The Battle of White Sulphur Springs (6 page)

That same day, Kelley instructed Lieutenant John Rodgers Meigs, the son of the quartermaster general of the United States Army, Brigadier General Montgomery Meigs, to join Averell's staff as an engineer officer for the upcoming expedition. Young Meigs, a very bright young man who had just graduated from West Point a few weeks earlier, temporarily joined Averell's staff. He settled right in, reporting to his father, “Gen. Averills [
sic
] Staff and the Genl are very kind and very pleasant.”
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Lieutenant John Rodgers Meigs, engineer officer assigned to serve with Averell's command. Meigs was the son of the quartermaster general of the U.S. Army.
United States Military Academy Archives
.

Unfortunately, the necessary supplies still had not arrived. Averell did not believe that he could move without them, and he indicated that belief to Kelley. Kelley responded on the fourteenth, although Averell did not receive the note until the next day. “The assistant quartermaster informs me he sent you ten kegs of horse-shoes, which will arrive to-day; will send horse-shoe nails by the next train, and that he has ordered clothing for you from Wheeling, which he reports to arrive to-night,” said Kelley. He told Averell that an infantry force under Brigadier General Eliakim Scammon would march from the Kanawha River Valley to try to join him at or near Lewisburg. Finally, he ordered that Averell should “move as soon as he possibly can. It is impossible to furnish Ewing with horses to mount his men for the expedition. You will move early in the morning and late at night, and rest your men and horses during the middle of the day.” He concluded by stating, “The law library at Lewisburg was purchased for the western part of the State, and of course rightfully belongs to the new State of West Virginia. Our judges need it very much.”
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Later that day, after receiving Averell's message, Kelley sent a second note. He informed Averell that he had ordered that salt be sent to his command and reported that he had also ordered cavalry pants to be sent for his men. “I am now after the ordnance officer with a sharp stick for the ammunition,” he declared. “The nails will be sent as soon as they arrive.” Kelley informed Averell that he had received a report that Jackson was near Huntersville with twelve or fourteen hundred men but that “he probably has about one-half that number.” Because he could not supply Averell with any additional cavalry horses, Kelley instructed the New Yorker to seize them from the countryside and issue receipts for them.
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Some of the desperately needed supplies finally reached Averell at Petersburg on August 17, eight long days after the Fourth Separate Brigade had arrived there. The horseshoe nails and some ammunition for Ewing's guns were delivered but no small arms ammunition. “I was unable to increase my supply for small-arms, which amounted to about thirty-five cartridges to each man,” reported Averell. “This was sufficient for any ordinary engagement, but we had a long march before us, entirely in the country occupied by the enemy, and I felt apprehensive that the supply would be exhausted before the expedition should be ended.” In spite of this critical shortage of ammunition, Averell concluded that waiting in Petersburg for the delivery of more would be more dangerous than resuming the march with the supplies already on hand.
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Averell's route of march.

Also on August 18, Averell sent Colonel John Oley and the 8
^th
West Virginia up the North Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac River and Gibson's Battalion up the South Fork to scout. These men covered ten miles before camping for the night in a narrow strip of meadow with plenty of new hay and a good water source for the horses.
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That night, Averell ordered the main body to be ready to march the next morning with three days' rations in their haversacks, along with grain for the horses.
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The 8
^th
West Virginia covered twenty-eight miles the next day, crossing over Cheat Mountain in the process.
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An officer of the regiment left a vivid description of the regiment's march that day. “The morning was clear and beautiful, with a pleasant breeze, and the men in the best of spirits,” he wrote. “Besides we were passing through a settlement of loyal men, where they had organized a home guard, under the direction of an earnest and energetic leader. About the middle of the day we halted and watered our horses in the clear waters at the mouth of Seneca. Here we had the privilege of beholding one of Nature's wonders in the beautiful peaks of Seneca, that rise to the height of a thousand feet.” The men paused to take in the lovely view of the valley below and then continued on their way.
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Ten days after arriving in Petersburg, Averell, with the 3
^rd
West Virginia, the 14
^th
Pennsylvania and Ewing's battery, marched toward Franklin, sending forward a couple of squadrons to destroy the saltpeter works five miles from Franklin.
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The 8
^th
West Virginia rejoined the main body of the brigade at Franklin. “As to our objective point we were all, except for the commanding officers, in the dark,” groused one of Schoonmaker's Pennsylvanians.
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After the long and frustrating delay, the expedition was underway again.

The men of the main body of the Fourth Separate Brigade were in the saddle by six o'clock on the morning of the nineteenth. “The order is given, forward, the long train starts; every man looks like he was on a pack horse going to market,” remembered a trooper of the 3
^rd
West Virginia. “Soon we are on the road to Franklin. The question now comes up, to what point of the compass are we steering? It is whispered among our men (who are not always asleep) that we are starting through the enemy's country, with a very limited supply of ammunition, horseshoes and nails, all indispensible to a successful campaign.”
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The intrepid horse soldiers pressed on through the summer heat and humidity, all the time wondering precisely what adventure lay ahead of them.

All along the way, bushwhackers took potshots at the marching Federals. The Federals “skirmished all the way with a double skirmish line right and left, and bushwhacked all night by murderous guerrillas,” as a member of the 14
^th
Pennsylvania Cavalry described the day's travails.
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“The bullets sometimes came pretty close but it was rather better fun being in the advance than with the main body and so I was generally there,” reported Lieutenant Meigs, who typically rode with General Averell and the rest of the staff at the head of the column when the Fourth Separate Brigade was on the move.
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On August 20, the Federals marched down the South Branch to Monterey, traversing a rough road while fending off bushwhackers and guerrillas. They captured a handful of the guerrillas along the way.
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“They bushwhacked the trains in our rear and shot one poor fellow, a teamster in the small of the back,” recounted Meigs. “I saw him today, he cannot expect to live. Another was wounded in the arm. It was rather a small kind of fighting however.”
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A member of the 14
^th
Pennsylvania Cavalry recalled that the Yankee horse soldiers skirmished from daylight until dark and that “sometimes the enemy was so strong and aggressive that the whole command was deployed to resist his assaults.”
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When the Federals arrived at Monterey, one of Averell's scouts, dressed in a Confederate uniform, was captured in the town, disarmed and placed under guard. When he did not return, the Union advance guard dashed into the town and stumbled upon a quarterly court-martial board that had convened there. The arrival of the Fourth Separate Brigade caused a hasty adjournment and the arrest of principal officers when one of the Yankee horse soldiers cried, “Halt!” As one Federal put it, “The court adjourned without ceremony, terror-stricken at the approach of the Yankee army.”
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The Federals released everyone but D.M. Anvill, who was the commonwealth attorney for Barbour County, a single military officer. Anvill had already done a stint as a prisoner of war at Camp Chase in Columbus, Ohio, and he glumly returned to captivity.
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The jubilant Union men found salt, tobacco and other interesting parcels at the local post office that were divided up among the invaders.
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Averell was disappointed to learn that he had just missed capturing Major General Samuel Jones, the Confederate department commander, and Brigadier General John D. Imboden, who commanded a brigade of cavalrymen from West Virginia. Just the day before, Jones and Imboden had conferred at Monterey to discuss a plan for intercepting and attacking Averell's brigade.
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Knowing that the Confederate high command was preparing a warm reception, Averell proceeded cautiously on August 21. The Federals faced sharp skirmishing all day. “The march and skirmish were resumed and continued without interruption till we reached Greenbrier Valley,” groused one of Averell's officers. “Here our picket lines were doubled and toward morning bushwhacked, then a skirmish line was thrown out, and the fighting was continued till daylight.”
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Two Confederates and one horse were killed. The blue-clads lost three wagons destroyed, six wagon horses killed and one wounded and three men wounded, including one mortally. The Federals bringing up the rear of Averell's column took some liberties along the way.
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“About nine o'clock we passed through a neighborhood noted for bushwhackers,” recalled a member of the 8
^th
West Virginia. “Here we burnt a mill, and the only mill destroyed in the expedition. Our advance had been fired into, and also our train, and from ten o'clock until two, we were fired into at several different places.” That afternoon, when the Union horse soldiers stopped to water their horses, fifteen bushwhackers opened on them from above, picking off men and horses. “The cowardly scoundrels had placed themselves in such a position that it was impossible to reach them, and knowing that [they] were cavalry and could not lose the time to hunt them out, took advantage of this circumstance.” The West Virginians made a mental note to come back and pay the bushwhackers another visit and dispense some retribution.
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“There goes one Yank on his horse, drinking cream out of a two gallon jar, his long beard is well besmeared. There another with tub of pickles standing on the front of his saddle dealing out to the boys. Another with a crock of butter or honey,” recorded a member of the 3
^rd
West Virginia. “Yonder are others going at full speed looking for horses, capturing &c. Soon the General is apprised of the soldiering in the rear. Now you see a squad with drawn swords at every gate. Soldiers do not pass a sentinel; he is respected by the whole army.”
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