28 o
IVEST VIRGINIA OPERATIONS UNDER FREMONT.
on the 8th, and the latter calling upon Fremont for help, Schenck wassent forward to support him, who reached McDowell, having marched 34miles in 24 hours. Jackson had not fully concentrated his forces, and theUnion generals held their ground and delivered a sharp combat, | in whichtheir casualties of all kinds numbered 256, while the Confederate loss was498, General Johnson being among the wounded. Schenck as senior assumedthe command, and on the 9th began his retreat to Franklin, abandoning theCheat Mountain road. Franklin was reached on the 11th, but Jacksonapproached cautiously and did not reach there till the 12th, when, finding thatFremont had concentrated his forces, he did not attack, but returned toMcDowell, whence he took the direct road to Harrisonburg , and marched toattack Banks at Strasburg, Ewell meeting and joining him in this movement.
Fremont resumed preparations for his original campaign, but Banks ’s defeatderanged all plans, and those of the Mountain Department were abandoned.A month passed in efforts to desUoy Jackson by concentration of McDowell’s,Banks’s, and Fremont ’s troops; but it was too late to remedy the ill effects of thedivision of commands at the beginning of the campaign. On the 26th of JunePope was assigned to command all the troops in northern Virginia, Fremont was relieved by his own request, and the Mountain Department ceased to exist.
The operations on the Kanawha line had kept pace with those in the northduring the month of April. Leaving a brigade to garrison the Lower KanawhaValley, I sent forward another under Colonel Crook on the Lewisburg Turn-pike, whilst I moved in person with the two remaining (Scammon’s and Moor’s)on the Princeton route. The brigades numbered about two thousand meneach. Wagons were so few that tents were discarded, and the men bivouackedwithout shelter. On the 7th of May my advanced guard occupied Giles CourtHouse (Parisburg) and the Narrows of New River, and on the 16th the rest ofthe two brigades on this line were at the East River , Crook’s brigade occupy-ing Lewisburg. We were thus prepared to join Fremont ’s column when itshould approach Christiansburg. Instead of this we got news of Jackson’smovements and of Schenck’s and Milroy’s retreat, and Fremont was obligedto telegraph that his plans were suspended, and that I must look out for myself.
The enemy had made strong efforts to concentrate a sufficient force to pro-tect the railway, and the brigades of Generals Humphrey Marshall, Heth, andWilliams were assigned to this duty, under the command of Marshall as senior.My own orders required me to converge toward Crook’s line of movement asI advanced, and from Flat-top Mountain my line of supplies was exposed to ahostile movement on the right flank. On the 16th of May Marshall, leavingHeth to hold the passes of New River, marched by the Wytheville road on
4- General Schenck in his report says ■ it seem advisable to undertake it ■without first
“A little observation served to show at once that ascertaining or feeling the actual strength of the rebelMcDowell, as a defensive position, was entirely untena- force before us, and also, perhaps, taking some step thatble, and especially against the largely outnumbering would serve to check or disable him from his full powerforce that was ascertained to be advancing; and if it or disposition to pursue. This was effectually done byhad been otherwise, there was no choice left on account our attack of his position on the mountain in the after-of an entire destitution of forage. I determined, there- noon, and in the night following I was enabled to witli-fore, to obey, with as little delay as possible, your orders draw our whole little army along the road through theto fall back with the force of our two brigades to this narrow gorge, which afforded the only egress from theplace [Franklin]. Such a movement, however, could not valley in which McDowell is situated, in the directionwith any safety or propriety be commenced before night, of Franklin.” EDITORS.