Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 2.djvu/318

100 on the western side of the South Branch and near the western end of the bridge there was a blockhouse, occupied by Federal soldiers, as well as an engine with an ironclad magazine attached standing there, also occupied by soldiers. When the location of this blockhouse and magazine was discovered, a shell was fired from the artillery at the magazine. The aim was accurate; the shell entered the magazine and burst inside of it, exploding the ammunition contained, destroying the magazine, and, as was afterward ascertained, injuring some forty of the Federal soldiers. The bridge was then cut, and White retired to rejoin Early's command near Martinsburg.

On June 22d, Gen. John H. Morgan, of Kentucky, was assigned to command the department of Western Virginia and East Tennessee, and soon afterward General Crook was given chief command of the Federal forces. Morgan's operations were all outside the State, and the only Virginia organizations in his army were Col. Robert Smith's battalion, Witcher's battalion and the Sixty-fourth cavalry.

Upon the death of Morgan, Breckinridge resumed command of the department, and under him in November, Colonel Witcher had a brigade consisting of his battalion, W. H. Payne's company and the two Thurmond battalions. The other western Virginia troops were mainly with Early in the Shenandoah valley. Maj.-Gen. John Echols was in command at Dublin, and participated in the defeat of the Federal raid into southwest Virginia in October.

On August 4th, the brigades of Gen. Bradley Johnson (W. E. Jones' old brigade) and McCausland, returning from Chambersburg, Pa., attacked New Creek, and after a severe fight were repulsed with considerable loss. The Confederate command then proceeded to Moorefield, near where they were attacked in camp about daylight, August 7th, by Averell's cavalry, surprised and routed, losing 27 officers and 393 enlisted men as prisoners and 400 horses.