Robert Lewis Dabney, Life and Commands of Lieutenand- General Thomas J. Jackson

[188] arms, were wrapped in flames. It was indeed ascertained, that the larger part of the muskets were not consumed with the buildings, but were stolen and secreted by the inhabitants of the place. Of these, a few thousands were discovered, hidden in every conceivable place of concealment, and gathered for the State by the officers of the militia, while many of the privates armed themselves, by traffic with the venal populace. Meantime, other companies of volunteers flocked from the valley of Virginia to the place, until the materials of a little army were assembled there. But they were “without form and void.”

It was at this juncture that Colonel Jackson took command. He was ordered by Major-General Lee to organize the companies of volunteers, assembled at Harper's Ferry, into regiments, and to instruct them diligently in military drill and discipline, to retain control of the great thoroughfares leading towards Washington city, and prevent their use by the Federal authorities for offensive purposes, even by their partial destruction, if necessary; to urge on the completion of fire-arms out of the materials already partially prepared at the factories, until such time as the machinery could be removed to the interior; and to defend the soil of Virginia from the invasion threatened from that quarter. About this time, there were assembled at Harper's Ferry, 2100 Virginian troops, with 400 Kentuckians, consisting of Imboden's, Rogers', Alburti's, and Graves'. batteries of field artillery, with fifteen guns of the lightest calibre; eight companies of cavalry without drill or battalion organization, and nearly without arms; and a number of companies of infantry, of which three regiments, the 2d, 5th, and 10th, were partially arranged, while the rest had no organization. The Convention had just passed a very necessary law, revoking the commissions of all the militia officers in command of volunteer forces; for their appointments, made long before, when the military system of the State was only a name.