Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 2.djvu/256



N August 3, 1861, Rosecrans had assigned General Kelley to the special military district of Grafton, embracing the Baltimore & Ohio railroad from Grafton to Cumberland, and the Northwestern Virginia from Grafton. Under his command nearly 4,000 men were stationed at Grafton and along the railroad. In September, Col. Angus W. McDonald, a leader in the Confederate cause in the lower Shenandoah valley, was stationed at Romney with his cavalry regiment, the Seventy-seventh militia regiment under Col. E. H. McDonald, the One Hundred and Fourteenth militia under Col. A. Monroe, and one gun under Lieutenant Lionberger, in all about 600 men. Upon this command an attack was made from New Creek Station, or Keyser, by Kelley's soldiers, September 23d. The advance pickets being driven in, the enemy attempted to force their passage through the Mechanicsburg and Hanging Rock passes, of the South Branch mountain, toward Romney, but were repulsed at the first by Major Funsten, while Capt. E. H. Myers and Col. E. H. McDonald, with a few men, defeated the attack at Hanging Rock in true mountaineer style, by rolling rocks down upon the road as well as using their rifles, before which attack the Federal cavalry fell back in confusion, riding down the infantry and leaving some dead upon the road and in the river. Later the enemy advanced in force and gained the two passes, and after some brisk skirmishing the Confederates aban-