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MCCLELLAN IN IVEST VIRGINIA.

than he at first intended, and it took ten honrs of severe marching andmountain climbing to reach the Hart farm. The turning movement wasmade, but he found an enemy opposing him. Pegram had detached about350 men from the 1300 which he had, and had ordered them to guard theroad at the mountain summit. He sent with them a single cannon from thefour which constituted his only battery,and they threw together a breastwork oflogs. The turnpike at Hart’s runs in adepression of the summit, and as Rose-crans, early in the afternoon, came out uponthe road, he was warmly received by bothmusketry and cannon. The ground wasrough, the men were for the first time underfire, and the skirmishing combat variedthrough two or three hours, when a chargeby part of Rosecrans’s line, aided by a fewheavy volleys from another portion of hisforces which had secured a good position,broke the enemy’s line. Reenforcementsfrom Pegram were nearly at hand, withanother cannon, but they did not come intoaction, and the runaway team of the caissonon the hill-top, dashing into the gun that brigadier-general johs pegram, c. s. a.was coming up, capsized it down the moun- BURG, FEBRUARY 6, ims). FROM atain-side where the descending road was photograph.

scarped diagonally along it. Both guns fell into Rosecrans’s hands, and hewas in possession of the field. The march and the assault had been madein rain and storm. Nothing was heard from McClellan, and the enemy, rally-'ing on their reenforcements, made such show of resistance on the crest alittle farther on, that Rosecrans directed his men to rest upon their armstill next morning. When day broke on the 12th, the enemy had disappearedfrom the mountain-top, and Rosecrans, feeling his way down to the rear ofPegram’s position, found it also abandoned, the two remaining cannon beingspiked, and a few sick and wounded being left in charge of a surgeon. Stillnothing was seen of McClellan, and Rosecrans sent word to him, in his campbeyond Roaring Creek, that he was in possession of the enemy’s position.Rosecrans’s loss had been 12 killed and 49 wounded. The Confederates left20 wounded on the field, and 63 were surrendered at the lower camp,including the sick. No trustworthy report of their dead was made.

The noise of the engagement had been heard in McClellan’s camp, and heformed his troops for attack, but the long continuance of the cannonade andsome signs of exultation in Pegram’s camp seem to have made him thinkRosecrans had been repulsed. The failure to attack in accordance with theplan has never been explained. Rosecrans’s messengers had failed to reachMcClellan during the 11th, but the sound of the battle was sufficient noticethat he had gained the summit and was engaged; and he was, in fact, left to