Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/57



HE concentration of troops in the States adjacent to Virginia, under President Lincoln's call for 75,000 men, indicated very clearly an intention to invade Virginia from several directions: (1) From Washington along the Orange & Alexandria railroad toward the Virginia Central, at Gordonsville, threatening the line of communication between Richmond and the western-portion of the State; (2) from Port Monroe up the peninsula toward Richmond, and to the same objective by the James; (3) by way of the Cumberland valley, from Harrisburg through Chambersburg into the Shenandoah valley and the adjacent Potomac valleys to the west; (4) from Ohio into western Virginia, by the line of the Great Kanawha valley toward Staunton, in the center of the State, and simultaneously from Wheeling and Parkersburg along the Baltimore & Ohio eastward to Grafton, and thence southeastward, also to Staunton. To meet these threatened movements, Gen. R. E. Lee, when Governor Letcher's call for troops was issued, began to organize opposing columns of defense in the vicinity of Norfolk, in front of Alexandria and Washington, at Harper's Ferry in the Shenandoah valley, at Grafton on the Baltimore & Ohio, and below Charleston in the Kanawha valley, with intermediate forces in observation between these points, thus establishing a cordon around the great length of the exposed boundaries of the State.

The concentration of Federal troops at points convenient for invasion of western Virginia, all under the command of Maj.-Gen. George B. McClellan, with headquarters at Cincinnati, and the organization of two Union regiments at Wheeling and Parkersburg, led to urgent appeals from the loyal people of Trans-Alleghany, in response to which General Lee sent trusted officers to Rh