Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 5.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[35] battery, under command of Lieut. Bowers, was, with the greatest difficulty, placed in position on the mountain, on the left of the turnpike, and gave efficient support to the attack.

During the engagement, I also ordered two twelve-pounders of Johnson's Twelfth Ohio battery to be placed upon the pike, but they could not be placed in position until after twilight.

From three o'clock until eight P. M. our small force engaged with undaunted bravery a force of the enemy which could not have been less than----, and maintained the position from which they had driven them, displaying courage and zeal which has merited the thanks of the country and proved them true representatives of the American citizen soldier.

After nightfall the engagement was continued, the fire of our men being guided only by the flashes of the enemy's musketry, until the ammunition of almost all the men engaged was almost wholly exhausted, when having achieved the purpose of the attack, our forces were recalled, retiring in good order, bringing with them their dead and wounded.

Whilst I should be glad to bring prominently to the notice of the Major-General Commanding the names of the officers and men who distinguished themselves in the action, I could not do so without rehearsing the names of all engaged. Neither officer nor man of those engaged faltered in the performance of his whole duty. The Twenty-fifth and Seventy-fifth O. V. I., in their gallant advance, the Thirty-second Ohio in a daring bayonet charge, and the Third Virginia in their endurance of the most severe fire of the enemy, alike merit his entire approbation.

To Brig.-Gen. Schenck, for his advice and counsel, and to the officers and men of the Eighty-second Ohio, who so bravely assisted us, I owe my warmest thanks.

I have had the honor, in my despatches heretofore transmitted through you, to inform the General Commanding of my march with my brigade from Franklin to McDowell, to the relief of Brig.-Gen. Milroy, who with his force having fallen back to, and concentrated at the last-named place, was threatened with attack by the combined army of Jackson and Johnson. By leaving my baggage-train under a guard, in my last camp on the road, fourteen miles from McDowell, I was able to push forward so as to make the whole distance, thirty-four miles, in twenty-three hours.

I added, however, but little numerical strength to the Army I was sent to relieve. My brigade, consisting of but three regiments, and with several companies then on detailed and other duty, brought into the field an aggregate of only about one thousand three hundred infantry, besides De Beck's battery of the First Ohio artillery and about two hundred and fifty men of the first battalion of Connecticut cavalry.

With this help I reached Gen. Milroy at two o'clock A. M., on the eighth inst. I was, to use his own expression, “just in time.” I found his regiments of infantry partly in line of battle in the plain at McDowell, covering some of the various approaches from the mountain, and partly disposed as skirmishers on the heights in front, and his batteries in position, expecting momentarily that the enemy would attempt to descend into the valley to attack him, under cover of artillery that might be brought forward to command the place from different points.

A little observation served to show at once, that McDowell as a defensive position was entirely untenable, and especially against the largely outnumbering force that was ascertained tb be advancing; and if it had been otherwise, there was no choice left on account of an entire destitution of forage. I determined, therefore, to obey, with as little delay as possible, your order to fall back with the force of our two brigades to this place. Such a movement, however, could not with any safety or propriety be commenced before night, nor did it seem advisable to undertake it without first ascertaining or feeling the actual strength of the rebel force before us, and also perhaps taking some step that would serve to check or disable him from his full power or disposition to pursue.

This was effectually done by an attack on his position on the mountain in the afternoon, and on the night following, I was enabled to withdraw our whole army along the road through the narrow gorge, which afforded the only egress from the valley in which McDowell is situated, in the direction of Franklin.

This withdrawal we effected without the loss of a man, and without loss or destruction of any article of public property, except of some stores, for which Gen. Milroy was entirely without the means of transportation. I submit herewith the reports of Brig.-Gen. Milroy and of Col. James Cantwell, commanding the Eighty-second Ohio volunteer infantry of my brigade, giving an account of the affair, with the rebel force that day, and of the parts severally taken in the fight by the different regiments engaged.

At three o'clock, Gen. Milroy having reported to me that his scouts informed him of reenforcements continually arriving to the support of the enemy, concealed among the woods on the mountain, and that they were evidently making preparations to get artillery in position for sweeping the valley, I consented to his request to be permitted to make a reconnaissance. The force detailed for this purpose consisted of portions of four regiments of infantry of his brigade, namely, the Seventy-fifth, Twenty-fifth and Thirty-second Ohio, and the Third Virginia, and the Eighty-second Ohio of mine — the latter regiment gladly receiving the order to join in the enterprise, although the men were exhausted with the long march from which they had just arrived, with want of food, sleep and rest. The infantry was