Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 2.djvu/269

Rh handled. All the rolling stock of the railroad had been withdrawn west of Statmton, and General Heth, still at White Sulphur Springs, near Lewisburg, was ordered by General Lee to defend the approaches to Dublin Depot, and Gen. Humphrey Marshall, of Kentucky, commanding the district of Abingdon, moved with about 2,000 Virginians and Kentuckians toward Princeton. The latter point was now occupied by Cox, who also held the Narrows of New river, and the town of Pearisburg or Giles Court House. On the loth, Jenifer and McCausland drove the Federals out of Pearisburg by a gallant charge, with a stout "rebel yell," and continued to drive them from hill to hill until they made their last stand in the Narrows, from which a well-directed artillery fire dislodged them, leaving the approaches to the railroad in this direction in the hands of General Heth. In this fight Colonel Patton (wounded), Lieutenant-Colonels Peters and Fitzhugh, and Captains Otey, Chapman and Lowry, of the artillery, won especial distinction.

Calling to his aid Colonel Wharton, who was at Rocky Gap with some of the old Floyd brigade, not with Heth, Marshall attacked General Cox at Princeton on the evening of the 16th with such vigor that the Federals retreated in haste, abandoning General Cox's headquarters. From the Federal correspondence Marshall discovered that he was near a superior force of the enemy, and he withdrew from the Federal camp and the ruins of the town, occupying a stronger position, where Wharton soon joined him. Throughout the day there were spiteful skirmishing and artillery combat, and Wharton, attacked in flank, repulsed a Federal regiment with heavy loss. Marshall maintained his position and Cox retreated, frightened by a demonstration toward his rear by Heth, to Flat Top mountain, which bounds on the west the valley of the Blue Stone, in which Princeton lies. Marshall then withdrew. The proposed Federal invasion had been defeated with little loss in his command, 4 dead and 1 2 wounded. Cox re-