Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 2.djvu/352

134 officer that he is remembered. He organized a company of mounted men at the beginning of hostilities, and soon gained the general attention by raiding Point Pleasant, in the latter part of June, and making prisoners of a number of prominent gentlemen who were conspicuous in the movement for the separation of the State. In the battle of Scary Creek, July i8th, he saved the day at a critical moment; soon had the command of a colonel, became lieutenant-colonel of the Eighth cavalry regiment, and was recognized as one of the leaders in the military occupation of the Kanawha valley by the Virginia forces. After Wise and Floyd had retired to Greenbrier county he remained in the Guyandotte valley, fighting for his home and the Old Dominion. He was promoted brigadier-general August 5, 1862, and in the latter part of August and the first of September made a daring raid through western Virginia, and was the first to unfurl the flag of the Confederate States in Ohio. In his report of this achievement General Loring wrote: "That brilliant and enterprising general executed the plan with such success that in his march of 500 miles he captured 300 prisoners, destroyed many garrisons of home guards and the records of the Wheeling and Federal governments in many counties, and after arming his command completely with captured arms, destroyed at least 5,000 stand of small-arms and immense stores. Prosecuting at least 20 miles of his march in the State of Ohio, he exhibited, as he did elsewhere in his march, a policy of such clemency as won us many friends, and tended greatly to mitigate the ferocity which had characterized the war in this section. The conduct of his officers and men has received my unqualified approbation, and deserves the notice and thanks of the government." In March, 1863, Jenkins made another brilliant raid to the Ohio river, and three months later he was on the Susquehanna, before the capital of Pennsylvania. In May he was ordered into the Shenandoah valley, in command of the cavalry, with