Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 2.djvu/354

136 assistant professor in that institution until 1861. Upon the secession of Virginia he organized the famous Rockbridge artillery, of which he was elected commander; but leaving Dr. Pendleton in charge of that company, he made his headquarters at Charleston, in the Kanawha valley, under commission from Governor Letcher, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, for the organization of troops in the military department of Western Virginia. He gathered about 6,000 men for the commands of Generals Wise and Floyd, who subsequently operated in that region, and formed the Thirty-sixth regiment, Virginia infantry, of which he took command, with a commission as colonel. This regiment, made up of the best blood of the western Virginia counties, was distinguished under his leadership in the campaign of Floyd's brigade in West Virginia, and in the latter part of 1861 moved to Bowling Green, Ky., to unite with the army of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston. At Fort Donelson, Colonel McCausland commanded a brigade of Floyd's division, and after bearing a conspicuous part in the gallant and really successful battle before the fort, brought away his Virginians before the surrender. After reorganizing at Nashville, he remained at Chattanooga with his command until after the battle of Shiloh, when he moved to Wytheville, Va. During 1862 and 1863 he was engaged in the campaigns in southwestern and western Virginia and the Shenandoah valley, under Generals Loring, Echols and Sam Jones, taking a conspicuous part in the battle at Charleston, September, 1862. Early in May, 1864, he was ordered by Gen. A. G. Jenkins to move his brigade from Dublin to meet the Federal force advancing under General Crook from the Kanawha valley. He took position on Cloyd's farm, where he was reinforced by General Jenkins, and attacked by the enemy May 9th. After several hours' fighting, Jenkins was mortally wounded and the Confederate line was broken by the superior strength of the enemy. Colonel McCausland