Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/59

Rh unobserved, and just after daybreak of the 3d, gave the first notice of the Federal approach by firing on the little camp of Virginia troops. Kelley had expected to surround and capture the whole force, but this premature alarm enabled Porterfield, by the aid of the courageous companies from Pendleton and Highland, and by cool and deliberate management, to get off his men in fairly good order, with only the loss of a few arms and some camp equipage and supplies, having but one of his men and a boy who was visiting his camp, wounded. Kelley himself was seriously wounded, but there were no other casualties. For lack of cavalry the Federals did not pursue Porterfield.

The advantage gained by the Federals was an advance of 20 miles southward, giving better protection to the Baltimore & Ohio, and forcing Porterfield to retreat to Beverly, some 30 miles farther, where the turnpike from Grafton joins the great stage road and highway from Parkersburg to Staunton. The telegrams to the Northern papers claimed that the Virginia force was 2,000 men and lost 15 killed; and on the assumption that there were many wounded and prisoners, the affair was exploited as a very considerable victory, on the strength of which McClellan mounted the first round of his ladder of fame. "The Philippi Races," as this campaign was called, encouraged the Union and depressed the loyal citizens of northwestern Virginia.

Porterfield continued his retreat across Laurel hill through Beverly and on to Huttonsville, with about 1,000 men, including 180 cavalry, all undisciplined. The Federal cavalry advance occupied Beverly. The news of the Philippi disaster reached Staunton June 6th, just as reinforcements with a supply of arms and ammunition, in charge of Lieut.-Col. J. M. Heck, were about to march toward him, and Lee promptly urged the war department to reinforce this expedition with 2,000 additional troops, artillery, etc. Brig.-Gen. Robert S. Garnett, C. S. A., an old army officer, was sent to take command in the northwest, in the hope that he would inaugurate a more agreeable state of things and put down the "revolution" that Porterfield reported.

General Garnett, reaching Huttonsville on the 14th, organized two regiments from the companies collected; one, afterward the Thirty-first Virginia, under command