History of the Campaign of Gen. T. J.-Stonewall-Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. From November 4, 1861, to June 17, 1862 ... With ... maps ... by Jed. Hotchkiss

Front matter

HISTORY OF THE CAMPAIGN OF GEN. T. J. (STONEWALL) JACKSON IN THE Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. FROM NOVEMBER 4, 1861, TO JUNE 17, 1862. BY WILLIAM ALLAN, FORMERLY LIEUTENANT-COLONEL AND CHIEF ORDNANCE OFFICER, SECOND CORPS, A.N.V. WITH FULL MAPS OF THE REGION AND OF THE BATTLE-FIELDS BT JED. HOTCHKISS, FORMERLY CAPTAIN AND TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEER, SECOND CORPS, A.N.V. PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 1880. Copyright, 1880, by William Allan. DEDICATION. TO THE PEOPLE OF LEXINGTON, VI KG IN I A, IN WHOSE MIDST JACKSON MADE HIS HOME IN LIFE, AND CHOSE HIS RESTING-PLACE IN DEATH.

Preface

. The operations of General T. J. Jackson in the Valley of Virginia, during the first half of the year 1862, constitute one of the most bril liant and interesting episodes of the great Civil War. The theatre on which they took place afforded a quick and easy approach to the Federal capital and to the northern States. The mountains and rivers of the Valley gave to an active and skilful commander many opportunities of neutralizing great disparity of force. The celerity, energy, and skill which Jackson manifested on this field excited the admiration of his countrymen and produced a feeling nearly akin to consternation among his foes. His campaign had a most important bearing upon all the military operations in Virginia in the spring and summer of 1862, for he caused to be detained, for the defence of Washington and Maryland, forces in the aggregate four or five times as numerous as his own, and thus in a fatal degree hampered and paralyzed McClellan.

The story of this campaign will always be interesting to the actors in it on both sides, and not merely to them ; to the student of military art it affords an admirable example of an aggressive-defensive campaign, and one of the best instances in modern times of the degree to which skill and daring may neutralize superi ority of numbers and resources. Our aim has been to give an accurate history of this campaign from official sources. Dr. Dabney's " Life of Jackson" was written during the war, and without access to the Federal sources of information. Much has been written since, but generally in the shape of personal narratives, or of statements based upon the newspaper correspondence of the time. Such accounts are of course imperfect, and some of them are so partisan in character as to be of no value. Until recently the

PREFACE.

. official reports were in a large degree inaccessible, but this is no longer the case. As will be seen by the foot-notes, we have been at pains to verify all important statements about numbers, — in a great many instances from the original MS. returns themselves. Our thanks are due to Adj.-Gen. Townsend and to Gen. M. W. Wright for facilities extended to us in the examination of papers in their offices, to Dr. Jones, secretary of the Southern Historical Society, for many favors, and to A. P. Tasker, Esq., of the Confederate archive office, and J.' W. Kirkly, Esq., of the adjutant-general's office (the well-known historian of the First Federal Maryland regiment), for frequent and valued courtesies. In addition to the official reports, we have been indebted to the various lives of Jackson by Maj. J. Esten Cooke, Miss Randolph, and an " Ex-Cadet," and especially to the earliest and very valuable biography of Jackson by his former chief of staff, Dr. R. L. Dabney.

We have also drawn from the Historical Papers of Gen. G. H. Gordon, of Massachusetts, and the reminiscences of Gen. Strother, and from many others, to whom our obligations are acknowledged in the text or notes. A full diary kept by Maj. Hotchkiss during the greater part of this campaign has been of great value. We are also indebted to a diary kept by J. A. Waddell, Esq., of Staunton, Virginia. The maps have been prepared by D. C. Humphreys, C. E. of the United States river surveys, under the direction of, and from the material furnished by, Maj. Jed. Hotchkiss, of Staunton, Virginia. Maj. Hotchkiss was topographical engineer for Gen. Jackson during this and his subsequent campaigns, and possesses by far the most valuable mass of topographical data now in existence relating to these campaigns.

Maj. Hotchkiss has also furnished much valuable information besides that directly credited in the narrative. W. A. McDonooh, Md., May 1, 1880. CONTENTS.

Chapter I. Romney

The long struggle between . the two great sections of the United States came to an issue of arms in the spring of 1861. For years the course of events had tended to this result. The North, great and growing, filled with the most advanced ideas as to popular government, human rights, universal equality and fraternity, and tending, because of the immense expansion of commerce and manufactures, to a centralized government, chafed and fretted against the barriers interposed by a strict construction of the Constitution to an extension of its civilization over the entire country. The foundations on which the Union had been reared seemed narrow and antiquated to a people whose growth had been unprecedented, and who, by an immense infusion of un-English immigration, had lost much of their reverence for the traditions and principles of the Fathers of the Republic.

The South, more conservative in principle and practice ; less changed by immigration ; believing slavery the best relation for the negro, and a necessary condition of permanence in a purely democratic state ; saw no safety for its institutions, except in strict adherence to constitutional guarantees, and watched with the utmost jealousy any encroachments attempted upon the defences which the Constitution had thrown around the weaker party. When the long political struggle culminated in the election of Mr. Lincoln to the presidency in 1860, some of the southern States thought it time to 2 1861-62. dissolve the Union, and seek safety in a separate government from the anti-slavery deluge which seemed to them about to spread over the land. The border slave States held back for a time, and Virginia especially, which had contributed so largely to the formation of the Union originally, exerted all her influence to bring about a peace between the conflicting sections, but in vain.

Meantime, Mr. Lin coln entered upon office March 4, 1861. In a few weeks his concilia tory sentiments yielded to the pressure of the public opinion of his political associates in the North. Early in April a decided stand was taken against further concession to the seceding States. It was determined to reinforce Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor. On the 13th of April the fort was attacked by the Confederates and taken. On April 15, President Lincoln issued his call for seventy-five thousand troops to suppress "insurrectionary combinations." On April 17, Governor Leteher, of Virginia, refused to obey the Presi dent's call for troops, and on the same day the Virginia convention, all its efforts for peace having failed, and the issue being now war on the one side or the other, repealed the ordinance by which the State had originally adopted the Federal constitution, and seceded from the Union.

The authorities of Virginia at once took steps to organize such military force as she possessed. Volunteers were called for, and such as were not ready for immediate service were ordered to Richmond, where a camp of instruction was established. In a few days it was determined to bring down the senior cadets from the Virginia Mili tary Institute, at Lexington, to be used in drilling the recruits.' On Sunday morning, April 21, the order reached Lexington, Virginia, requiring those cadets to report at Richmond, under command of Maj. T. J. Jackson, then Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy in the Virginia Military Institute. Maj. Jackson was born at Clarksburg, Western Virginia, January, 1824, entered West Point in 1842, graduated in 1846, distinguished himself in the march on the city of Mexico in 1847 as a lieutenant in Magruder's battery, was brevetted captain for gallant and meritori ous conduct at Churubusco, August 20, and major at Chapultepec, September 13, 1847.

He accompanied his command after the close of the Mexican war to Fort Hamilton, whence he was sent to Fort Meade, near Tampa bay, Florida. While here he was elected, in 1851, to the above-named professorship in the Virginia Military Institute, and resigning from the army he removed to Lexington. Here he resided for the next ten years. ROMNEY. 11 At one o'clock on Sunday, the 21st of April, 1861, the cadets, under Maj. Jackson, took up their line of march for Staunton, en route to Richmond. He then left his home for the last time. A little more than two years afterwards all that was mortal of "Stonewall" Jackson was borne, amid the tears and lamentations of his countrymen, to the simple village churchyard of Lexington. Maj. Jackson was first assigned to duty at the camp of instruction, near Richmond, but at the end of a week he was commissioned as colonel by the State of Virginia, and ordered to take command at Harper's Ferry, Virginia.

He arrived there on the 29th of April, and held command until superseded by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston,1 who, upon the adhesion of Virginia to the Confederate States, was sent by the authorities of the latter to take charge of this important post. Col. Jackson was then placed in command of one of the brigades of the army gradually collecting under Gen. Johnston. He was made brigadier-general on July 3, and marched to Manassas on the 18th and 19th, when Gen. Johnston moved to the assistance of Beauregard. At Manassas, July 21, Jackson contributed materially to the victory won by the Con federates, his brigade checking the tide of Federal success, and ren dering conspicuous service. It was on this occasion that he received the sobriquet of " Stonewall," from an expression used by Gen. Bee in reference to Jackson's brigade.2 1 Gen. Johnston assumed command on the 23d of May. s The first battle of Manassas was fought on Sunday, July 21, 1861, between the Federal army, under Gen. Irwin McDowell, and the Confederate forces, under Gens.

J. E. Johnston and Beauregard. The latter commanded the army which had gradually gathered at Manassas to resist the Federal advance from Washington, while Gen. Johnston, with the " Army of the Shenandoah," con fronted Gen. Patterson, who was advancing from the Potomac, at Williamsport, towards Winchester, in the " Valley of Virginia." A forward movement by McDowell being imminent, Gen. Johnston was ordered to unite " if practicable" with Beauregard to resist it. Slipping away from Patterson's front on the 18th of July, he arrived with a part of his command, including Jackson's brigade, at Manassas on the 20th, and, after consultation with Beauregard, determined to attack McDowell the next day, in order to fight him before Patterson could join him. McDowell, however, who was moving without reference to Patterson, had determined upon an advance on the same day.

Johnston's plan was to throw forward his right across Bull Run and advance directly upon Centreville, the heart of the Federal position. For this purpose the mass of the Confeder ates were placed in the vicinity of the lower fords of Bull Run, near the direct road from Manassas to Centreville, while the upper fords, opposite the Con federate left, were guarded by small bodies. McDowell, on the other hand, determined, by a wide circuit, to cross the stream entirely beyond the Confeder ate left and thus turn and overwhelm that flank. A miscarriage of orders 1861-62. 12 On the 7th of October he was made major-general, in recognition of his services at the battle of Manassas, and soon after was assigned, under Gen. Johnston, to the command of the Valley district, with headquarters at Winchester, Virginia.

(Map No. I.) On November 4 he left Manassas for the latter place. He held this command, in a considerable degree an independent one, until the middle of the fol lowing June. This period in his career is in many respects the most interesting. It embraces the difficulties and struggles through which he rose to fame, and covers that wonderful campaign in the Valley of Virginia which filled the South with unbounded admiration of his genius, and has placed his name, in the estimation of the world, high on the roll of captains. It is a sketch of Jackson's career during this period that we propose now to give. The birthplace and early home of Gen. Jackson was Clarksburg, in Western Virginia, and from the opening of the war he had burned with a desire to be ordered to service in that region. He had fre quently expressed his wish to aid in expelling the Federal troops from the home of his childhood, and when assigned to the Valley district his first thoughts were turned towards the execution of such a design. delayed the Confederates until McDowell's march to their left was discovered, when new dispositions became necessary.

On the Confederate left Evans, reinforced by Bee and Bartow, and still later by Hampton, threw his command in the path of the Federal army (which, having crossed Bull Run unopposed at Sudley's ford, was pouring down on the flank), and stubbornly contested the ground until forced to retreat before the mass of McDowell's troops. As the Confederates were being borne back Jackson's brigade reached the field, and, promptly form ing, checked the Federal advance and gave the broken commands time to rally. Then succeeded an hour or two of severe fighting. A bold effort on the part of the Confederates was made to drive back the Federals and regain the lost ground. They succeeded in sweeping back McDowell's lines and capturing a number of guns, but the Federals soon made a countercharge and retook the position and artillery.

Again, mustering all his strength, Beauregard, who commanded in person on this part of the field, hurled it against the Federal lines. Fresh troops were arriving, which he sent against the Federal right flank. Jackson firmly held the centre of the advance. The Federal lines were again broken, the guns again captured. The arrival of Kirby Smith's and of Early's troops enabled Beauregard to press his advantage, to drive back McDowell's right flank, and to throw it into confusion. The defeat quickly changed into a rout, and this rout into one of the most remarkable panics on record. It was in the last successful effort of the Confederates that Bee and Bartow were slain and it was just before the former fell that, to animate his thinned and wavering lines, he pointed to Jackson's brigade, and said, " See, there is Jackson standing like a stonewall ; let us determine to die here and we will conquer."

Such was the origin of the sobriquet of " Stonewall." It is now immortal. ROMNEY. 13 The campaign of the summer and fall in Western Virginia had not been favorable to the South. Gen. Robert S. Garnett, who had commanded the first considerable force in that region, had been out manœuvred by Gen. McClellan, compelled to retreat from his posi tions at Leedsville and Rich mountain with loss, and when overtaken at Carrick's ford, on Cheat river, July 13, had been defeated and killed. This gave the Federals control of the greater part of the State of Virginia, west of the Alleghanies and north of the Great Kanawha river. In the valley of this river an effort was made a month later, by Gen. Floyd, with a Confederate brigade, to wrest a portion of this territory from them, but because of his small force, and the want of co-operation on the part of Gen. Wise (commanding a part of the Confederate troops in that region), he failed to effect any results of permanent value.

Gen. Lee, who had been sent to take command after the death of Garnett,1 with a considerable reinforcement, either through the diffi culties of the country, or the inexperience of his subordinates, or both, failed to regain the advantages lost by Garnett, and was reduced to merely preventing any further encroachments of the enemy. He directed an advance upon the Federal positions on Cheat mountain and at Elkwater on September 12, but it miscarried because the column under Col. Rust failed to attack. He then drew off a large part of Loring's force to unite with Floyd and Wise in opposing Rosecrans's movement up the Kanawha valley, but the Federal commander with drew, and active operations ceased. About the 1st of November Gen. Lee was ordered elsewhere, and the approach of winter and the inac cessible character of the country rendered further operations almost impossible.

When, therefore, Gen. Jackson was assigned to the command of the Valley of Virginia, the enemy had possession of all the State north of the Great Kanawha and west of the Alleghanies, and had pushed their outposts into that mountain region itself, and, in some cases, eastward of the main range. Thus Gen. Kelly, under direction of Gen. Rosecrans who commanded all the Federal forces in Western Virginia, had captured Romney, the county-seat of Hampshire, forty miles west of Winchester, and now occupied it with a force of five 1 Gen. Lee was sent to Western Virginia immediately after the first battle of Manassas, which occurred on July 21. (Taylor's "Four Years with General Lee," p. 16.) At that time Gen. Loring commanded the forces lately under Gar nett, and Gens. Floyd and Wise each had a brigade in the Kanawha valley.

The three were independent of each other. 1S61-62. 14 thousand (5000) men. This movement gave the Federals control of the fertile valley of the South Branch of the Potomac. Another force occupied Bath, the county-seat of Morgan, almost due north of Winchester, while the north bank of the Potomac was everywhere guarded by Union troops. (Maps Nos. I and II.) The Baltimore and Ohio railroad was open, and available for the supply of the Union troops from Baltimore to Harper's Ferry, and again from a point opposite Hancock westward. The section of about forty miles, from Harper's Ferry to Hancock, lying for the most part some distance within the Virginia border, had been inter rupted and rendered useless by the Confederates, but this gap was supplied by the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, which was open all the way from Cumberland, Maryland, to Georgetown, in the District of Columbia.

Jackson recommended a bold plan of operations to dispossess the enemy and recover the territory that had been lost. He had seen how his predecessors had been hampered in trying to operate from Staunton westward, by the difficult and inaccessible nature of the country. On that route a wide belt of mountains, destitute of supplies and for the most part penetrated by nothing but indifferent wagon roads, intervened between the scene of operations and the Confederate base of supplies. This had proved a most serious hindrance. Jackson proposed now to move along the Baltimore and Ohio railroad and the turnpikes parallel to it, and thus enter Western Virginia from the northeast. In this way he could turn the left flank of the enemy's forces, place himself on their communications, and force them to evacuate, or fight under circumstances of his own selection.

This mode of approach, it was true, was far more exposed to the enemy, but it was easier ; it lay through a much more popu lous and cultivated region ; it would afford, to some extent, the use of a railroad for supplies ; and it would soon place him in the midst of some of the most fertile parts of West Virginia. To carry out this plan he asked that his old brigade, which had been left at Manassas, and all the forces operating along the line of the Alleghanies, southwest of Winchester, should be concentrated under his command. This would have given him fifteen or sixteen thousand (15,000 or 16,000) men, the least force with which he thought it possible to undertake so considerable an enterprise. The Confederate authorities deemed it impossible to comply fully with his wishes. His own brigade was promptly sent to him, and one of the brigades of Loring's troops reached him early in De- ROMNEY. 15 cember.1 Subsequently two more brigades, under Gen. Loring him self, were added, but all these troops only increased the small force of two or three thousand State militia, which had been assembled in the district itself, to about eleven thousand (11,000) men.2 The greater part of Gen. Loring's force did not arrive until Christmas, thus preventing any important movements during November and December.

But meantime Gen. Jackson was not idle. When he entered upon his new command there were but three fragmentary brigades of State militia and a few detached companies of cavalry in the Valley district. These troops were poorly armed, and the militia was almost entirely without discipline or experience. In order to increase this force he first caused the militia which had not yet been summoned, or which had been released, to be called out, and in a short time the brigades under Brig.-Gens. Carson, Meem, and Boggs were in creased in the aggregate to about three thousand (3000) men. He consolidated the cavalry companies into a regiment, under the com mand of Lieut.-Col. Ashby. Prompt measures were taken to equip and discipline these troops. About the middle of November, the first brigade — his own — was sent up from Manassas, and by the 1st of December he had at hand some four thousand (4000) troops, and knew that a part of Loring's command was en route to join him.s 1 Gen. Loring, after the withdrawal of Gen. Lee, had command of all the troops west of Staunton, except those under Floyd, in the Kanawha valley.

Gen. Wise had been ordered to duty elsewhere about the 1st of October. When Loring was ordered to Winchester to join Jackson, Gen. Edward John son was left with a brigade and some artillery and cavalry at Camp Alle ghany, where the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike crosses the Alleghany mountains. 'Gen. J. E. Johnston says (Johnston's Narrative, pp. 83, 84) the "effective total" of troops in the Valley district at the end of November was 3700. Add nine per cent, for officers, and Jackson's force at that time (consisting of the militia and the " Stonewall" brigade) may be placed at about 4000. At the end of December the " effective total" under Jackson, from the returns, was 10,241, or, adding officers, about 11,200. s Jackson's notions of discipline are illustrated by an incident of this time.

Immediately after the arrival of the " Stonewall" brigade in the Valley, a stringent order was issued which prevented officers of even the highest grades from passing the pickets around the camps except upon passes from head quarters, and it was required that these passes should specify whether the officer was on public or private business. This order led to the following protest and reply : 1861-62. 16 While waiting for the reinforcements that would enable him to strike a blow, he determined to annoy the enemy by preventing any attempt to reconstruct the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and by doing such damage as was possible to the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, which runs along the north bank of the Potomac. For this purpose the cavalry was actively engaged in scouting the country along that river, and early in December a small force of infantry and a battery were sent down to break Dam No. 5, seven miles above Williamsport, which supplied a long level of the canal with water.

This force appeared at Dam No. 5 on the afternoon of December 6, and during the next two days kept up an active skirmish with the Federal troops on the north side of the river. Under cover of this fire the Confed erates attempted to break the dam on the night of the 7th, but effected " Camp near Winchester, Virginia, "November 16, 1861. "Major: — The undersigned, having read General Orders No. 8, transmitted from the headquarters of the Army of the Valley, so far as it includes and relates to officers of their rank, respectfully submit : That it is an unwarranted assumption of authority, and involves an improper inquiry into their private matters, of which, according to the official usage and courtesy of the army, the major-general commanding has no right to require information ; it implies their abuse of the privileges accorded in every other department of the army to officers of their rank, which there has been nothing in their conduct to justify ; it disparages the dignity of the offices which they have the honor to hold, and, in consequence, detracts from that respect of the force under their command which is necessary to maintain their authority and enforce obedience.

There fore they complain of the order, and ask that it may be modified. "Respectfully submitted." (Signed by all the regimental commanders of the brigade.) " Maj. A. H. Jackson, "A. A. Gen'l." " Headquarters Valley District, "November 17, 1861. " The major-general commanding desires me to say that the within-combined protest is in violation of the Army Regulations and subversive of military discipline. He claims the right to give his pickets such instructions as in his opinion the interests of the public service require. "Colonels ■ , on the day that their regiments arrived at their present encampment, either from incompetency to control their commands or from neglect of duty, so permitted their commands to become disorganized and their officers and men to enter Winchester without permission, as to render several arrests of officers necessary.

"If officers desire to have control over their commands, they must remain habitually with them, and industriously attend to their instruction and comfort, and in battle lead them well, and in such a manner as to command their admiration. " Such officers need not apprehend loss of respect resulting from inserting in a written pass the words 'on duty,' or 'on private business,' should they have occasion to pass the pickets. " By command of Maj.-Gen. Jackson. "A. H. Jackson, "A. A. Gen'l." ROMNEY. 17 little or no damage. The next evening they retired. Not satisfied with the result, Jackson made another effort a few days later to break Dam No. 5. Taking the cavalry, a part of the militia, and his old brigade ("Stonewall"), he left Winchester on the 16th. Next day, having disposed troops between Falling Waters and Dam No. 5, so as to provide against a flank movement, and having sent forces to make demonstrations at Dam No. 4 and at Williamsport, he collected the main body for an attack on Dam No. 5.

Under cover of the infantry and artillery stationed on the hills on the south side of the river, parties were sent to break away this dam at the end nearest the Virginia side. Col. Leonard, with a part of the Thirteenth Massa chusetts, the Fifth Connecticut, and a battery, was guarding this part of the Federal line. He kept up a vigorous and annoying fire on the working parties. Not much was accomplished by the Confederates until Capt. Holliday,1 of the Thirty-third Virginia, and Capt. Robin son, of the Twenty-seventh Virginia, volunteered to go down by night with their companies and cut out the cribs. They made brave efforts to do this, standing waist-deep in the cold water, and under the con stant fire of the enemy. A partial breach was effected, and the cribs so loosened that the next freshet made a wide gap in the dam, and rendered useless, for the time, a long stretch in the canal.

While this attack was in progress several regiments were sent up from Fred erick, Maryland, to reinforce Col. Leonard,2 and the short time in which the whole of Banks's command, at the latter place, could reach Williamsport, rendered it inadvisable for Jackson to cross the river. Having done all the damage he could to the canal from the south side, he withdrew on the 21st, and returned to Winchester. While engaged in this expedition, news had come of the decisive repulse by Gen. Edward Johnson of the attack made by the Federals upon his position at Camp Alleghany. This occurred on the 13th of December.3 Gen. Jackson advised that this force be now sent to 1 Afterwards colonel of the Thirty-third Virginia regiment, and subsequently Governor of Virginia. 2 The " Record of Events" on Banks's division return for this period says that on the 18th of December the Fifth Connecticut, Twenty-ninth Pennsyl vania, and First Maryland regiments, Company F, of the Fourth United States artillery, and two companies of Maryland cavalry were ordered to Williams port. 3 Gen. Edward Johnson, with from 1200 to 1500 men and two batteries, occupied Camp Alleghany, which is fifteen miles west of Monterey, on the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike.

He was attacked by Gen. Milroy, with from 1861-62. 18 reinforce him or be moved towards Moorefield, so as to co-operate with him in an advance on Romney.1 This was not done, and later in the winter Johnson was forced to fall back to the Shenandoah mountain, to avoid the danger of a flank movement against him from Romney. Jackson, soon after his return to Winchester, was gratified to meet Gen. Loring, the last two of whose brigades arrived there at Christmas.2 Gen. Loring, who was to retain command of his own troops and to be second to Jackson, had three infantry brigades, under Col. W. B. Taliaferro, Col. Wm. Gilham, and Brig.-Gen. S. R. Anderson re spectively, and Mayre's and Shumaker's batteries. These troops numbered nearly six thousand (6000), and increased Jackson's entire force to about eleven thousand (11,000) men.3 Jackson had now all the troops that his superiors thought it judi cious to spare him.

He had been most anxious to make an effort to recover Western Virginia from the Federals, but the force at hand to 1800 men, on December 13. After a fierce struggle, lasting the greater part of the day, the Federals were repulsed at every point, and retreated to their camp on Cheat mountain. (" Rebellion Record," vol. iii., Doc. 226.) 1 Jackson's letter, dated December 23, and sent both to Gen. J. E. Johnston and Adjt.-Gen. Cooper, is as follows: "I respectfully recommend that such of Brig.- Gen. Loring's forces as are on or near the Alleghany mountains be ordered to march forthwith to Moorefield, in Hardy county, with a view to forming a junction with the troops now at or near this point (Winchester). If it is the design of the government to commence offensive operations against Romney soon, the troops asked for should move to my aid at once.