Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 2.djvu/243

Rh ley and Gen. A. A. Chapman, commanding militia brigades in western Virginia, were ordered to collect as much of their forces as possible.

On the 10th, Colonel Davis, occupying the advanced post at Meadow Bluff, reported the enemy in his front, and Floyd advanced to that place, "peremptorily" ordering Wise to follow on the i4th, to which Wise responded that he would execute the order "as early as possible, and as forces and means of transportation are available." He did not have half enough wagons, his horses were without shoes, and his command was in a very unsatisfactory condition. But he sent forward such men as he believed available, about 2,000, and a few days later occupied Big Sewell mountain. At this juncture, in response to the request of General Wise, General Lee detached from the latter's command Tompkins 1 and McCausland's Twenty-second and Thirty-sixth regiments, and restricted the immediate command of General Wise to his legion.

General Wise advanced with skirmishing to Dogwood gap, while Floyd occupied Summersville, one of the posts on Rosecrans' line, where he could make a flank attack either on Cox at Gauley or Rosecrans to the north, and he asked for reinforcements from Richmond. General Cox, with about three regiments, had succeeded in impressing his antagonists with an exaggerated idea of his strength, while he was preparing to stand a siege. At Carnifix Ferry was stationed the only reinforcement near him, an Ohio regiment under Colonel Tyler.

On the 20th of August, Lieutenant-Colonel Croghan, in advance of Wise, had two skirmishes on the turnpike, one near Hawk's Nest, in which each side lost a few killed and wounded. The little army was then greatly afflicted with measles, to such an extent that the Forty-sixth Virginia reported but one-third of the command effective. On the 25th, Colonel Jenkins' cavalry was defeated at Hawk's Nest near Piggot's mill by an infantry ambuscade, with a loss of 8 or 10 wounded. Wise,