Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 2.djvu/286

74 mond, and General Lee determined to delay and embarrass such an operation by striking at the railroad over which a great portion of the supplies and reinforcements were sent to the army of the Potomac. Imboden, who had now organized his brigade and had been commissioned brigadier-general, and Gen. W. E. Jones were intrusted with the performance of this work.

Imboden left camp at Shenandoah mountain on April 20th with the Twenty-fifth, Thirty-first and Sixty-second Virginia infantry, the Eighteenth cavalry, and J. H. McClanahan's battery, and was joined by the Twenty-second infantry, Col. A. C. Dunn's Thirty-seventh battalion of cavalry, dismounted, and the Nineteenth cavalry, mostly dismounted, from Samuel Jones' command, making an aggregate force of 3,365 men. He again encountered bad weather, and had to march through snow and sleet, reaching Huttonsville on the 23d. Pressing forward the next day he endeavored to surprise the enemy in camp at Beverly, but warning was given by the "bogus" but heroic sheriff of Randolph county, J. F. Phares, who, though shot though the lungs, managed to reach Beverly and give the alarm. The enemy was strongly posted and made a bold front; but Imboden, by a flank movement, assisted by a gallant cavalry charge, dislodged him, and kept up a running fight for several hours, but failed to capture the garrison. The enemy attempted to burn his stores and destroyed about a third of the town, but many valuable supplies fell into the hands of the Confederates.

Imboden proceeded to a point midway between Philippi and Buckhannon, and soon occupied the latter place, where all the stores had been destroyed and the bridge burned. Col. G. W. Imboden advanced to Weston and found that place abandoned and the enemy concentrating before Clarksburg.

Meanwhile Gen. W. E. Jones had advanced from Rockingham county with his available force to Moorefield, but