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father1 is sitting on his blanket sewing a strap on his haversack.
I think she ought to be here to do it.”
And on September 1st, from the same place, he tells her: “We have had a great deal of sickness among the soldiers, and those now on the sick list would form an army.
The measles is still among them, but I hope is dying out. The constant cold rains, mud, etc., with no shelter or tents, have aggravated it. All these drawbacks, with impassable roads, have paralyzed our efforts.”
It was Loring's purpose to attempt a movement on Reynolds's rear.
This officer occupied, with two thousand men, Cheat Mountain pass, through which the Staunton and Parkersburg pike passed, and had three thousand men in Tygart's Valley on the road to Huttonsville, with a reserve at Huttonsville, so he could re-enforce his troops on the Staunton road, or on the Valley Mountain road, as necessary.
Loring, with thirtyfive hundred effective troops, was in front of him on the latter, while General H. R. Jackson, with twenty-five hundred men, opposed him on the Staunton road.
The natural topographical features, supplemented by artificial means, rendered his position very strong on both.
General Lee promptly took the offensive by threatening his front, while a column should proceed, if possible, around one of his flanks and assault his rear — a plan similar to that adopted by McClellan at Rich Mountain.
The greatest difficulty in a campaign of this description is to discover suitable routes or paths over the rocks and precipitous mountain sides for the troops of the turning column.
General Lee's experience as an engineer in Mexico had taught him the duties of .a reconnoitering officer.
He therefore not only availed himself of the information derived from others, but would personally proceed daily long distances for that purpose.
At this time Rosecrans was in the Kanawha Valley with Cox's column, and was opposed by the troops of the Confederate Generals Floyd and Wise, and was not with the force in General Lee's front.
He and Lee commanded the whole department on their respective sides.
The army whose movements General Lee was about to
1 His aid-de-camp, Colonel John Augustine Washington.
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