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had been successful, and
McClellan thus summed up the results in a dispatch to the War Department: “We have completely annihilated the enemy in
Western Virginia.
Our loss is about thirteen killed, and not more than forty wounded; while the enemy's loss is not far from two hundred killed; and the number of prisoners we have taken will amount to at least one thousand.
We have captured seven of the enemy's guns in all.”
General Cox had been successful in the
Kanawha Valley.
He crossed the
Ohio at the mouth of the
Guyandotte River, captured
Barboursville after a slight skirmish, and pushed on to the
Kanawha River.
Wise was then in the valley of that stream, below
Charleston, the capital of
Kanawha County, and had an outpost at Scareytown, composed of a small force under
Captain Patton.
This was attacked by fifteen hundred
Ohio troops under
Colonel Lowe, who were repulsed.
That night, the assailed insurgents fled up the valley to
Wise's camp, and gave him such an alarming.
account of the numbers of the invaders, that the
General at once retreated, first to
Charleston, then to
Gauley Bridge (which he burnt), near the mouth of the
Gauley River,
and did not make a permanent halt until he reached
Lewisburg, the capital of
Greenbrier County.
The news of
Garnett's disaster, and
Wise's own incompetence, had so dispirited his troops, that large numbers had left him. At
Lewisburg, he was re-enforced and outranked by
John B. Floyd, late
Secretary of War, who had a brigadier's commission.
The war in
Western Virginia seemed to have ended with the dispersion of
Garnett's forces, and there was much rejoicing over the result.
It was premature.
The “Confederates” were not disposed to surrender to their enemy the granaries that would be needed to supply the troops in
Eastern Virginia, without a severer struggle.
General Robert E. Lee succeeded
Garnett, and more important men than
Wise and
Floyd took the places of these incompetents.
Rosecrans succeeded
McClellan, who was called to the command of the Army of the Potomac,
and the war in the mountain region of
Virginia was soon renewed, the most prominent events of which will be recorded hereafter.
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Tail-piece — Cap. |
