Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 2.djvu/273

Rh march that some of his men and horses broke down and were left behind. Finally emerging from the wilderness he suddenly entered the fertile valley of the Buckhannon, and after the first consternation due to his appearance had passed, was assailed continually on his march by the home guards of that region. In one of the skirmishes Capt J. M. Ferguson was painfully wounded. Approaching Buckhannon, by a skillful disposition of his cavalry and a gallant attack of three parties under Colonel Corns, Captain Spotts and Captain Preston, the enemy was defeated, with a loss of 15 wounded and 20 prisoners, including the commanding officer, Captain Marsh. Lieut.-Col. A. F. Cook, Eighth Virginia, and three others of Jenkins' men were wounded.

Jenkins now cast aside his shotguns, armed his men with handsome new rifles, and otherwise supplied himself, and then destroyed the remainder of the vast stores, including 5,000 stand of arms, ordnance stores, clothing, etc. At Weston next morning, August 3ist, the Federal garrison escaped in the fog, leaving but a dozen prisoners, and Jenkins destroyed all the public property, after which he drove the garrison out of Glenville, and reaching Spencer, September ad, surprised and captured Col. J. C. Rathbone and Maj. George C. Trimble and their entire command, six companies of the Eleventh West Virginia infantry. Having paroled the prisoners, Jenkins went on to Ripley, finding a lone paymaster, whose funds on hand, $5,525, were applied to the Confederate cause, and then moved to Ravenswood, where, after resting his men, he forded the Ohio river on the evening of September 4th, and was the first to carry the Confederate flag into Ohio. "The excitement of the command as we approached the Ohio shore was intense," he wrote, "and in the anxiety to be the first of their respective companies to reach the soil of those who had invaded us, all order was lost, and it became almost a universal race as we came into shoal water. In a short time all were over,