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west of
Cumberland, and captured a company of Union soldiers, but on his return he was struck a severe blow by
General Averill, not far from
Romney, and driven entirely out of the new Commonwealth, with a loss of his prisoners and a large proportion of his own men and horses.
Ten days afterward,
Champe Ferguson, one of the most notorious of the lower order of guerrilla leaders, was surprised while at the
Rock House, in
Wayne County, of
West Virginia, by
Colonel Gallup, who was in command on the eastern border of
Kentucky.
Ferguson and fifty of his men were made prisoners, and fifteen others were killed.
A few days before that,
Lieutenant Verdigan, one of
Ferguson's followers, with ten men, surprised and captured a steamboat on the
Kanawha River, on board of which was
General Scammon (then commanding at
Charleston, in the
Kanawha Valley), four officers and twenty-five private soldiers.
All but
Scammon and his two aids were paroled by the guerrillas.
These officers were sent to
Richmond and confined in the loathsome Libby prison.
These events were followed by others of greater magnitude and importance in. that region, after
Grant assumed the general command.
General Sigel, as we have observed, was placed with a large force in the Shenandoah Valley, to co-operate with the Army of the Potomac.
He gave the immediate command of his forces in the
Kanawha Valley to
General George Crook, and with the remainder, about eight thousand strong, under his own personal command, he moved up the Shenandoah Valley, along its fine turnpike, on the first of May.
His first destination was
Staunton, at the head of the valley, whence he was to move over the
Blue Ridge to
Charlottesville, and then to march right or left, to
Lynchburg or
Gordonsville, as circumstances might determine.
When near
New Market, almost fifty miles from
Winchester, he was met by an equal force under
General Breckinridge, whom
Lee had sent to oppose his advance, with such troops as he might hastily gather.
Breckinridge found it necessary to oppose
Crook also, and for that purpose he sent
General McCausland west-ward with as many troops as could be spared from the
Valley.
After much maneuvering and skirmishing near
New Market,
Breckinridge made an impetuous charge
upon
Sigel, and ended a sharp fight by driving him more than thirty miles down the valley, to the shelter of
Cedar Creek, near
Strasburg, with a loss of seven hundred men, six guns, a thousand small-arms, a portion of his train, and his hospitals.
Grant immediately relieved
General Sigel, and
General Hunter took command of his troops, with instructions to push swiftly on to
Staunton, destroy the railway between that place and
Charlottesville, and then, if possible, move on
Lynchburg.
Meanwhile,
General Crook, whose cavalry was led by
General Averill, had moved
up the
Kanawha Valley from
Charleston, for the purpose of operating against the Virginia and Tennessee railway, between Dublin Station, in
Pulaski County, and
Wytheville, on
New River, in
Wythe County, in
Southwestern Virginia.
Unfortunately,
Crook divided and weakened his command by sending
Averill, with his two thousand horsemen, to destroy the lead mines near
Wytheville, while he advanced with his six thousand infantry toward Dublin Station, farther east.
Averill's descent upon
Wytheville and its vicinity was no more fruitful of benefit
