Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/67

Rh midnight of the 11th, he continued the retreat and reached the summit of Rich mountain soon after sunrise. The officers present, familiar with the country, urged him to push forward to Beverly; but looking over the valley to the eastward and seeing troops marching along the road in that direction, either Tyler's or Hotchkiss' men, he concluded that Rosecrans had already occupied Beverly (although he did not reach that place until eight hours later), so he overruled the others and spent the whole day wandering along the rough spurs of the eastern slope of Rich mountain toward Laurel hill. Late in the afternoon he allowed Heck to reconnoiter to the road between Beverly and Laurel hill, but he learned nothing of the movements of the enemy. Pegram then marched toward the road, but found the way difficult through the swampy grounds bordering Valley river, which his men waded three times. When near the road, as his column was closing up at about dark, his command was fired into. Instead of pushing boldly forward, he recrossed the river and put his men in line of battle, having heard that the enemy, 3,000 strong, were at Leadsville church, not far from where he had reached the road. Later, he fell back to the foot of Rich mountain, where, at a secluded farmhouse, near midnight, he informed his leading officers that he had concluded to surrender, as he believed it impossible to escape the enemy, which he supposed had nearly surrounded him so he could not cross the valley and get through the mountains to Monterey. Most of the officers appeared to tacitly concur in this view; but Lieutenant-Colonel Heck and Capt. J. B. Moorman, of the Pendleton company, opposed it. The latter, having marched his company across Cheat mountain by the Seneca road, in the vicinity of which they then were, after the Philippi affair, was sure he could safely lead the whole command out that way. Heck urged trying this, considering that better than hunting up some one to surrender to, which could be done later should necessity demand it. Pegram, however, took his own course and sent a messenger to Beverly, some 7 miles distant, with a note to McClellan, saying, that in consequence of the retreat of Garnett and the condition of his command, most of whom had been without food for two days, he desired to surrender his men, as prisoners of war, the next morning. Between 7 and 8 a. m. of the 13th, two of