Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

[518] eight o'clock in the morning.

June 11, 1861.

In a narrow pass, half a mile from the bridge which there spans the south branch of the Potomac, the advance-guard was fired upon by mounted pickets, who then dashed ahead and alarmed the camp of the insurgents, on a bluff near the village, where they had planted a battery of field-pieces. The guard followed, crossed the bridge on a run, and drew several shots from a large brick dwelling-house near the bank of the stream, which was used as a sort of citadel. Wallace immediately led a second company across, drove the foe from the house to the shelter of the mountains, and then pushed four companies, in skirmish order, directly up the hill, to capture the battery. This was unexpected to the insurgents, who supposed the assailants would follow the winding road, and they fled in terror to the forest, accompanied by all the women and children of the village, excepting negroes, who seemed to have no fear of the invaders. Having no cavalry with which to pursue the fugitives, and knowing that at a hundred points on the road between Romney and New Creek a small force might ruin or rout his regiment, Wallace at once retraced his steps, and returned to Cumberland. In the space of twenty-four hours he and his men had traveled eighty-seven miles without rest (forty-six of them on foot), engaged in a brisk skirmish, and, “what is more,” said the gallant Colonel in his report, “my men are ready to repeat it to-morrow.” ¹

This dash on the insurgents at Romney had a salutary effect. It inspirited the loyal people in that region, thrilled the whole country with joy, and, according to the Richmond newspapers, so alarmed Johnston by its boldness, and its menaces of his line of communication with Richmond, and Manassas (for he believed these troops to be the advance of a much larger force), that he forthwith evacuated Harper's Ferry, and moved up the Valley to a point nearer Winchester.

Tail-piece — Knapsack.