.

589. Bierce,
Ambrose Bierce's Civil War
, 8; Hays,
History of the Thirty-second Regiment
, 18; Hamilton,
Recollections
, 23.

590.
O. R
. vol. 5, 462; Price, “Rich Mountain in 1861,” 42; “A Notable War Club,”
Richmond Examiner
, January 7, 1862; James C. Gamble to his brother, December 20, 1861, PC; Robson,
How a One-Legged Rebel Lives
, 20. The
Richmond Daily Dispatch
, December 18, 1861, reported that Colonel Johnson “appeared on the field in the dress of a wagoner.”

591.
O. R
. vol. 5, 460, 462–63; Adam W. Kersh to his brother, October 20, 1861, Adam W. Kersh Letters, MML.

592. Hall,
The Diary of a Confederate Soldier
, 41; Poe,
Personal Reminiscences
, 12;
O. R
. vol. 5, 457, 466; James Atkins Diary, December 13, 1861, GDAH.

593. Letter from W. W. Hardwicke,
Richmond Whig
, December 20, 1861;
O. R
. vol. 5, 466; Hays,
History of the Thirty-second Regiment
, 19.

594.
O. R
. vol. 5, 462; Cammack,
Personal Recollections
, 42;
O. R
. vol. 51, pt. 1, 52; Hays,
History of the Thirty-second Regiment
, 19.

595. Ibid., 19; Hall,
The Diary of a Confederate Soldier
, 41; Joseph Snider Diary, December 13, 1861, WVU.

596. “War Recollections,” Evelyn Yeager Beard,
The Pocahontas Times
, November 25, 1926;
O. R
. vol. 51, pt. 1, 52; James M. King Journal, 91–92, IHS; Robson,
How a One-Legged Rebel Lives
, 21.

597. Joseph Snider Diary, December 13, 1861, WVU; Letter to the
Richmond Daily Dispatch
, December 18, 1861;
O. R
. vol. 5, 458, 462–63;
O. R
. vol. 51, pt. 1, 52–54; “Battle of Camp Alleghany, Va.,” Moore,
Rebellion Record
, vol. 3, Documents, 467. During close-quarters fighting on the Confederate right flank, artillerists fired mostly at Milroy's reserve and wagons along the turnpike.

598.
O. R
. vol. 51, pt. 1, 53; “Greenbank Community History,” R.W. Brown,
The Pocahontas Times
, July 18, 1935; “Battle of Camp Alleghany, Va.,” Moore,
Rebellion Record
, vol. 3, Documents, 467; Bierce,
Battlefields and Ghosts
, 14;
O. R
. vol. 5, 463.

599. Bierce,
Ambrose Bierce's Civil War
, 7 ;
O . R
. vol. 5, 463; “The Battle on the Alleghany,”
Macon Daily Telegraph
, January 4, 1862; “War Recollections,” Evelyn Yeager Beard,
The Pocahontas Times
, November 25, 1926; Letter to the
Richmond Daily Dispatch
, December 23, 1861.

600. Stevenson,
Indiana's Roll of Honor
, 201–02; “The Battle of Alleghany Summit,”
Wheeling Daily Intelligencer
, December 24, 1861; Letter from J. Chilcott,
Indianapolis Daily Journal
, January 1, 1862.

601. Bierce,
Battlefields and Ghosts
, 15; “Full Account of the Late Battle in Western Virginia,”
Indianapolis Daily Journal
, December 25, 1861; “Joseph R.T. Gordon,” Julia Dumont Gordon Scrapbook, ISL: Stevenson,
Indiana's Roll of Honor
, 202; Merrill,
The Soldier of Indiana
, 98. Lt. Colonel Z.T. Connor of the Twelfth Georgia Infantry reported a timber barricade extended to “within 50 paces” of the Confederate earthworks.

602. “The Battle on the Alleghany,”
Macon Daily Telegraph
, January 4, 1861; “The Battle of Alleghany Summit,”
Wheeling Daily Intelligencer
, December 24, 1861.

603. Robson,
How a One-Legged Rebel Lives
, 21; “Captain John Miller,” Letter to
The Pocahontas Times
, February 18, 1904;
O. R
. vol. 5, 460. During the battle, Captain Miller ignored the protests of a Confederate officer, seated in advance, that his guns were “firing too low!” The good captain was later acquitted of a “reckless shooting” charge. Imagine his consternation afterward upon finding a grape shot embedded in a tree not three inches above the offended officer's head. The incriminating tree was promptly chopped down!

604.
O. R
. vol. 51, pt. 1, 53; Hamilton,
Recollections
, 28; Hays,
History of the Thirty-second Regiment
, 20; Bierce,
Ambrose Bierce's Civil War
, 8–9.

605. Bierce,
Battlefields and Ghosts
, 13; “The Battle at Alleghany Summit—Great Exaggerations…,”
Wheeling Daily Intelligencer
, December 23, 1861; Frank Ingersoll to his sister, December 15, 1861, Ingersoll Letters, IU.

606. “The Battle of the Alleghany,”
Macon Daily Telegraph
, January 4, 1862;
O. R
. vol. 51, pt. 1, 54; Geiger, “Holding the Line,” 75.

607.
O. R
. vol. 5, 457, 459–60, 468; Hall,
The Diary of a Confederate Soldier
, 41–42, Robson,
How a One-Legged Rebel Lives
, 24; Geiger, “Holding the Line,” 73;
Richmond Dispatch
Account, Moore,
Rebellion Record
, vol. 3, Documents, 470. Most accounts place the engagement at Camp Allegheny between approximately 7 A.M. and 2 P.M. Official returns for the Federals include 20 killed, 107 wounded, and 10 missing for a total of 137. Confederate losses were 20 killed, 98 wounded, and 28 missing, a total of 146. Research by Joe Geiger, Jr. indicates actual Federal losses to have been 143; Confederate, 162.

608. Cammack,
Personal Recollections
, 42; Letter to the
Richmond Daily Dispatch
, December 23, 1861; Ross, “Old Memories,” 158–59.

609. “Joseph R.T. Gordon,” Julia Dumont Gordon Scrapbook, ISL; J.W. Gordon to G.W. Julian, February 8, 1862, George W. Julian Papers, ISL; “Obsequies,”
Indianapolis Daily Journal
, December 21, 1861.

610. Robson,
How a One-Legged Rebel Lives
, 21–22; T.D. Ranson to his cousin, December 27, 1861, Stuart Family Papers, VHS; Letter to the
Richmond Daily Dispatch
, December 18, 1861; “The Battle of Alleghany Mountain,”
Augusta Daily Chronicle & Sentinel
, December 19, 1861; Letter to the
Richmond Daily Dispatch
, December 23, 1861. Along with his club, Ed Johnson reportedly carried a musket through much of the battle at Camp Allegheny.

611. “A Notable War Club,”
Richmond Examiner
, January 7, 1862;
O. R
. vol. 5, 459; Robson,
How a One-Legged Rebel Lives
, 23; Chesnut,
A Diary From Dixie
, 299.

612.
O.R
. vol. 5, 459; Jacob Pinock to William, October 15, 1861, Pinock Papers, WVU; Robert Hatton to his wife, November 2, 1861 in Drake,
Life of General Robert Hatton
, 382.

613. Diary of Co. A, 32nd Ohio Infantry, 14, Pinock Papers, WVU; William Batts to his sister, November 28, 1861, William Batts letters, EU.

614. Hall,
Diary of a Confederate Soldier
, 43.

615. W.A. Hawkins to A.H. Stephens, January 22, 1861, Alexander H. Stephens Papers, EU; Schuyler Colfax to G.B. McClellan, December 12, 1861, Schuyler Colfax Papers, IHS.

616. Lewis,
How West Virginia Was Made
, 318–319; Hall,
Rending of Virginia
, 397, 404; “The New State,”
Wheeling Daily Intelligencer
, August 26, 1861.

617. Curry,
A House Divided
, 86–88; Hall,
Rending of Virginia
, 407, 409–10; Ambler, Atwood and Mathews,
Debates and Proceedings
, vol. 1, 438.

618. Hall,
Rending of Virginia
, 415–16, 421, 425, 429; Curry,
A House Divided
, 90–91;
Wheeling Daily Intelligencer
, December 9, 1861.

619. Lewis,
How West Virginia Was Made
, 320–21; Basler,
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln
, vol. 5, 50.

620. Hall,
Diary of a Confederate Soldier
, 42–43.

621.
O. R
. vol. 5, 496–99.

622. Dabney,
Life and Campaigns
, 242–43;
O. R
. vol. 5, 965–66, 1004–05; Worsham,
One of Jackson's Foot Cavalry
, 24; Toney,
Privations
, 26.

623.
O. R
. vol. 5, 1004; Toney,
Privations
, 28; Watkins, “
Company Aytch,”
56; Porterfield, “A Narrative,” 90.

624.
O. R
. vol. 5, 390–93, 1066; Walter A. Clark Diary, January 2–4, 1862, PC; Lavender Ray to his brother, January 12, 1862 in Lane,
Letters From Georgia Soldiers
, 90–93; Toney,
Privations
, 31; Watkins, “
Company Aytch,”
57–58, 62. Moore,
Rebellion Record
, vol. 4, Documents, 15–16. “I ask you in all candor not to doubt the following lines,” Sam Watkins wrote of the “Death Watch.” Although the story is apocryphal, other accounts give mention of individual soldiers freezing to death that winter. More than one Confederate wrote of temperatures near twenty below zero on the march to Romney, yet weather records do not confirm it. Temperatures can vary greatly in that region. One thing is clear—it was bitterly cold!

625.
O. R
. vol. 5, 392, 1034, 1036, 1047; Watkins, “
Company Aytch,”
57.

626.
O. R
. vol. 5, 1041–42, 1046–48.

627. Ibid., 1053, 1062–63, 1065–66.

628. Ibid., 1066–68, 1076, 1079; Warner,
Generals in Gray
, 194; Imboden, “Stonewall Jackson,” 301.

629. Watkins, “
Company Aytch,”
56–57; Hall,
Diary of a Confederate Soldier
, 46; James Atkins Diary, January 6, 1862, GDAH; “From the Alleghany Mountains,”
Richmond Daily Dispatch
, November 30, 1861; Parker, “Sufferings of the Twelfth Georgia Reg't,…” WVSA.

630. Adam Kersh to his brother, January 29, 1862, Adam W. Kersh Letters,MML; James Atkins Diary, January 3, 19, 24, 1862, GDAH; Hall,
Diary of a Confederate Soldier
, 46–47; Reader,
History of the Fifth West Virginia Cavalry
, 126.

631. James Atkins Diary, January 18, 22, 1862, GDAH; Hall,
Diary of a Confederate Soldier
, 46, 48–49; Reader,
History of the Fifth West Virginia
Cavalry
, 126, 153–54; Parker, “Sufferings of the Twelfth Georgia Reg't,…” WVSA.

632. McClellan,
McClellan's Own Story
, 150–51, 154, 162; Sears,
George B. McClellan
, 131, 135; Hay,
Lincoln and the Civil War
, 34–35; Nicolay and Hay,
Abraham Lincoln
, vol. 4, 469n.

633. Sears,
George B. McClellan
, 136, 140–41, 143–45, 147, 154; McClellan,
McClellan's Own Story
, 195–96.

634. McClellan,
Report on the Organization
, 109, 118; Sears,
George B. McClellan
, 149–50, 154; 163–64, 167–68;
O. R
. vol. 5, 54; Ward, Burns and Burns,
The Civil War
, 92; Sears,
Civil War Papers of George McClellan
, 211.

635. Special Orders, No. 206, November 5, 1861, Dowdey,
Wartime Papers
, 84; Freeman,
Lee
, vol. 1, 606, 609–10; Chesnut,
A Diary From Dixie
, 164.