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abandoned Charleston in the night and re-treated toward G-auley Bridge. On the 25thI occupied Charleston without resistance, andmoved on, ordering the 1st Kentucky up fromRipley to garrison the place and establish mydepot there.
At every mile above Charleston the scenerygrows wilder, the mountains crowding inupon the river, often with high, beetling cliffsoverhanging it, and offering numerous posi-tions where a small detachment might holdan army in check. Wise, however, made noresistance worth naming, except to fell timberinto the road, and he passed the G-auley, burn-ing the important bridge there and continu-ing his hasty retreat to the White SulphurSprings , hurried, no doubt, by the fear thatMcClellan might intercept him by way ofHuntersville and Lewisburg. McClellan hadrecognized the fact that he was asking me toface the enemy with no odds in my favor, and as soon as he heard thatWise was disposed to make a stand, he had directed me not to risk attackinghim in front, but rather to await the result of his own movement towardthe Upper Kanawha. Rosecrans did the same when he assumed com-mand; but I knew the hope had been that I could reach Gauley Bridge,and I felt warranted, as soon as wagons reached me, in attempting the turningmovement which seems to have thrown Wise into a panic from wdrich hedid not recover till he got out of the valley. Rosecrans ordered me toremain on the defensive at Charleston , but his dispatches did not reach me,fortunately, till I was close to Gauley Bridge, some forty miles above Charles-ton , and was quite sure of my ability to take possession of that defile, as I didon the 29th of July. Another reason for haste was that the time of enlist-ment of the 21st Ohio had expired, and I was ordered by the governor to sendit back to Ohio for reorganization, which would make a reduction of one-fourth of my numbers.
At my first night’s encampment above Charleston , in a lovely nookbetween spurs of the hills, I was treated to a little siu’prise on the part ofthree of my subordinates which was an unexpected enlargement of my mil-itary experience, and which is worth preserving to show some of the con-ditions attending the beginning of a war with undisciplined troops. Thecamp w r as nicely organized for the night and supper was over, when I waswaited upon at my tent by these gentlemen. Their spokesman informed methat after consultation they had concluded that it was foolhardy to followthe Confederates into the gorge we were traveling, and, unless I could showthem satisfactory reasons for changing their opinion, they would not leadtheir commands farther into it. I dryly asked if he was quite sure he under-