|
 |
 |
A Chronicle of Events for the Sesquicentennial
Civil War Journal is produced by the Rich Mountain Battlefield Foundation and Historic Beverly Preservation in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Entries were added each week until August of 2011, after which time entries are added as historical events warrant. The most recent entries are featured at the top and the oldest entry are at bottom of the column. See this MEDIA ADVISORY for details, and see this INDEX OF ENTRIES for a linked chronological list of individual articles.
| 2010 | 2011 | Current entries - 2012 (below) |
Soldiers Suffer at Winter Camps
In the beginning years of the American Civil War, the greatest threat to a soldier’s life was not actual warfare but the sickness and exposure to the elements that accompanied camp life.
The winter of 1861-62 in the Virginias was among the worst in living memory at that time. The weather was most bitter high in the mountains where Confederates remained at Camp Allegheny and Union troops occupied Cheat Summit Fort.
Large snowdrifts often trapped Federal soldiers in their cabins on Cheat Mountain. “I now beg and earnestly entreat you,” wrote Indiana Congressman Schuyler Colfax to Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, “to relieve them…from that Siberia to fields where they will have a chance to fight instead of to freeze.”
The Rebels stationed at Camp Allegheny were in a worse situation, as they were not as prepared for the long winter. Men crowded into quickly built and cramped log shelters. Others, still living in tents with crudely constructed fireplaces, would often wake to interiors covered in frost.
“I have seen ice on the barrels of our guns one fourth of an inch thick,” reported Georgian Parson Parker, “I have seen the stoutest men of our regiment wrenching their hands and shedding tears from cold, in short, it’s almost a matter of impossibility to describe the sufferings of our solders on the Alleghany Mountain.”
Successes and failures on both sides had forced fortifications in the Alleghenies to remain manned throughout the winter. All were affected by a general lack of shelter and cold weather supplies. Soldiers suffered from painful frostbite. Snow, ice and mud prevented delivery of needed supplies on the turnpike. When food was in short supply, troops resorted to stealing fodder from the livestock. Periodic thaws would occur, sometimes bringing heavy rainfall that soon turned to ice.
The bitter cold tested the stamina of troops already weak and sick from months of deprivation. Illness, in fact, took many more lives than battles.
In 1861, disease killed 12 times as many men as combat related injuries. Most recruits came from rural areas and had never been exposed to common childhood diseases, often very dangerous later in life. An epidemic of measles had afflicted soldiers at Camp Allegheny. Even minor illnesses were potentially fatal due to inadequate nutrition and shelter.
In the first year and a half of the war, two percent of all Union soldiers died from illness. More poorly equipped and less accustomed to the elements, Confederates lost close to four percent due to illness during the same period. Inadequate medical care also contributed significantly to Confederate losses. Southern soldiers were one and a half times as likely to die of dysentery and diarrhea as their northern counterparts, and almost five times as likely to die from pulmonary diseases.
Colder weather brought more
illnesses, such as colds, coughs, and pneumonia.
When not sick or freezing, boredom abounded. Soldiers attempted
to fill the days with menial tasks, drinking, and, subsequently,
fights.
The standoff in the mountains across the upper Greenbrier Valley would remain until the spring, when Brig. Gen. Edward Johnson finally withdrew from Camp Allegheny on April 1,1862.
A rift between generals nearly cost the Confederacy one of its most outstanding military leaders early in 1862.
As temperatures cooled and snow fell, military action in the Virginias slowed. Due to the difficulties of traveling and acquiring food this time of year, it was customary practice for soldiers to move into winter quarters and wait for spring.
Maj. Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was not so patient. Since taking control of the Valley District in November, 1861, he had hoped to retake the Potomac highlands and much of Western Virginia from the Federals.
Jackson planned to head north from Winchester to capture Bath (Berkeley Springs), Morgan County, cross the river to Hancock in Maryland, and from there move west to Romney, Hampshire County. His ultimate objectives were the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Worried that the towns might be reinforced at any moment, he felt that no time could be wasted.
The general needed additional troops to accomplish his mission. On December 27, Brig. Gen. William L. Loring arrived in Winchester with his weary brigade. They had endured an arduous march through the mountains from Huntersville, Pocahontas County. The soldiers assumed they would now be able to rest.
Jackson was not sympathetic. Irritated by their delayed arrival, he launched his winter campaign on December 31.
On New Year’s Day, 1862, 8,000 Confederate men started their march north to Bath. The spring-like weather quickly turned cold and snowy. With wagons trailing the troops, soldiers were forced to camp in the bitter cold without food and winter supplies. Troops under Stonewall Jackson approached Union advance guards at the outskirts of the town on January 3.
Jackson ordered Loring to attack Bath. The general, however, ignored the command. Loring and his party had been forced to march through the night and he instead allowed the suffering soldiers, some of whom were freezing to death, to halt and bivouac. The following day Rebel forces entered and occupied Bath, along with nearby Alpine, Great Cacapon, and Sir Johns Run.
Maj. Gen. Jackson departed on January 5 for Hancock, along the way damaging a railroad bridge over the Great Cacapon River and a C&O Canal dam. However a small Confederate force was routed at Hanging Rock Pass, also known as Blue’s Gap, on January 7. Faced with Federal resistance, Jackson abandoned his march to Hancock, and proceeded directly toward Romney.
On January 13, Jackson’s troops reached Romney. Federal troops occupying the town had retreated west, leaving the town in a deplorable condition. The Stonewall Brigade remained in Romney until January 23, when they departed for the greater comforts of Winchester, leaving Brig. Gen. Loring and his brigade to occupy the town.
In less than a month, Jackson
had driven the Federals from the area and destroyed over 100
miles of railroad. However, the significance of this
accomplishment was lost on Loring, who felt his men had been
subjected to undue hardship.
Angry with Jackson for his preferential treatment of his own men
and the winter campaign, Loring and his officers circumvented
the chain of command and petitioned the central authorities in
Richmond to recall them from Romney.
On January 31, Jackson received orders from Secretary of War
Judah P. Benjamin to recall Loring from Romney. Furious, Jackson
penned his resignation.
“With such interference in my command I cannot expect to be of much service in the field; and accordingly respectfully request to be ordered to report for duty to the Superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute …’ Jackson wrote. “Should this application not be granted, I respectfully request that the President will accept my resignation from the Army.”
Maj. Gen. Jackson would later,
at the urging of friends including President Jefferson Davis,
withdraw his resignation. However, he did file seven charges of
insubordination and dereliction of duty against Loring, which
were ignored. Brig. Gen. Loring would ultimately be promoted,
transferred to a different district, and his division
reorganized.
Union Soldiers Confiscate Supplies at Huntersville
A Federal attack deep behind Confederate lines in the early days of 1862 condemned soldiers to suffer the long, cold winter without needed supplies.
On December 31 U.S. Maj. George Webster and 400 men of the 25th Ohio Infantry marched south from the Randolph County town of Huttonsville to Huntersville in Pocahontas County, acquiring 340 additional soldiers along the way. No other Union force had pushed so deep into enemy territory.
Federals skirmished with Confederates on January 2, 1862 at Marlins Bottom, present day Marlinton, and engaged the Rebels again outside Huntersville.
Huntersville had served as headquarters for the Confederate Army of the Northwest before Brig. Gen. William W. Loring had moved his forces east to assist Maj. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. Loring left 250 men and the militia to protect the town which now served as a supply center and provided access to Warm Springs, Va. and the Shenandoah Valley.
Confederates attempted to remove everything of value from the town before retreating, but did not succeed. Federals seized remaining weapons and goods. Food stuff captured included 350 barrels flour; 150,000 lbs of salted beef; 30,000 lbs of salt; sugar, rice, coffee, and bacon.
The raid on the supply depot strongly weakened Rebel moral. Without provisions, Rebel soldiers withdrew to Warm Springs and Monterey.
Leaving the U.S. flag, “Old Glory,” nailed to the courthouse, Maj. Webster and his troops left for the long march back to Huttonsville. Unable to take loaded wagons over timber barricades at the base or Marlin Mountain, they were forced to abandon confiscated supplies.
The exhausted soldiers reached Huttonsville four days later, having completed a winter march of more than 100 miles in less than six days.
As 1861 came to a close in western Virginia, the Civil War had been characterized by many such small battles and guerilla warfare.
Isolated skirmishes had continued in Gilmer and Hardy Counties. The home guard company known as the Mountain Tigers engaged Federals near the Dry Fork River; Union soldiers occupied modern-day Beckley in Raleigh County.
On December 19, 1861, a secessionist guerilla unit known as the Moccasin Rangers captured the town of Ripley, Jackson County. Led by Daniel Dusky, a 52-year-old farmer and justice of the peace from Calhoun County, the group looted weapons, clothes, and supplies.
The Rangers drew members from Calhoun, Webster, and Braxton counties and had ties to the legendary Confederate spy, Nancy Hart. They had been active around the Little Kanawha River since November, attacking towns and Federal soldiers.
During the war, captured Moccasin Rangers would not be treated as enemy combatants, but instead tried as criminals. Dusky was captured and brought to Wheeling on December 26, along with 34 other prisoners.
The Confederate Army would later add the Rangers as Company A of the 19th Virginia Cavalry Regiment in an attempt to legitimize the group.
On December 20 the first military execution in western Virginia took place in Charleston. Charged with desertion, mutiny, and assault on a fellow officer, Pvt. Richard Gatewood of the 1st Kentucky was killed by a firing squad composed of men from his own regiment.
Confederates drove Federal cavalry out of Sutton, Braxton County, on December 29. The town was highly contested during the war due to its strategic location on important transportation routes. Many soldiers had passed through Sutton, including future president William McKinley. In the absence of their commander, the Confederates set fire to the town. When the captain returned and ordered the fires put out, considerable damage had already been done.
| Entry Title | Date Published |
|
January 2, 2012 |
|
|
January 16, 2012 |
|
|
January 30, 2012 |
For more information contact: richmt@richmountain.org | Comments on Website: webster@richmountain.org
Contents Copyright© 2010 - by Rich Mountain Battlefield Foundation