Edward Alfred Pollard, The lost cause; a new Southern history of the War of the Confederates ... Drawn from official sources and approved by the most distinguished Confederate leaders.

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[172] the road directly into the Valley of the Kanawha. He indicated the urgent necessity of shaping the command in that region of country so as to ensure unity of action,--the condition of success in all military operations.

In a few days Rosecrans crossed the Gauley with his army, and as the force opposing them was superiour in numbers, Floyd and Wise fell back deliberately towards Sewell's Mountain. New differences now developed themselves between these two leaders, which disturbed that unity of action so much desired. After reaching Sewell's Mountain, Gen. Floyd held a council of his officers, and determined to fall back still further, to Meadow Bluff, eighteen miles west of Lewisburg. Gov. Wise followed him only as far as the eastern slope of the mountain, where he proceeded to strengthen his position, which he named Camp “Defiance.”

At this pause in military operations in the Kanawha Valley, it will be convenient to note the events which had occurred further north in this Western region of Virginia, and to observe the movements of the Confederate army there under the command of a man whose star was to be singularly obscured before it mounted the zenith of fame-Gen. Robert E. Lee.

After the retreat of Gen. Garnett from Rich Mountain, and the death of that officer, Gen. Lee was appointed to succeed him, and, with as little delay as possible, repaired to the scene of operations. He took with him reinforcements, making his whole force, in conjunction with the remnant of Gen. Garnett's army, about sixteen thousand men. The roads in this part of the country were deep in mud and horrible with precipices. By patience and skill, Gen. Lee advanced with his army across the Alleghany range, and deliberately approached the enemy in Randolph County.

Rosecrans was then the ranking officer of the Federal troops in Northwestern Virginia; but Gen. Reynolds held the approaches to Beverly with a force estimated at from ten to twelve thousand men. The larger part of these were strongly entrenched at a point at the junction of Tygart's Valley River and Elk Run, which post was called by the Federals “Elk water.” The remainder held the pass at the second summit of Cheat Mountain, on the best road from Staunton to Parkersburg. The mountain had three well-defined summits. The second presented the greatest advantages for fortification, and here the enemy had built a powerful fort or block-house in the elbow of the road, flanked by entrenchments of earth and logs, protected by dense abattis on every side, and rendered inaccessible, in two directions, by the steep and rugged walls of the mountain.

Having approached the enemy, Gen. Lee directed careful reconnoissances to be made of all his positions. Col. Rust, of the 3d Arkansas Regiment, made what afterwards proved to be a very imperfect reconnoissance of the enemy's position on Cheat Mountain, and reported that it was perfectly practicable to turn it and carry it by storm. Gen. Lee at once issued his