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The front was thus covered from Summersville to Flat-top Mountain, and the regiments in rear were moving into their assigned positions. My brigade commanders were all men of marked character. Colonel Moor was a German of portly presence and grave demeanor, a gentleman of dignity of character as well as of bearing, and a brave, resolute man.
My reconnoitring parties reached Big Sewell Mountain, thirty-five miles up New River, Summersville, twenty miles up the Gauley, and made excursions into the counties on the left bank of the Kanawha, thirty or forty miles away. These were not exceptional marches, but were kept up with an industry that gave the enemy an exaggerated idea of our strength as well as of our activity.
After the Cross Lanes affair I fully expected that the Confederate forces would follow the route which Casement had taken to Charleston. Floyd's inactivity puzzled me, for he did no more than make an intrenched camp at Carnifex Ferry, with outposts at Peters Mountain and toward Summersville. The publication of the Confederate Archives has partly solved the mystery.
From Gauley Bridge a road runs up the Gauley River to Cross Lanes and Carnifex Ferry, something over twenty miles, and continuing northward reaches Summersville, Sutton, and Weston, making almost the only line of communication between the posts then occupied by our troops in northwestern Virginia and the head of the Kanawha valley.
The post at Summersville had been brought into my command for the winter, and was garrisoned by the Thirty-sixth Ohio under Colonel George Crook.
By the middle of August he had established a chain of posts, with a regiment or two at each, on a line upon which he afterwards marched, from Weston by way of Bulltown, Sutton, and Summersville to Gauley Bridge.
Milroy's forces were not yet fully assembled at Clarksburg on the 20th, but he was ordered to operate toward Beverly, whilst Crook, with the old Kanawha division, should move on Summersville and Gauley Bridge. Their rôle was thus, of course, made subordinate to the movement of my own column, which must force its own way without waiting for results from other operations.
General Milroy was established on the Beverly front, communicating on his left with General Kelley and on his right with General Crook, at Gauley Bridge. General Scammon had his station at Fayette C. H., covering the front on the south side of New River, whilst Crook watched the north side and extended his posts in Milroy's direction as far as Summersville.
On the 13th of August the Seventh Ohio, by orders from Rosecrans, marched to Cross Lanes, the intersection of the read from Summersville to Gauley Bridge, with one from Carnifex Ferry, which is on the Gauley near the mouth of Meadow River. He was ordered to picket all crossings of the river near his position, and to join my command if he were driven away.
The gate of the Kanawha valley The wilderness beyond West Virginia defences A romantic post Chaplain Brown An adventurous mission Chaplain Dubois "The River Path" Gauley Mount Colonel Tompkins's home Bowie-knives Truculent resolutions The Engineers Whittlesey, Benham, Wagner Fortifications Distant reconnoissances Comparison of forces Dangers to steamboat communications Allotment of duties The Summersville post Seventh Ohio at Cross Lanes Scares and rumors Robert E. Lee at Valley Mountain Floyd and Wise advance Rosecrans's orders The Cross Lanes affair Major Casement's creditable retreat Colonel Tyler's reports Lieutenant-Colonel Creighton Quarrels of Wise and Floyd Ambushing rebel cavalry Affair at Boone Court House New attack at Gauley Bridge An incipient mutiny Sad result A notable court-martial Rosecrans marching toward us Communications renewed Advance toward Lewisburg Camp Lookout A private sorrow.
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