Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 2.djvu/226

20 on the summit of the mountain commanding his fortifications. To meet this he could only send reinforcements to the mountain picket, making in all about 300 men and one gun, under Capt. Julius A. DeLagnel, while he asked Garnett to order Colonel Scott's Forty-fourth regiment in the valley to hold the road in advance of Beverly. About 11 o'clock in the forenoon of the nth, Rosecrans attacked Captain DeLagnel at Hart's house, on the mountain, in overwhelming numbers. The intrepid 300 fought with desperate courage, repulsing two attacks, and keeping up the fight for three hours, during which about one-third of their number were killed or wounded. Pegram, upon hearing the firing, had hurried to the scene and ordered up the remainder of his regiment, but becoming convinced that his situation was too desperate to warrant an attack, he sent this body under Maj. Nat Tyler to effect a junction with either General Garnett or Colonel Scott, while he returned to the camp, where Colonel Heck with a few hundred men and two guns had been all day confronting McClellan. The latter had passed the day, in sound of the musketry on the mountain, cutting roads and mounting artillery to assault a force which he outnumbered ten to one. Heck's command, as soon as Pegram arrived, about midnight, under his orders, spiked their guns and retreated up the mountain, along which they made their way slowly next day toward General Garnett's camp at Laurel hill. The men under Tyler traversed the pathless mountain to Beverly, overtook the Forty-fourth at Huttonsville, and retreated to Monterey.

Meanwhile, when Morris advanced toward Laurel hill there had been brisk skirmishing with Garnett's pickets, and on the 8th an attempt of the enemy to drive the Confederates from an advanced position at Belington was repulsed. But at midnight following the nth, being informed of the success of Rosecrans at Hart's farm, Garnett evacuated Laurel hill. He was falsely informed