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NOTES ON THE BATTLE OF MCDOWELL.

men by too-long-continued marching. He rested the whole column veryoften, but only for a few minutes at a time. I remember that he liked to seethe men lie down flat on the ground to rest, and would say, “A man rests allover when he lies down.”

NOTES ON THE BATTLE OF McDOWELL.

I. —BY ROBERT C. SCHENCK, MAJOR-GENERAL U. S. V.

/WN the 7th of May I left Franklin with about^ ' 2000 men to join and support General Milroy,menaced with attack by Stonewall Jackson , nearMcDowell, about forty miles distant. During thisforced march my troops made the remarkable timeof 34 miles in 23 hours. When I arrived, on themorning of the 8th, I found Milroy, with his smallforce in the village at the foot of the mountain, de-fending himself against the enemy occupying theheights above, shut in, in fact, in a sort of amphi-theater. The only easy escape from the positionwas down the narrow valley and small streamback by the road by which I had arrived. I, ofcourse, assumedrthe command by right of seniority.The only question was how best to extricate our-selves from this disadvantageous position in thepresence of a force of the enemy largely superiorin numbers. My whole force, after my arrival atMcDowell and junction with Milroy, was but about4000 men.

General Milroy, always moved by undaunted andimpetuous, though rather uncalculating, bravery,would have remained to challenge and await at-tack. But, after conference, it was agreed thatthe better plan would be to send, that evening,whatever portion of our united force was avail-able for the attack up the side of the mountain toassault the enemy and deliver a blow, if we could,and then retire from his front before he had

recovered from the surprise of such a movement.I gave the order accordingly. No officer couldhave carried it out more effectively than did Gen-eral Milroy.

The movement was executed successfully. Theattacking force was composed of a good part ofMilroy’s men and of those of my immediate com-mand who were least fatigued. The whole numberengaged was 2600 ; of these we had just ten percent, killed and wounded. We remained at Mc-Dowell, at the foot of the mountain, the pointfrom which our troops moved to the attack throughthat night, buried our dead, sent off the woundedand all stores, and withdrew in good order towardFranklin in the early morning. Our march back toFranklin, which occupied three days, was orderlyand was not seriously molested by Ashby’s cav-alry or any force of the rebels in pursuit.

At Franklin we kept Jackson with his wholeforce at bay with our still much inferior numbers,until General Fremont arrived there on the 13thof May. With the troops I had left behind atFranklin, when I marched to the relief of Milroy, Ihad at no time before Frdmont arrived to take com-mand more than 6500 men. On the 8th of May,Fremont w as at Petersburg on his march from LostCreek to Franklin, and certainly nowhere withinless than 50 or 60 miles of McDowell. That waspoor “ supporting distance.”

II.—EXTRACTS FROM THE REPORT OF GENERAL R. H. MILROY.

“ May 7th I was first advised by my scouts andspies that a junction had been effected betweenthe armies of Generals [Stonewall] Jackson and[Edward] Johnson, and that they were advancing toattack me at McDowell. Having the day previoussent out a large portion of the 3d West Virginia and 32d and 75th Ohio Regiments to Shaw’sRidge and upon Shenandoah Mountain for the pur-pose of protecting my foraging and reconnoiteringparties, I immediately ordered my whole commandto concentrate at McDowell, and, expecting reen-foreements, prepared for defense there. . . .

Upon the next morning (the 8th instant) the enemywas seen upon the Bull Pasture Mountain, aboutone and three-fourths miles distant from McDow-ell, on my right and front. I commenced shellingthem and sent out parties of skirmishers to en-deavor to ascertain their numbers. At about 10A. M. your brigade arrived. Desultory firing of asection of Hyman’s battery and occasional skir- 4mishing engaged the attention of the enemy dur-ing the morning. ... In the afternoon, at about3 o’clock, being informed by Captain George R.

Latham, of the 2d West Vii'ginia Volunteer Infan-try, who, with his company, was engaged in skir-mishing, that the rebels were endeavoring to planta battery upon the mountain, which would com-mand our whole encampment, with your permissionI made a reconnoissance for the purpose of obtain-ing accurate information of their strength andposition. . . . Under my order the 25th Ohio and75th Ohio Regiments (the former under the com-mand of Lieutenant-Colonel W. P. Richardson,and the latter under the command of Colonel N. C.McLean and Major Robert Reily) advanced in themost gallant manner up the face of the hill and at-tacked the enemy in their front. Numbering-lessthan one thousand men, unprotected by any naturalor artificial shelter, they advanced up a precipitousmountain-side upon an adversary protected by in-trenchments and the natural formation of the moun-tain, and unsupported drove them (being at leasttwice their numerical strength) over the crest of themountain, and for one and a half hours maintainedunaided, while exposed to a deadly fire, the positionfrom which they had so bravely driven the foe.”