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Yesterday morning he was reenforced by General Echols, from Lewisburgh, with Patten's brigade and a regiment of Jenkins's command, and assumed a strong position upon the summit of Droop Mountain, a position similar to that upon South-Mountain, in Maryland, but stronger, from natural difficulties and breastworks.
I stormed the enemy's left with infantry, and when he became disturbed made an attack direct with four regiments of dismounted cavalry.
The victory was decisive, and the enemy's retreat became a total rout.
His forces, throwing away their arms, became scattered in every direction.
I pursued those that he kept together until after dark.
His wounded and many prisoners and arms have fallen into our hands.
My loss is about one hundred officers and men. The troops are in excellent spirits, with plenty of ammunition.
Wm. W. Averill, Brigadier-General.
A national account.
New-Creek, West-Virginia, November 20.
The brigade of General Averill left their camp at Beverly, at noon, on Saturday, November first The day was clear and warm.
We marched to Huttonville, where we camped for the night.
At seven o'clock Monday morning we resumed the march.
The day was fine — a delightful Indian summer morning — and a march of two miles brought us to the foot of Cheat Mountain.
Here are the remains of the rebel works made at the beginning of the war; and here are the marks of the battle that took place at this point.
On our way up the mountain we met a family of refugees from the White Sulphur Springs, who were escaping from the terrible persecutions of the rebels, and seeking a land of peace and plenty.
The brigade presented an animated and picturesque appearance as it wound its way up the mountain.
We reached the summit at noon, where we halted to rest and close up the column before beginning the descent.
From the summit of Cheat is a magnificent view of valley and mountain, and, looking eastward, of the Alleghanies, towering in grandeur and covered with a dark forest of fir, and the valley of the Green Brier stretching to the south-east, while our works on Cheat, and Lee's works on the Alleghany, frown defiance at each other.
The distance from the bottom of Cheat to the top on the western side, by the windings of the road, is six miles, and only one mile to the valley of Cheat River on the eastern side.
After descending the mountain and crossing the valley, we crossed another low mountain, which is the “divide” between the two rivers — the Cheat and Green Brier.
On the road at the foot of this mountain, on the eastern side, is the Gum Farm, a noted place for bushwhackers, and where a large party of guerrillas recently blockaded the road behind a little scouting party of the Eighth Virginia and attempted to capture them, but the corporal, with his party of nine men, gallantly cut his way through, with the loss of one man wounded and one horse killed.
Our camp for the night was at a place marked on the map “Travellers' repose,” formerly a hotel hid away in this valley.
Opposite our camp was a little grove of evergreens, from which the cowardly “bushwhackers” had frequently fired on our men, and on one occasion killed and wounded a number belonging to an Indiana regiment, that were on the march, and from which a volley had been fired into the Eighth Virginia when on an expedition last winter.
This valley is now in utter desolation.
Human habitations and fences all gone, and left a mournful solitude.
Next morning resumed the march, and immediately after crossing the river, came to the rebel works made by Lee during the summer of 1861, and called “Camp Alleghany.”
At this place we met two more families of refugees, also from White Sulphur, leaving the doomed land of “Dixie,” who had been driven off by the rebels.
From here a scouting party was sent to Fort Baldwin, on top of the Alleghany.
At this point the Beverly and Staunton pike crosses the mountain.
This party, when they reached the summit, built a large number of fires, engaged all the hay in the country, and required accommodations for some half-dozen “generals,” and then made a circuit to the village of Green Bank, where they scattered a company of rebel cavalry, and made two prisoners. The brigade marched down the valley by the way of Green Bank.
We were now in a fine country, that, in appearance, had escaped “war's desolation.”
In this beautiful valley were a number of fine mansions, and, like almost all the fine houses in the South, had the appendages of negro huts — barbarism and civilization side by side.
We passed through a magnificent forest of white-pine timber, such as would make the fortune of a company of enterprising Yankees, and encamped for the night at Matthews's Mills, where we found abundance of corn and hay for our horses.
It was a cold, frosty night, but with our feet to big blazing fires, we slept soundly and awoke refreshed.
Next morning we started for Huntersville, and during the morning burnt a rebel camp, and near the town another, and reached town at eleven o'clock. The Fourteenth Pennsylvania, Third Virginia, and a section of artillery were immediately sent on to Mill Point, to cut off the retreat of Jackson, who was at Marling Bottom; and, to prevent his being alarmed too soon, the balance of the brigade halted in this forsaken, desolate place — the saddest picture of the punishment that has overtaken the poor, deluded rebels that we have met with.
In the afternoon, the Second Virginia, the Eighth, and one piece of artillery were sent to Mill Bottom, where they arrived at dark; but Jackson had got the news of our coming, and retreated down the river, blockading the road at the narrows.
We sent the pioneers to remove the obstructions, and went into camp for the night.
Early next morning, after setting fire to the comfortable winter-quarters that the rebels had erected, we began the pursuit, congratulating 