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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[174] was again to be lost. On the night of the 6th of October, Rosecrans' troops moved to the rear in the dark, and the next morning, when the Confederates looked out from their camp, the whole of the threatening host that had confronted them for twelve days before, was gone. Gen. Lee made no attempt to pursue them. It was said that the mud, the swollen streams, and the reduced condition of his artillery horses made pursuit impracticable.

But one incident of success was to occur in a campaign of so many disappointments. When Gen. Lee withdrew from the Cheat Mountain region, he left Gen. II. R. Jackson with twenty-five hundred men to hold his position on the Greenbrier River. On the 3d of October, the enemy, about four thousand strong, attacked Jackson's position. A severe artillery engagement occurred, in which Jackson could not bring more than five pieces in action to return the fire of the enemy's eight. Masses of infantry were then thrown forward on Jackson's right and front, marching up the wooded sides of a hill that rose from the river. The location of the hill was such that they could not fire effectively until they crossed the river; and as they attempted to form and deploy, in order to a charge, the 12th Georgia Regiment fired several rapid volleys of musketry into them, which instantly checked their advance. At the same time, Shumaker's guns were directed to the point in the woods in which they were known to be crowded, and completed their discomfiture by playing upon them with destructive effect. The regiments on the hill-side retreated rapidly, and soon the whole force of the enemy's infantry, artillery, and cavalry was moving in a confused mass to the rear. His loss in the engagement in killed and wounded was estimated at from two hundred and fifty to three hundred. The loss of the Confederates was officially reported as six killed and thirty-one wounded.

The approaching rigours of winter terminated the campaign in Western Virginia; or it may be said to have been virtually abandoned by the Richmond authorities. Gen. Lee, who had shed such little blood in the campaign, and obtained such indifferent reputation in mountain warfare, was appointed to take charge of the coast defences of South Carolina and Georgia. Gen. Wise was ordered to report to Richmond, and was subsequently assigned to important duty in North Carolina. Gen. Floyd lingered in the mountains; had some desultory affairs with the enemy; subsequently retired to Southwestern Virginia; and from there was transferred by the Government to the now imposing theatre of war in Tennessee and Kentucky.

Thus ended the effort of the Confederate authorities to reclaim the larger portion of Western Virginia. We have put in a brief space its narrative of military events; for, after all, it was a mere series of local adventures, compared with other operations of the war.