History of the Fifth West Virginia Cavalry, formerly the Second Virginia Infantry, and of Battery G, First West Va. Light Artillery

Preface

This work has been written at the request of the Author's comrades of his old regiment, and he has endeavored to give in a plain way, without exaggeration, the facts, and some of the incidents, that made up the life of the regiment in its service of over three years. The basis of the work is the diary kept by the Author during most of his service, on which he has built from all the sources of information that could be reached. Dates, places, and facts, it is believed, can be relied upon, though there may be a few unimportant errors, which will in no wise affect the correctness or value of the history. No pains or expense have been spared, and no labor avoided, that would secure the facts needed; and whatever omissions may be found, are not the result of the want of care or labor, on the part of the Author.

He is indebted to many of the comrades, officers and men, for valuable information supplied, and help given, but the names are- so many, that they cannot be given here. Much credit is due them for the completeness of the work, and for the valuable assistance given in doing justice to the brave men of our regiment.

It is well to state, perhaps, that these pages are not intended as a history in full of any of the battles or campaigns mentioned, or of the armies that took part in them, but rather of the part our own regiment took in them. Other commands, no doubt, did as good service as our own, and they are not given the prominence they would have in a more general history, because this is intended solely as a regimental history, in which other regiments and commands are incidentally mentioned.

4 PREFA CE.

The writing of the history was a labor of love, for which the Author has received no compensation, and would under no circumstances accept any, being glad of the opportunity to set forth the services of his noble, brave comrades, who were as brothers to .him in their long association together. The work is theirs, the cheerful gift of one who has a just appreciation of their patriotic services, and it is hoped that they will find in it a faithful portraiture of the work they did for their country.

The Author.

Chapter I

LoYAi. Western Virginia, 9

CHAPTER n.

CHAPTER HI.

Company Histories, 4°

Company A, 4i

Company C, ^°

Company D, S

Company E, 7i

Company F,

Company H, 9^

Company I, 94

Company K, ^°°

CHAPTER IV.

The Quartermaster's Department, 108

6 TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

The Chaplain and His Work, 124

CHAPTER VI.

In Camp at Bevkri.y, 1861, 132

CHAPTER VII.

Relief of Cheat Mountain, 137

CHAPTER VIII.

In Camp at Elkwater, 143

CHAPTER IX.

Camp on Cheat Mountain Summit, 152

CHAPTER X.

CHAPTER XI.

The Army of Virginia, 173

CHAPTER XII.

Return to Western Virginia, ,„.,. „.,„ ,„.,..,. 189

CHAPTER XIII.

Fourth Separate Brigade, 197

CHAPTER XIV.

Rocky Gap Expedition, 203

CHAPTER XV.

Droop Mountain, 213

CHAPTER XVI.

The Salem Raid, , ., , , 222

TABLE OF CONTENTS. .7

CHAPTER XVII.

Campaigns of 1864, 238

CHAPTER XVIII.

Scouting Service, 248

CHAPTER XIX.

CHAPTER XX.

FRANK S. READER, CO. I.

CHAPTER I.

LOYAL WESTERN VIRGINIA.

HF2 determination of the loyal people of Western Virginia not to yield to the demands of the Secessionists of the State, created a great deal of enthusiasm in the bordering states of Pennsylania and Ohio, and did much to attract volunteers from those states, to the support of the brave loyalists of this section. The treason of Richmond furnished the occasion to the ^\'est to assert its dignity and independence. The triumph of secession on the James, led to the triumph of loyalty in the mountains; but it was a struggle such as few people have ever gone through, and fixed for all time the undaunted courage, the sublime devotion to principle, and the patient endurance, of the noble people of this western section. While Gov. Letcher was training the State militia for use against the government, the people of the western counties were holding Union meetings for the support of the government. The militia in the western part of the State were called into action, but largely refused, many of the officers and men becoming gallant officers in the regiments that were soon formed for the defense of the Nation. The sketches of many officers, and of companies, in the succeeding chapters, will show the work of some of them, and give a tolerably fair idea of the intense loyalty of these men. For a number of years, there had been a heated contest between the contending principles that were fully developed by the war, and there was no neutral ground upon which any persons could stand. This so completely defined the positions of the two, that when the war actually broke its dark and hideous cloud upon the rugged mountains and fair valleys of Western Virginia, the people were in line where they belonged, and the battle was on. The dominant party of the State being naturally for the principle of states rights, the Unionists suffered much at their hands, and it was no easy matter after all to be for the Union. Speakers were mobbed, meetings were broken up, rough and tumble fights were frequent, and neighbors were arrayed against neighbors, yet there was no yielding of the loyalty of the people.

B lo LOYAL WESTERN VIRGLNIA.

During all this stormy period, there were a number of avowed abolitionists along the border of the state, some also in the interior of the stale, but their influence was abridged. They could not get access to the masses. The preachers of the M. E. Church North, had a large membership in the state, and were closely watched. They were pressed b\- the M. K. Church South, and other denominations, on account of their anti-slavery tenilency. Hon. F. H. Pierpont, one of the leading men of the state, though not a member of that church, wrote one of his most effective letters and published il in a local paper, vindicating the jjreachers of the M. E. Church, maintaining that they were simply li\'ing under the rule promulgated by \Vesley. This letter had wide circulation, and served the end designed.

In the fall of i860, the Virginia legislature was called in extra session: then came the state convention; then on the lylh of April 1861, the ordinance of secession was passed, and on the 25th of the same month the state, by secession commissioners, acting under authority of the convention in session at Richmond, Avas annexed to the Southern Confederacy at jNlontgomery, Ala. Of this the peo])le knew nothing. They Avere called upon to go through the farce of an election on the fourth Thursday in May following, to \'ote on the adojjtion or rejection of the ordinance of secession, the time for electing members of the senate, house of delegates and members of congress. The news of the passage of the ordinance spread like wild fire. The union members of the convention escaped from Richmond, some at the hazard of their lives. Hon. John S. Carlisle was among the first to escape. As soon as he arrived at Clarksburg, his home, he called a public meeting, and that meeting called a convention, to consist of ten men from each county, which would send delegates to a convention to be held in Wheeling on the iith of May following. In the meantime, public meetings were called in every county, the shortest notice calling out large concourses and they were addressed by union men and secessionists.

All the leading offices, civil and military, were held by rebels. Orders were issued from Richmond to assemble the militia by comjjanies, battalions and regiments, and to push forward the militia officers' training. Rebel military companies were being raised in e\ery county, their rendezvous being Crafton. What were called the " terror men " were active. A few of the most determined men in each county called on militia officers, and notified them that they must go with the state or resign; also on union men, to admonish them that if they did not go with the state, they might expect serious consecpiences. Mr. Pierpont was among the most active of the speakers, and was approached, to learn what he meant by stirring up sedition in the state, and opposing the organized commonwealth of Virginia: and assured that if he persisted, he would be arrested and sent to Richmond, and tried and hung for treason against the great state. He had been in four or fi\e princi-

LOYAL WESTERN VLRGLNLA. ii

pal counties, and the old men asked him what the union people could do. He expected advice from them, and in his own language, "the very heavens appeared as brass without a single rift." His neighbors in the midst of this terror, asked him what they should do. He simply said, "hold on to the union."

In this depressed state of mind, he went to his office and took down the Constitution of the United States. Audiby he said, "Old constitution, I will give you one more reading." He does not know why he had not done it before, but he commenced at the preamble, carefully reading article by article and section by section, until he came to the section which provides — "The Government of the United States shall guarantee a republican form of government to each state in the Union, repel invasion, and suppress insurrection and rebellion when called on by the legislature, or by the Governor, if the legislature cannot be convened in time." When he got through the section, he sprang to his feet, threw the book with force on the table and exclaimed, "I have got you." The cold chills ran from his head to his feet and his hair stood on end. He walked the floor for a few minutes in brisk step, and in less than a minute the whole proceedings of the convention, its representation, the declaring of all offices held by secessionists vacant, representation in Congress and division of the State, passed before him like a panorama. He went into his house and told his wife that it was clear. He met one of his neighbors on the street and remarked to him, "It will all come out right." He knew at that stage that success could only be had by secrecy.

The meeting at Wheeling, on the i ith of May, came off in a few days, and was presided over by Dr. John W. Moss, of Parkersburg. It was a great mass convention. The wealth and talent of the Union men in the State were there, earnest and determined, without reference to numbers from counties. Thirty odd counties were represented. They assembled in the afternoon in a large hall. A large number of resolutions were presented, all breathing a strong Union spirit. Daniel Lamb, Geo. Mc- Porter and F. H. Pierpont were appointed a committee to whom all the resolutions were referred, with request to report next morning. Pierpont met with the committee and told them that they could report that he had three resolutions, which he desired adopted before the convention adjourned. They were about as follows:

I St. That this convention call a delegate convention, to be com- ])osed of all the Delegates and Senators elected at the ensuing election, and a number of delegates from each county, equal to twice the number of its representatives in the house of delegates; these delegates to be elected under the direction of a committee of safety to be appointed by this convention.

2nd. That this convention so elected, should meet in Wheeling on the 13th day of June next following.

3r(l. That this convention appoint members as a committee of

safety, whose duty it shouhl be to direct the manner of electing members to the convention, who were not members of the Legislature, and to attend to such other affairs as they deemed necessary- for the Union cause.

Pierpont put these resolutions in his pocket, and said he would wait for a proper oj)i)ortunity to offer them. Speech-making began in earnest at an early hour in the evening. Mr. Carlisle led off, advocating the division of the state at once, the new state to be composed of two congressional districts, and he had a strong following. He was followed by Gen. Jackson, of Parkersburg, Hon. W. T. Willey, Hon. C. D. Hubbard, Campbell Tarr, J- S. Burdett, Daniel H. Polsley, and others, nearly all of whom had been members of the Richmond convention. Various propositions were suggested. About half an hour before dinner next day, Pierpont was called for; he took the stand and spoke until adjournment for dinner, and promised to finish after dinner. In the meantime he saw Wm. (j. Brown, member of congress-elect of Kingwood. He told Brown that he did not care about s])eaking, but he wanted to wear out the convention so as to get in some j^ractical resolutions; that after dinner he would resume his remarks, but he knew he would get hoarse in a short time, and would call upon him to finish, he being fully in possession of his, Pierpont's, views. This line was followed. After Brown had been speaking some time, Pierpont left the platform and went down one aisle of the hall, and met Carlisle. He took the resolutions out of his pocket, and said to Carlisle, "here is what you want." Carlisle read them carefully and said "that suits me exactly. \\\\y did you not show them to me before?" Pierpont said it was not time. Carlisle addressed the President with a motion to r^fer all resolutions back to the General Committee with instructions to report as soon as possible. The committee retired, Pierpont's resolutions were presented, and the sub-committee was instructed to report them.

The convention reassembled just before sun-down. News had gone out that all disagreements were settled. A number of ladies and gentlemen were on the large platform. The convention was called to order, the resolutions were read, and unanimously adopted with great enthusiasm. The chairman then announced the committee of safety. Immediately a clerical gentleman stepped forward and struck up the star spangled banner, in which the band and all on the platform joined, the ladies acquitting themselves with great hont^r. Then another and another patriotic song, then the doxology, "Praise Cod, &c.," and the convention adjourned amid ringing cheers. This meeting was of national importance. The great daily papers of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Chicago had their reporters there. An intense union feeling was developed and it greatly encouraged the sentiment in the North.

LOYAL WESTERN VLKGLNLA. 13

The next day the committee of safety organized. The committee appointed a sub-committee to remain at Wheeling and take charge of affairs. Then the next day when the sub-committee met, some one who had heard that Pierpont had a plan of action asked him to explain it. He admitted that he had; and that it was this: -'On principle the loyal people of the state are entitled to the protection of the laws of the state and United States. When our convention assembles I have no doubt we will know that the Crovernor of the state has joined the Southern Confederacy. The convention will pass resolutions declaring, in the language of the declaration of independence, that 'he has abdicated his office by joining a foreign state,' and that it is the right of this convention to appoint aGovernor and Lieutenant-governor, and pass such other ordinances as are necessary to turn out of office all disloyal men and to fill them by loyal men, and do anything else that may be necessary. Our actions must go to the whole state. We will call the legislature together immediately if necessary. You observe the convention is composed of double the number of delegates of the lower house. It may be we will need a legislature and convention both at once. We will elect Senators to fill the places made vacant by resignation of Hunter and Mason. We will commission our members elected and send them to Congress. The Governor will call upon the President for military aid to suppress the rebellion. In the meantime, w'e will get the United States Army to occupy the Monongahela and Kanawha valleys, drive the rebels beyond the mountains, and we will organize below. Now if we carry out this program, we will represent the State of Virginia, and divide the State by the consent of C'ongress and the consent of the Legislature of Virginia." The committee unanimously assented, and worked diligently, attending to all the details necessary to strengthen the union cause.

On Saturday before the fourth Thursday in May, election day, Pierpont's friends at Fairmont thought it safe for him to come home and stay until the election. There was great commotion, on the day before the election, and a regiment from Georgia and the Valley of Virginia arrived at Phillippi and Grafton. A large rebel meeting was held in I'airmont the same evening. Threats were freely made. About 2 o'clock at night, a lady living near called to Pierpont and told him that she had been watching all night, that she heard of threats, and feared that he would be killed or his house burned that night. He told her not to be alarmed, they would not hurt him, but he watched from that to daylight, got an early breakfast, and went to his office. A friend came in excitedly^and declared there w^as present danger, and insisted on his leaving at once on the train for Wheeling. He went and got to the office of the committee at W'heeling at half past 3 p. m. The committee was there. They gibed him about not being at home voting. He replied, "The time of voting is past. I move that Mr. Carlisle be sent, at once, to

Washington, to denianci troops to drive the Rebels out of Western Virginia." Carlisle readily consented to go on the next train, at 8 o'clock that night. He had to go by Harrisburg and Baltimore. He got to Washington at 3 p. m. next day. He told the hackman to drive him to the White House as quick as his horses could go, got there and inquired for the President; was informed he could not see the President, as all the Cabinet were there in cabinet meeting. (Carlisle said he wanted to see all the Cabinet and President together, and demanded that his card be taken in. The President called him in. "AV'ell," said the President, "Mr. Carlisle, what is the best news in Western Virginia." Carlisle, without answering that question, said, "Sir, we want to fight. We have one regiment ready, and if the f'ederal Government is going to assist us we want it at once." "You shall have assistance," said the President. This was on Friday afternoon. On Sunday morning, United States troops, from Ohio and Indiana, crossed the river at Wheeling and Parkersburg, and on the third of June the first fight in the State came off at Phillippi.

Before the assembling of the convention, a number of union gentlertien in Wheeling, held a kind of informal caucus, and discussed the men who would likely be prominent for governor. They finally agreed on Pierpont and appointed a gentleman to see him and ascertain if he would accept; if so they would work to that end. Pierpont was seen, the matter submitted, he declared "that he had never thought of occupying the place. He had been looking to okler men." After hearing all his friend hatl to say, he replied: "I am in for the war to lead or drive, and if the convention so orders I will do the best I can." Two days before the meeting of the convention, the members began to arrive in Wheeling. The first question to leading union men was, "What are we going to do?" They were told to see Pierpont, he had worked up a plan of action. So they went to him singly and by numbers. He explained the proposed action in detail. All inquired, "Have you consulted the President or any of his cabinet?" He answered "No. ^^'e don't want to consult them. This action by our enemies will be called revolutionarj-. The government of the United States is watched in this country and Europe, and we don't want to compromise it in any way. But we will submit our work and I will guarantee its acceptance."

The convention assembled on the 13th of June 1861. It was agreed that all the members before taking their seats, should take an oath to support the constitution of the United States, as the supreme law of the land, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the ordinance of secession passed at Richmond on the 17th of April 1861. About thirty-five counties were represented, and every delegate elected but one, took his seat. Hon. A. I. Boreman was elected President of the convention. Appropriate committees were appointed on fundamental principles and

HON. FRANCIS H. PIERPONT.

plan for reorganizing the state. The committees went to work in earnest, and in a few days they rejiorted in substance that the loyal people of the state were entitled to the benefit of state and national government; that the offices of Governor and Lieutenant-governor were vacant by reason of the officers who were elected to their places having joined a foreign government; and that it was the duty of the convention to elect a Governor and Lieutenant-governor for six months until the offices could be filled by an election of the people. They made it the duty of the Governor to recpiire all the officers in the state to take the oath to support the constitution of the L'nited States, as the supreme law of the land; and the restored government of Virginia as vindicated by the convention assembled at Wheeling on the 13th of June 1861, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the ordinance passed at Richmond on the 17th of April 1861. It was made the duty of the Governor on the refusal of any office-holder of a state or county office to take this oath, to declare the office vacant, and order an election to fill the vacancy with a loyal man. IJy the 21st, all the preliminaries were completed, speeches of explanation made and election of Governor ordered for that day. Pierpont was asked privately to leave the hall.

Daniel Lamb, Esq., nominated him, in a short speech, for Governor of the Restored Government of Virginia. Xo other nomination was made, and the vote was unanimous. Pierpont was sent for, and informed of the action of the convention by the President, who asked him if he was ready to take the oath of office. He said he was. The oath was then administered on the President's platform, in the presence of the convention. Pierpont turned to the convention and said he thanked them for this expression of their confidence, and would serve them to the best of his ability.

Francis Harrison Pierpont was born in Monongalia county, Va., about five miles east of Morgantown, January 25. 1814. The same year his father. Francis Pierpont, and mother, Catharine, removed into Harrison C\)unty. three miles southwest of what is now Fairmont. They settled in a log cabin in an unbroken forest. In 1827 his father removed to what is now Fairmont, West Va. What work Francis did until thirteen years old. was on the farm. After he A\as of school age, he went about two and one-half miles to a log school house, four terms of three months each, in the winter time. From thirteen years old to twenty-one and one-half he worked in his father's tan yard, then he started on foot to seek an education at Allegheny Gollege, at Meadville. Pa., about one hundred and eighty miles distant. He remained at Allegheny College four and one-half college years, and was graduated in the class of 1839 visited home three times, in vacation, travelling as he first started most of the distance. After he left college he taught school for three years in Virginia and Mississippi. In political opinion he was a Whig. His father taught him that slavery was a moral, social and political evil.

During his college life this sentiment was increased. While residing in Mississippi, his personal observations of the institution intensified this sentiment. After leaving college and while teaching, he studied law. In consequence of the failing health of his father, he returned home in 1842, and was admitted to the bar in that year. He was an amateur politician, though never a candidate for office, and frequently addressed the people on political subjects. He was placed by his party on the State electoral ticket for President, in 1848. His district contained ten counties, six mountain counties of which were overwhelmingly Democratic. It was proposed and agreed upon that the two electors should hold joint discusions of the points of difference between the parties, in all the counties in the district, at the county seats, and at such other points as they could attend. The meetings were largely attended and the canvas lasted over three months. Much of the capital of Democratic politicians then was to abuse abolitionists. Abolitionism was the sum of all villainies in politics. Socialism, free love, negro equality, slave insurrection and general spoliation of women and property, were attributed to designing abolitionists. But Pierpont did not suffer himself to be put on the defensive, but assumed the aggessive at the start. Whatever accusations were brought against the abolitionists, he knew that the people of W^estern Virginia knew the slavocracy of the State only by its oppression of the white laboring people; that the Democratic party had always held the political power in the State, and that the part east of the Blue Ridge, though largely in the minority in population, held controlling power in the legislature.

The west had had but (me United States Senator and never a judge of the Court of Appeals or a Governor. By the laws of the State, they to a great extent exonerated their slaves from taxation, and taxed all the laboring man had, from a pig to an engine. By law, a poor man with three sons over sixteen years, with himself, might be called to work the roads ten or twenty days in the year, while the gentleman owning two male slaves over sixteen years, was exempt from road working, and his land was seldom taxed for road purposes. The children were without free schools, and almost without schools of any kind. He pointed them to Pennsylvania and Ohio, with their free institutions; on the one side of an imaginary line you could see thrift, intelligence of the children and prosperity of the people; not so where slavocracy reigned. He declared that Western Virginia wanted free schools, a sound currency ami a tariff for protection. He continued this line of attack on the oppression of slave holders, through the local press and before the people, in 1852, 1856, and in the Governor's election in 1859. ^\'hen the Democratic party divided in i860, and nominated Breckenridge and Douglas for President, Pierpont at once announced that the Breckenridge party meant secession, rebellion, division of the Union and war. He maintained this country could not be divided without war. Breckenridge Democrats vehemently

LOYAL WESTERN VLRGTNLA. 17

denied this charge. Pieri)ont pressed it the harder, so that when the rebellion came, a large number of Democrats were on the union side. He was not an Abolitionist in their sense of the term, but he hated the institution of slavery, the intolerant spirit of pro-slavery men, and their oppression. At the age of seventeen Gov. Pierpont joined the M. P. Church, was an active superintendent of the Sunday school for eighteen years before the war, has had a class ever since, and says that the most valuable knowledge is that received in this grand work. The Governor is now an honored resident of Fairmont, West \'a. , and though beyond three score years and ten, is active in good works. The Second Virginia regiment has many reasons to be grateful to him, and he is held in the highest esteem by every member of the old organization.

After his election, Governor Pierpont at once entered upon the duties of his office. The collector of the port offered him an office, with a bare table, half quire of paper and pen and ink, in the custom house. Some friends came in to congratulate him, and some of them remarked that he was the first man they had ever known to thank men for putting a rope around his neck. The Governor replietl that success was never convicted of treason. He immediately addressed a letter to the President of the United States, in substance informing him that there was an insurrection and rebellion in the state; that certain evil minded men in the state had banded themselves together and had joined with like minded men from other states; that they had formed strong military organizations and were pressing union men into their army, and taking their substance to support their organizations; that their object was to overthrow the government of the state and United States, and that he had not sufficient military force at his command to suppress the rebellion. He called upon the President for military aid, and signed his letter, "F. H. Pierpont, Governor of Virginia."

About the fourth day after, the Governor received a letter from Se-cre tary of War (Cameron) acknowledging receipt of his letter, saying that he was directed by the President to congratulate the people of Virginia on their so soon resuming their relations with the United States Government, and authorizing Gov. Pierpont to raise volunteer regiments for the United States Army and to appoint company and field officers. This letter was read to the convention and greatly strengthened their faith in the movement.